Our work on the Creeping Forest Trail since late March has largely revolved around making rough cut trails through the understory vegetation that has grown in over the past three years since the CZU fires. While the effort to this point has provided a sense of accomplishment, we still had a ways to go before things started looking like a real hiking trail. This would require 'tread work' or simply digging in the dirt.
Our July 29th workday wasn't as hot as the last several outings, but it was still in the low 80's about mid-morning and it was even warmer in the sun where most of our work areas were located. Doing tread work is more physical than burn piles, so it was hot by late morning.
The work involved turning the rough cut trail into something park visitors would expect and included grading the trail corridor, defining the trail backslope, outside edge and down slope, along with digging out several tree stumps on the trail and back filling the holes.
Working with a CCC crew and the District crew, we were able to prep about 75 yards of trail, but there is still lots of tread work left to be done. And only about one-third of Creeping Forest has even been rough cut to this point, so many months of work remain before the trail can be opened to the public.
The crew put in 119 hours and thanks to Arnold Arcolio, Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Nan Bowman, Julie Charles, Michele Gelblum, Peter Gelblum, Matt Kelsey, Andrea Lee, John Martin, Mike Peasland, Mihit Sathe, Brian Washburn, Bruce Washburn, Chris Young and newcomer Daniel Paavola, for help digging in the dirt!
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bruce, Daryn, Fremont, and Mike