With the initial stretch of the 1.2 mile Creeping Forest Trail finished and reopened to the public on Sept. 1st (map below), the Trail Crew has been a holding pattern as we wait for the park staff to finish flagging the next section of Creeping Forest to be worked.
After taking the August 26th workday off, we returned to the trails on September 9th to clear the lower section of Dool Trail between Skyline-to-the-Sea and Gazos Creek Fire Rd that had become overwhelmed by fast growing Ceanothus. One of the park's interpretive docents had made an initial pass of the trail, so our goal was to cut back the growth further from the trail edge so it would be longer between return times for trail crews.
With most of the burn piles along Dool burned last spring, the major challenge for the day was hiding the Ceanothus slash off trail. Lower Dool transverses a hillside so there were slopes above and below the trail along with a wall of Ceanothus that needed to be pierced so we could hide the slash off trail.
Lunch along the Trail
It was nice doing something a little different (no burn piles!) and Dool had a little more shade than Creeping Forest with temperatures only in the upper 70's, so a nice change of pace from what has become our usual workdays.
The work on Creeping Forest will also provide another link in connecting the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail area to Middle Ridge Fire Road with Sunset, Dool and Meteor, trails all completed and open to the public. With the Rewood Loop Trail included, there are now four miles of hiking trails that have been restored since the 2020 fires along with most of the fire roads leading north and west from the central park area now open to visitors.
The crew put in 135 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Nan Bowman, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Denis DeCeuster, Matt Kelsey, John Martin, Janette Mello, Whitney Mitchell, Steve Oliphant, Mike Peasland, Devdutt Sheth, Dale Stadelman, Chris Young, and newcomer Alex Clines, for their help on a cooler for a change workday.
Banana Slug (Ariolimax californicus californicus)
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike and Daryn