After splitting into two crews on the previous workday, our April 19th outing had everyone back together. We started from the Hwy 236 end of Sequoia Trail for the first time. With lots of debris remaining from earlier clearing work, the larger woody pieces were scattered in downhill areas while the slash was placed on tarps, carried along the trail and across the highway to a large clearing above Slippery Rock where four burn piles were constructed.
Improvements were also made on the slide blocking the trail just in from 236 so it was safer to cross, but the burned out foot bridge further along remained a problem area requiring continued use of a rope safety line to cross.
It was decided that it would be unsafe attempting to cross the missing bridge gap carrying tarps loaded with slash, so debris beyond the missing bridge was cut and dispersed in several off trail locations since there were no large areas suitable for burn piles.
As the Crew ate lunch in the clearing above Slippery Rock, we noticed a couple of concrete abutments on a small knoll off to the side. They appeared to be from a long ago structure, but after checking with a couple of long time Big Basin contacts, no one seemed to know what it may have been.
Former Basin interpreter Susan Blake finally provided a historic buildings & structures inventory from the State Park archives that showed it was the Slippery Rock Mill site and listed as 'historically significant'.
Most of the entire Seqouia Trail has been cleared but there are numerous issues between 236 and N. Escape that will need to be resolved before it is ready for visitor use.
The crew put in 1340 hours and thanks to Guy Albertelli, Fremont Bainbridge, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Karen Cheeniyil, Santhosh Cheeniyil, Cecil Coe, John Collins, Deirdre Crommie, Dale Elliott, Michele Gelblum, Talu Gonzalez, Tommy Ha, Janie Leifhelm, Mike Peasland, Doug Smith, Chris Young, and newcomer Katherine Davis, for their work as we near the end of our work on Sequoia Trail.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike