For the past couple of decades the Trail Crew's last workday of the year has been a short one, partly to celebrate the upcoming Holidays but also because mid-December weather is typically not the best, so why not make it a short day and celebrate the year's work with lunch in town?
The December 13th workday turned out a little different though. We still ended early for lunch as the Crew had put in 3,497 hours for the year and earned the break, but the weather was more spring like than mid-December with temperatures in the mid-60's. Perfect weather for trail work!
Despite the short day, a lot was accomplished in about 90 minutes of actual work. Previous efforts had punched through to the intersection of Pine Mtn Trail and Pine Mtn Fire Rd, but a significant amount of cut debris had been left scattered along the trail that needed a home.
Fortunately we caught a break when we were approved beforehand to stage debris along the edge of the fire road for later chipping rather than building burn piles along the trail. (we hadn’t seen appropriate spots for burn piles during recent work)
With a good turnout of 23 for the Dec. 13th work, lots of debris ready to move and a place to put it on the fire road, we were all set for a fast start to the day.
Yellow - Downhill Work Area
Orange - Uphill Work Area
Green Box - Debris Staging
The Crew broke into three groups with the majority forming a relay line along the trail to move debris up to the road while others prepped the staging areas so they did not block the roadway. And with the big crew, the third group was able to begin initial trail clearing on the uphill side of the road.
The final workday of the year is typically not our most productive, so everyone was impressed by what was accomplished in 90 minutes. One person working on the uphill side of the fire road commented toward the end that they couldn't even tell where the trail started when they arrived and now they had a trail!
The crew put in 100 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Aiden Bowers, Jeff Bowers, Nan Bowman, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Karen Cheeniyil, Santhosh Cheeniyil, Katherine Davis, Dale Elliott, Andrew Fiatal, Peter Gelblum, Jack Marshall, John Martin, Joe Mitchell, Mike Peasland, Marc Shaw, Devdutt Sheth, Angelina Thomas, Brian Washburn, Bruce Washburn and Kris Kiefer-Woolery, for the support as we headed into the Holiday season.
This year there were 73 members that came out to work on the trails and racked up 3497 volunteer hours, which was the second highest total behind the 3673 hours of 2022. Thanks to everyone.
Holiday Gathering at the Sawmill
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bruce, Jeff, Joe, and Mike