One of the nicer things about living in the Bay Area is it never gets hot for too long, so if it's warm one week you know it'll likely be cooler next one. And vice versa. Unfortunately the Trail Crew sometimes finds itself on the wrong end of the pendulum when it comes to looking for good trail work weather.
Heading into our June 17th workday the forecast called for temperatures in the low 70's which would have been nice for mid-June, but by lunch the Saddle Mountain weather station said it was already 82, and headed towards 85, while we worked in direct sunlight on a south facing hillside with little shade before deciding to call it a day at mid-afternoon.
As for our following off week? Temperatures in the park had reversed course from the mid 80's to the mid-60's to low 70's leaving us to wonder what the weather would be like for our July 1st workday.
Despite the warmer than expected weather, we were fortunate to reach the end of our initial stretch of the Creeping Forest Trail, so spent most of the day widening the trail by cutting vegetation along the edge and adding the debris to existing burn piles we had constructed on earlier workdays.
The crew put in 126 hours and thanks to Daryn Bieri, John Bodley, Nan Bowman, John Collins, Denis DeCeuster, Michele Gelblum, Peter Gelblum, Charles Jalgunas, Marc Koenig, Janie Leifhelm, Whitney Mitchell, Mike Peasland, Dale Petersen, Devdutt Sheth, Chris Young and newcomers Sam Bordia and Steve Oliphant for their help on a bright, sunny, and hotter than expected day.
What’s Next
Thistles ahead
Not sure what we'll be doing for the next workday since we've reached the end of our section of Creeping Forest and the CCC crew have completed the next one-third mile of trail. Matt, from the District crew, inquired about our interest in doing tread work (lots since we did several trail reroutes that need work) and we're also looking into doing thistle removal on the Redwood Loop again soon since it's back as expected and we don't want to wait until August like last year when things had gone to seed. Stay tuned.
And we're going to do a summer version of the December holiday party by working a half day in late July-early August and then heading to the Sawmill Restaurant as everyone deserves a break!
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Nan, Charles, and Mike