The Trail Crew's Feb. 24th workday was one of those false spring days with temps hitting 70 after lunch, but a nice break from what has been a wet 2024 so far. (By the following weekend, winter had returned with rain, afternoon temps in the mid-40's and the park closed for several days because of wind.)
Meet Up
Our previous three workdays on Sequoia Trail were mostly straight forward as we followed the old alignment. There was lots of vegetative regrowth, but once it was cut back we could see the old tread base so we knew we were heading in the right direction. The Feb. 24th workday would be different though.
Park staff is using the trail rebuilding process to eliminate problem areas and on the Sequoia Trail that meant cutting the corner from 236 to Sky Meadow Rd to eliminate a low lying stretch of trail that was prone to wet muddy conditions in the pre-CZU days (see attached map showing trail reroute). Even though staff had flagged the route, we expected it to be slow going so two sawyers headed out about 30 minutes before the remainder of the Crew so they could get a jump on the work.
Lunch in the Shade
The previous workday provided few suitable areas for burn piles, but the Feb. 24th work quickly brought us to an open area where we could build multiple burn piles for newly cut material along with bringing forward material from the previous workdays for deposit in the newly established burn piles.
Meanwhile the advance sawyers continued their cutting several hundred yards in front of the main crew and by the end of the day decided to scramble down the hill to Sky Meadow Rd rather than hike back to join the remainder of the crew for the hike out.
The crew put in 167 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Dale Elliott, Marc Koenig, Janie Leifhelm,John Martin, Janette Mello, Mike Peasland, Evan Rebesque, Devdutt Sheth, Dale Stadelman, Zosia Stafford, Brian Washburn, Bruce Washburn, Chris Young, and newcomers Mikey Zedan and Jason Zheng, for their work.
Old can and a Banana Slug
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bruce, Daryn, Mike, and Zosia