The Trail Crew continues to get excellent support from a mix of long time veterans, recent additions and first time folks, and for the Oct. 29th workday we tied a single day headcount record of 26 as we moved closer to finishing clearing work on the lower section of the Sunset Trail.
We started the day by doing what the District crew calls 'QC' (Quality Control) on the lower half of the trail which was essentially final touch-up to make sure everything looks good and is ready for the reopening.
After reaching the upper area, we returned to our typical weed whacking, debris removal and burn pile building that resulted in eight burn piles being completed for the day and left us about 100 yards from the finish area.
The Sunset Trail crosses Middlerdige Fire road at an access gate and where you can see that some of the growth is returning. There is plenty of food for the fungi with a large Sulphur Shelf (Laetiporus is a genus of edible mushrooms) feasting on a Douglas Fir.
As for what's on the work schedule after we finish on Sunset, Chris P. said he wants help building puncheons, which are the small footbridges we see in the backcountry. He didn't say which trails we would be working on, but the bridges didn't fair well in the fire so there are lots to replace and it will be a good chance to pickup new skills and a nice break from building burnpiles.
Several people have wondered recently what the CCC crew is doing these days and they're still working along Skyline-to-Sea and up Meteor. Chris P. says he expects both Meteor and lower Sunset to be ready to open to the public as scheduled at the end of December/early January.
Lunch Break
We've been approved to make modifications to our new tool room at Jay Camp (OK, it's just an old shower room and bathroom, but it's a start). The early plan is to do the work as part of the Nov. 12th workday and install attachments that will allow us to hang tools from the wall and free up floor space for other storage. The work should only take a couple of hours and it's small work area, so we'll only need several people willing to help out.
The Crew put in 189 hours and thanks for Arnold Arcolio, John Bodley, Nan Bowman, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Denis DeCeuster, Peter Gelblum, Mimi Guiney, Matt Kelsey, Marc Koenig, Andrea Lee, Janie Leifhelm, John Martin, Ted Merrill, Sean Miller, Whitney Mitchell, Joe Mitchell, Tyler Nicholson, Mike Peasland, Devdutt Sheth, David Signor, Bruce Washburn, Daniel Zichuhr and first timers Johnnie Pena and Kiran Reddy, for their dedication on a very productive workday.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bruce, Mike, and Mimi