One of the objectives in rebuilding the Big Basin trail system after the 2020 fires has been to move sections that were in low lying areas or otherwise subject to high waterflow volumes during winter storms and relocate them to adjacent areas that were not as wet or muddy and easier to maintain.
After being away from the Creeping Forest Trail for a month while park staff decided how best to proceed with the next stretch of trail, the BBVTC returned to Creeping Forest for the Sept. 23rd workday. The work was to build a new alignment that will move the trail out of an old slide area that included redwoods growing at unusual angles that gave the trail its name.
The new trail will be higher on a ridge and should be drier and provide more stable footing while still providing views down into the old creeping forest slide area.
Of course this meant working into a section of the park with no prior trail existence. We began the day facing a thicket of Ceanothus and Tan oaks with only an occasional flagging tape to indicate where the trail should go.
Using chainsaws and trimming equipment, part of the crew worked their way into the thicket while others moved the large volume of debris to burn pile locations where the debris was cut-up further and placed onto off-trail burn piles.
At the start of the day it looked like a daunting task, but by the end we had accomplished a lot judging by the overflowing burn piles and open hillside that only hours before was a non-existent trail corridor.
The crew put in 142 hours and thanks to Arnie Arcolio, Fremont Bainbridge, Nan Bowman, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Denis DeCeuster, Dale Elliott, Tommy Ha, Andrea Lee, John Martin, Joe Mitchell, Mike Peasland, Dale Petersen, Devdutt Sheth, Bruce Washburn, Chris Young, and newcomer Claudio Hunger, for helping with the first of what will be many workdays establishing the new trail alignment.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike and Bruce