The Trail Crew's March 7th workday was a surprise early spring like day after the previous workday in late February was almost washed out by six inches of rain in the days leading up to it. Although nice not to be concerned about rain, the first warm day since last fall took some getting used to as well.
With a big crew of 27, this would be our first full day on the section of Pine Mtn Trail above the fire road with its narrow trail corridor with steep upslopes and downslopes to the side, so not much room to work. And of course lots of dense vegetation that needed to be cleared and moved away.
Fortunately the trail was still running parallel to the fire road, so we continued carrying and dragging debris several hundred feet along the trail until we reached a keyhole near the trailhead where it was handed up to road. Despite running into especially heavy post-fire regrowth, we continued making decent progress clearing the trail.
The day started cool so the morning work went smoothly, but by lunch break the temperature had taken a noticeable jump as we looked for a place to eat in the shade. After lunch, with large sections of the work area in full sun and temperatures well into the 70's, the pace slowed considerably and after about 75 minutes work slowed to a crawl so we decided to call it a day.
And in an example of sometimes timing is everything, just as we finished putting the tools away after a warm afternoon, a cloud cover moved in, a slight breeze picked up, and it began to feel cooler.
The crew put in 197 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Daryn Bieri, Aiden Bowers, Jeff Bowers, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Karen Cheeniyil, Santhosh Cheeniyil, John Collins, Justin Farris, Andrew Fiatel, Michele Gelblum, Peter Gelblum, Drew Granzella, Mimi Guiney, Andrea Lee, Janie Leifhelm, Bill Lock, John Martin, Mike Peasland, Marc Shaw, Eric Voelkel, Brian Washburn, Kris Kiefer-Woolery, Chris Young, Daniel Zichuhr, and first timer Chris Gatt, for dealing with the first warm day of the year.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bruce, Mike, and Mimi