After two consecutive mid-to-upper 80's workdays day, the Trail Crew finally encountered fall weather on it's Oct. 31st workday and was able to put in a full day. Whether it was the milder weather or most of the crew returned from summer travels, we had a turnout of 27 and were able to spread out along the trail.
Most of the crew resumed work where we left off last time as we continued moving debris from the trail edge to a previously established off trail stash site. Meanwhile others moved further along the trail to identify and open the next off trail hiding location.
And a third crew disappeared well up the trail to continue removing trip hazard stubs from the trail corridor that were left from the initial clearing work back in September. It turned out to be a successful day in near perfect trail working conditions (map: yellow work area and red stash area).
The crew put in 198 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Rory Brooks, Karen Cheeniyil, Santhosh Cheeniyil, Dan Chen, Peter Gelblum, Drew Granzella, Mimi Guiney, Tommy Ha, Joe Jerkins, Janie Leifhelm, Bill Lock, Jack Marshall, Cindy Marten, Eric Marten, John Martin, Mike Peasland, Chris Rempis, Angelina Thomas, Brian Washburn, Bruce Washburn, Jill Zeng, Daniel Zichuhr, and newcomers Mark Gerber, David Lindley, Roger Lindley and Mac Murrett, for the support.
Big Basin has a number of iconic trees like the 'Mother of the Forest' and 'Father of the Forest' on the Redwood Loop Trail and for past year the Trail Crew had its own landmark tree on Pine Mtn Trail below the fire road: ‘Cannonball Tree' or 'Tree of Death'.
Much of the tree's heartwood was burned out during the fire and it didn't appear there was much holding it upright. We were surprised that it was still standing after the 2025-26 winter. Two of the BBVTC crew were still out on the trail at the end of the Oct. 17th workday when they came across two District trail crew members who were following up on hazardous tree reports.
After helping them locate the tree, the decision was made to remove it immediately due to its unstable condition and winter rains arriving in the next month or so. After being dropped it became clear the decay at the base of the tree would have definitely made it more dangerous in a fairly short time. But perhaps the most surprising aspect was even with all the fire damage and decay, the tree still came down in one piece!
by Mike and Jeff
photos and video by Bill, Bruce, Daniel, Mike, Mimi, John M., and Tommy