Red Progress to date and Yellow FEB 8 progress
The Trail Crew's Feb. 8th workday brought us to the section of the Sequoia Trail we knew was out there but hoped wouldn't be as challenging as we recalled. The north side of Sequoia between N. Escape Rd and Hwy 236 starts with a modest climb and off trail shoulder areas where burn piles can be built. As work progressed, burn pile sites became harder to find but we were able to identify a couple of cut and stash sites above the trail, so things were still good.
But this workday brought us to the area with steep uphill and downhill immediately off the trail, so we knew we had arrived! Fortunately, there was still a partial burn pile site not too far behind us that could be enlarged, but that was it.
So the only remaining option was to disperse debris off trail which meant sending people over the edge on the downhill side to where the material could be hidden out of sight. Fortunately there were a couple of areas where the down slope wasn't too bad and several people were able to scramble down the hill. However, one area was steeper and needed a safety line to secure the crew member in place while they moved material around and stashed it out of sight.
The challenge of working on a narrow trail with steep hillsides slowed our progress compared to previous workdays. We progressed and managed to turn the corner and reached the steep section from N. Escape Rd to Hwy 236. Unfortunately, we expect similar working conditions until we get closer to the top when we can carry debris out the 236 end and dispose of it on the Slippery Rock side of the road.
Lunch along the trail
Despite the challenging environment we had a good turnout of 24 and put in 187 hours, so thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Denis DeCeuster, Peter Gelblum, Mimi Guiney, Tommy Ha, Cammie Hunt, Wednesday Kirwan, Norb Lazar, Andrea Lee, Janie Leifhelm, John Martin,Janette Mello, Salome Navarette, Mike Peasland, Dale Petersen, Corrie Potter, Aaron Shaw, Marc Shaw, Brian Washburn, Bruce Washburn, Chris Young and newcomer Ana Perez for their effort.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bruce, Mimi, and Mike