The last several days have been spent trying to come up with the proper way to mark this Monday's fifth year after the CZU fires that tore through Big Basin. With the pandemic, 2020 seemed to get harder by the week and it bottomed out on the night of Tuesday August 18th when fire burned through the main visitor area.
Fire place in the old HQ, Fire Approaching, Before and After
A little after noon the following day, Park Interpreter Susan Blake sent a note that confirmed the worst - 'Not for dissemination yet. Just had to tell someone. HQ area all gone. All residences burned.'
Eight weeks later, the Trail Crew made its first post-fire visit to the park and in stunned disbelief stood in the middle of 236 wearing face masks, not because of Covid, but because of the choking after affect of the fire and the ash that rose with every footstep.
But....The strongest recollection is not how much was lost, but how the forest has recovered and BBVTC has responded to the event. (If interested, see more). Even during that eight week after visit, the forest had staked its claim as Redwood root sprouts had already broken through the layer of ash.
Redwood Sprouting (10-2020) Redwoods (10-2020) Redwoods (5-2025)
And the Trail Crew responded as well. Having lost our entire tool inventory when the tool shed was destroyed, the teenage son of one of our newer crew members started a GoFundMe campaign that raised $2,500 in six months and allowed us to completely rebuild our tool cache with money left over.
Tools in the BBVTC Shed and what was left
Other things can’t be replaced like the Schultz Bridge on the Kirsch Trail
By April of 2021 we had returned to work in the Fall Creek section of Henry Cowell while we waited for hazard tree removal to be completed in Big Basin. On Nov. 20, 2021 we returned to the park to begin the first post fire trail work in Basin and celebrated by building our biggest burn pile near the entrance to the Redwood Loop Trail. (We later heard it was 'just a little too big'!)
To Build a Burn Pile (Too Big)
Since then, in addition to the Redwood Loop, we've cleared Sunset up to Middle Ridge, Creeping Forest, the upper section of Dool, short stretches of Skyline-to-Sea, Sequoia, and now the crew is working on Pine Mountain.
Sequoia Trail and Pine Mountain Trails
Slippery Rock 1-2016 and 5-2025
Pine Mountain Fire Road Bridge
And the most remarkable part of the post fire recovery is the people. Those who had been with the Trail Crew for decades, experienced the shock of the fire, the eight month break in work and came back to help rebuild the park so it could be reopened to visitors.
And especially the remarkable number of new people who have come forward to help at a time when it would have been easy for the Trail Crew itself to fall victim to the fire. These newcomers have continued to come out and over time become regulars themselves. And we continue to get new people asking if they can help.
Just as the Trail Crew has rebounded from the fire, so has the forest. Although a big part of Big Basin history was lost in the fire, to visitors who never experienced the old Big Basin the impact of the fires is no longer readily evident.
After the Fire (10-2025) Today (2-2025)
A new Big Basin history is underway.
by Mike and Jeff