There were 15 people out for the work day on Saturday as we continued clearing and connecting the East Ridge and Pine Mountain trails from the Hinh Hammond fire road. We gathered at 8 AM to get ahead of another warm summer day and were on the trail working by 8:30.
We decided to stay as one group and focus on the Pine Mountain trail. Rory's group had placed three logs over the creek where a burned out footbridge had been last work day and most of the group started cutting and clearing on that side. A few of us passed material up slope to a stash spot in bucket-brigade fashion that worked very efficiently.
As the trail was cleared, three burn pile locations were formed and handily assembled. Some small dead tan oaks were felled that were threatening the trail and their trunks served as the base of the burn piles. The vegetation along this section of the trail is quite different from what we saw along the Sequoia trail. There is an abundance of dead and dried branches and the green regrowth is mostly Tan Oak and Redwood. There is a little Ceanothus but thankfully not like the density we saw along Sky Meadow road.
We had an early lunch at 11:15 AM, thanks to the early start time. A few crew members had to leave after lunch and the day did become fairly warm, into the low 80s. That did slow work afterwards and by 1:15 PM the sawyers were ready to call it a day.
We did clear the trail well enough to connect up to the East Ridge intersection. There are two sizable trees along the Pine Mountain trail that will need to be removed and the tread reworked where the trunks are embedded but that's a concern for another day.
The crew put in 113 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Tom Condy, Drew Granzella, Mimi Guiney, John Martin, Thanh Nguyen, Devdutt Sheth, Kris Woolery, Chris Young, and newcomers Katherine and Claire Heidel, for their help as we reached our first milestone on the Pine Mtn Trail.
by Chris and Jeff
photos by Chris, Fremont, and Nan