After the last workday of 2024 on Dec. 14th was literally blown away when Big Basin was closed due to high winds and the danger of falling trees, everyone was eager to get back on the trails after the Holidays as we had a record turnout of 28 crew members. Since our annual end of year Holiday lunch had been canceled along with the previous workday, we decided to make it a short day and have a 'New Year' lunch instead.
2025 off to a great start.
With a planned short workday we knew not a lot would be accomplished, but we still had time to fine tune work on a previously cleared stretch of Sequoia along with felling two burned Tan oaks on the trail edge and move the debris into burn piles.
Our next workday will take us into a section of trail that has steep slopes on the uphill and downhill sides with limited areas for burn piles, so we also located two staff identified burn pile sites and accidentally came across two large open areas just beyond the ridge above the trail that should be good cut and disperse sites for upcoming work.
Standard work, burn pile, and large stash area.
It seemed like the work flow was just hitting its stride when it was time to wrap up for the day and head into town for lunch. And as if to reinforce that a short workday was a good idea, as we hiked out at the end there was a gust of wind and the sound of a tree snapping uphill from where we were and down on the road a branch fell several feet from a crew person at the same time. Time for lunch.
The crew put in 147 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Nan Bowman, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Denis DeCeuster, Dale Elliott, Justin Farris, Michele Gelblum, Peter Gelblum, Talu Gonzales, Mimi Guiney, Tommy Ha, Cammie Hunt, Wednesday Kirwan, Marc Koenig, John Martin, Whitney Mitchell, Salome Navarette, Mike Peasland, Fernando Sandoval, Aaron Shaw, Marc Shaw, Devdutt Sheth, Dale Stadelman, Zosia Stafford and Chris Young, for getting the new year off to a good start!
Banana Slug feast
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Fremont, Mike, and Mimi