Planning for the December 3rd workday included something we haven't encountered often the past several years - rain! Two days before the Boulder Creek area received 2+ inches and more was forecasted for Saturday.
The Trail Crew has a long history of showing up rain or shine and despite the damp forecast 17 folks came out in support of the tradition. And it did rain, but not a heavy downpour that would have quickly ended the work, but a light to medium rainfall that allowed us to keep working but also ensured everyone was wet after a while. About 15 years ago, the crew was out working on the Redwood Loop and boy did it rain. There were a couple of Big Basin maintenance crew out with us and they wanted to make it a day when the rain became heavy (they thought we we crazy for continuing to work). The crew pushed on and finished clearing the trail around noon then headed to HQ and the warm fire. Needless to say, after warming by the fire the idea of going back out on the trail turned into walking to our cars and calling it a day.
Hard Rain with a Pup (FEB-2014)
HQ Lunch by Fireplace (FEB 2014)
The initial work plan for the day was to finish the trail clearing efforts on the lower section of the Sunset Trail, but the heavy rain beforehand left the trail saturated, muddy, and unsuitable for work. Instead we retreated to a section of North Escape Rd just north of Gazos Creek to work on clearing the road edges of debris, building burn piles and since it was raining, clearing drainages.
With everyone getting sufficiently wet we decided to call it a day as lunch approached, but even with the abbreviated day we were able to clear about 100 yards of drainage, open one clogged culvert, dropped 15+ trees, started and completed one burn pile and feeder pile, and left a lot of debris that will need to be transferred into burn piles on a future workday.
The crew put in 92 wet hours and thanks to Daryn Bieri, Jim Brooks, John Collins, Michele Gelblum, Marc Koenig, Andrea Lee, Deepak Mahudeswaran, John Martin, Janette Mello, Sean Miller, Chris Newport, Mike Peasland, Johnnie Pena, Devdutt Sheth, Bruce Washburn, Chris Young and newcomer Mylissa Malley, for enduring a wet workday and upholding a long Trail Crew tradition.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike, Bruce, Daryn, and Jeff