One of the lessons learned as we did the final work on Sequoia Trail was not to put off for too long the final detail work. We sometimes focus too much on the initial clearing effort since it provides the greatest sense of accomplishment, but it can result in long periods of detail trail work that becomes tedious after a while.
So though the Crew's July 26th workday was only the second on Pine Mtn Trail, we decided to hold back and do some of the detail 'QC' work before pushing further ahead with clearing work.
With a smaller than usual turnout of 16, the decision was a single crew would be most effective as everyone started from the trailhead immediately behind the old Blooms Creek Campground.
As usual, the QC work generated a lot of debris that needed to find a home and with a steep hillside above the trail and Blooms Creek immediately below, there weren't a lot of good areas for burn piles. Fortunately we were able to construct three burn piles on a stretch of abandoned for now Blooms Creek Trail just below our Pine Mtn Trail work area and another elsewhere, so things worked out better than expected.
While most of the effort focused on detail work, there was also time to push a little further ahead with initial clearing and by the time we hiked out at the end of the day we had established a well cleared section of trail.
The crew put in 120 hours and thanks to Guy Albertelli, Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Tom Condy, Tommy Ha, Jack Marshall, Joe Mitchell, Mike Peasland, Doug Smith, Brian Washburn, Kris Kiefer-Woolery, Chris Young, and newcomers Thanh Nguyen and Edgar Peralta, for the help on a warm day.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike
SOME HISTORY
Big Basin has gone through multiple phases of use in its 123 history as a park with the post 2020 fire only being the most recent. Even before the park was officially established, the area around Basin was being logged, which led to the establishment of Big Basin State Park to protect the remaining old growth trees.
The Depression years of the 1930's brought CCC work into the park with the construction of iconic buildings like the old park headquarters and that was followed by the resort era with tent cabins scattered around the main park area, a dining hall in the Old Lodge building, and the swimming hole where the Redwood Loop meadow is now located.
Since we began work on Pine Mtn Trail we've come across another remnant of Big Basin's past with the stone YWCA stone fireplace near Hihn Hammond Rd and Pine Mtn Fire Rd.
From the 1920's to the early 1950's Big Basin was home to a YWCA Girl Reserves summer camp program that included the stone fireplace that was built in 1938 and used as a campfire center. And around it was an entire camp facility (map below with campfire center in the upper middle) that has faded into the park's history.
The 'pool' referenced on the map is not the main park swimming area, but a small pool of water where Opal Creek joins East Waddell Creek near the campfire center.
More photos of the YWCA era at Big Basin can be found in the California State University Digital Archives.