When the BBVTC returned to it's Big Basin work last November the goal was to have the Redwood Loop Trail and a short stretch of the Skyline-to-Sea Trail (STS) ready by the time the park reopened. With the work largely completed and only small, 'punch list' details left to be done, we tackled two of them on our workday - Two STS reroutes on both sides of the Gazos Creek fire road at the new bridge.
The first reroute was on the south side of the fire road and the goal was to dig out a short, low lying area, split and install two large sections of redwood to create retaining walls, and then fill the area with base rock.
Preparing the area was the easy part, but the downed Redwood that would provide the sections was about 100 yards up the Gazos Creek fire road. The plan was to carry the logs down to the work area. Things became more complicated when the first section broke off and fell on the downhill side from the road making it difficult to impossible to lift out by hand.
Kile, from the District crew, was able to bring over a skid loader and drag the two sections onto the road, but the steep decline to the work area made it dangerous for the skid loader to carry the load downhill, so we would have to carry them by hand as planned.
It took the younger crew members to do it and we switched off as we went, but the two sections were set in place and we began moving base rock into place using a Canycom motorized wheelbarrow.
With a large crew of 25 for the day, a second crew split off to work on rerouting the trail on the north side of the fire road. The work here was our standard clearing vegetation and debris to create the new trail and moving everything into burn piles with four piles started and completed by the end of the day.
The CCC crews that are working in the park have jumped ahead and cleared the STS from our fire road work area to the Maddock Cabin site, so by the time the park reopens visitors will be able to hike STS from the Old Lodge area to the Maddock Cabin Site and back on North Escape Rd.
The crew put in 182 hours and thanks to Arnold Arcolio, Katy Booth, Nan Bowman, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Denis DeCeuster, Quinn Edgemon, Dale Elliott, Tess Fitzgerald, Michele Gelblum, Peter Gelblum, Matt Kelsey, Marc Koenig, Janie Leifhelm, Whitney Mitchell, Lisa Nichols, Mike Peasland, Dale Petersen, Devdutt Sheth, Chris Young, and newcomers Peter Baxter, Brian and McKenzie Marker, and Daniel Zichuhr, for an excellent workday.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike and McKenzie