Another good turnout with 22 crew members showing up to continue work on the Pine Mountain Trail. The major achievement for the day was opening a new keyhole between the trail and fire road.
This was a significant milestone as the trail beyond this point moves away from the fire road so we'll need to look for alternative options for disposing debris at some point as we push ahead.
The keyhole still needs some additional clearing, but we should be able to begin utilizing it on next workday.
The crew put in 162 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Aiden Bowers, Jeff Bowers, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Karen Cheeniyil, Santhosh Cheeniyil, Cecil Coe, John Collins, Mimi Guiney, Tommy Ha, Janie Leifhelm, Mike Peasland, Angelina Thomas, Eric Voelkel, Brian Washburn, Bruce Washburn, Kris Kiefer-Woolery, Chris Young, Daniel Zichuhr, and newcomers Vlad Kuznetsov and Chris Rempis, for the support!
Tolmie’s Star Tulip (Calochortus tolmiei) range along the coast from Washington to No. California
Spring Bloom starting at top left Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana), Redwood violets (Viola sempervirens), Starflower (Lysimachia borealis), Redwood Sorrel (Oxalis oregana), and Bluebead Lily (Clintonia borealis)
Banana Slug
We had a recent conversation with Chris Pereira, District trails manager, and below are updates on what trails are being worked this year, who is doing the work, and of course the proverbial question of when Berry Creek Falls might be open.
Work on the entire Sequoia Trail loop from HQ to Slippery Rock, up to 236 and down to N. Escape Rd is complete, but is not open to the public yet as they are waiting on trail signs to arrive and be installed. Once the signs arrive, the trailhead at the old HQ's end will be cleared. (If driving from the SJ area you may notice the trailhead from 236 down to N. Escape has already been cleared.)
The new Sempervirens Falls viewing area off Sequoia Trail is only a small bulb out off the Sky Meadow Rd pavement where we stopped to look at the falls when we were working in the area. Chris P. mentioned the trail going down to the old platform had underlying structural issues and may not be rebuilt for that reason.
The park has a dedicated CCC crew from the Monterey Bay center that will be working in the park until the end of year holiday season. In previous years Basin had to recruit from multiple different centers that were only interested in shorter term assignments, but Monterey has new management that Chris P. has worked with before and they were open to a longer term that will keep them in a single in the park for most of '26.
The C-Crew recently completed the work on Sequoia between 236 and N. Escape and is now beginning work on Skyline-to-Sea Trail from the connector trail below Middle Ridge heading toward Timms Creek.
The usual backcountry C-Crew will arrive in the park next week for their usual six week stay before heading to the high Sierra's for the summer. (Their Sierra work is true backcountry with mules bringing in food and supplies once a week. The upside is they have dedicated cooks for meals.) While at Basin they will start work on clearing Timms Creek Trail itself. Chris P. said they'll be camping at Sky Meadow which will mean a long drive-hike to the Timms Creek work area. They will drive out Gazos Creek Fire Rd. and drop down to Sunset Trail near the junction with Timms Creek. They'll only put a dent in the needed work, so other crews will need to pickup the Timms Creek effort at some point.
More next time
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bruce, Chris, Eric, Fremont, Mike, and Mimi