The Trail Crew's Oct. 17th workday picked up where the previous one left off, which also meant it was another warm day on the upper third of Pine Mtn Trail. It was also the first time the BBVTC, District, and CCC crews, have all worked the same section of trail at the same time, so it required extra focus on planning coordination to ensure everything went smoothly.
With a significant amount of cut debris still staged along the trail edge from earlier work, the day's initial effort was to find additional off trail areas to stash material. The District crew set out to survey the trail and locate potential new hiding spots for material and the CCC followed beginning the work to clear the new areas for use.
Meanwhile, with a turnout of 24 for the day, the BBVTC was able to split into two groups. Most of the crew worked to set up a bucket brigade to shuttle debris back down the trail to previously identified hiding sites. A smaller group hiked further up the mountain pulling Ceanothus stobs from the trail corridor so they wouldn't be tripped over by the crews following behind.
Once the new hiding sites were cleared, members from both the BBVTC and CCC worked together to move the debris off the trail. It took 10 people standing on the steep hillside to pass debris up the slope and into the hiding spot on top while others on the trail gathered material so it could be passed uphill to the final hiding location.
Meanwhile others on the CCC crew moved forward to start the process over again by clearing the next hiding site. Although it wasn't as hot as the Oct. 3rd outing, it was was reaching the mid-80's by noon, and well into the 90's in sunny sections of trail, so we decided to wrap things up and begin the hike and drive out.
The crew put in 152 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Aiden Bowers, Jeff Bowers, Nan Bowman, Rory Brooks, Karen Cheeniyil, Santhosh Cheeniyil, Dan Chen, John Collins, Andrew Fiatal, Drew Granzella, Ryan Granzella, Mimi Guiney, Tommy Ha, Andrea Lee, Jack Marshall, John Martin, Mike Peasland, Angelina Thomas, Daniel Zichuhr, and newcomers Cindy Marten, Eric Marten, and Veronica Villarreal, for the continuing support.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Daryn, Jeff, Mike, and Tommy