The May 2 workday was an important one for the Trail Crew as we began pushing into new areas where there appeared to be limited opportunities for disposing material as we continued clearing Pine Mtn Trail. We needed to streamline our work as the trail moved away from the fire road.
The previous workday ended with the initial clearing of a new keyhole and a lot of debris staged along the trail waiting to be moved up the hill. The process to this point had been to move material up the slope on a drag line that required a lot of ground clearing effort before beginning and even then the bundles of debris would sometimes catch on something and fall apart as they moved up the hill.
A new idea was needed to move things along more quickly!
At the end of the previous workday, one of the crew commented that we should lift the debris up the hill rather than dragging it along the ground. Not completely off the ground, just enough so the leading end of the bundles didn't catch on something and cause everything to fall apart halfway up the hill.
So the May 2nd workday began with part of the crew setting up a rigging system between the trail and fire road while others continued clearing work further along the trail which added to the debris already waiting to be moved up to the road.
After a couple of trial runs it was clear the new process would work with bundles holding together as they moved up the hill, but it was still taking too much time between lifts. Gradually a system was developed with some of the crew grabbing bundles of debris, placing a choker on the leading edge and dragging it to the loading area. There another crew would quickly attached it to the rigging so it could be moved up the hill to the top where others removed the bundle and carried the debris to the edge of the fire road where it was left.
After a short while, all the steps in the process came together and there was an almost a continual flow of material up the hill and the piles of staged debris along the trial began to shrink.
And while this was happening, other crew members continued the difficult work of pushing further ahead clearing new sections of trail. By the end of the day they had completed opening about 400 additional feet of trail.
All this required a large crew of 28 who put in 204 hours, so thanks to Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Aiden Bowers, Jeff Bowers, Daryn Bieri, Karen Cheeniyil, Santhosh Cheeniyil, John Collins, Andrew Fiatel, Peter Gelblum, Drew Granzella, Mimi Guiney, Tommy Ha, Reave Hosman, Vlad Kuznetsov, Janie Leifhelm, Jack Marshall, Mike Peasland, Dale Petersen, Devdutt Sheth, Angelina Thomas, Eric Voelkel, Kris Kiefer-Woolery, Chris Young, and newcomers Daniel Bernstein, Dan Chen, Kenna Wang, and Jill Zeng, for their help with an impressive workday.
CA Banana Slug (Ariolimax californicus), Golden-backed Fern spore outline, and Tolmie's Star Tulip (Calochortus tolmiei)
More on the trails being worked on.
Regarding our current work on Pine Mtn Trail, Chris inquired if we would be OK with some occasional C-support to speed up work. Since all the trails from the Basin floor to Middle Ridge are open (except the recently damaged Hollow Tree bridge) and the next section of STS-Sunset to Timms Creek won't be ready until the second half of '27, it seems like they may be looking at Buzzards Roost as an interim target for opening to the public. It seemed like perhaps a random thought, but it would be nice to have some young people push ahead with additional work that needs to be completed before the trail can be opened to visitors.
A CCC style crew from American Conservation Experience (the Cesar Chavez Environmental Corp) is also in Basin and doing initial work on Sunset Trail from the connector below Middle Ridge heading towards Timms Creek.
The entire STS-Timms Creek-Sunset loop is not expected to open until fall '27. Chris P. said there are 22 bridge replacements on the entire loop that will slow work down. (That's the material we're starting to see near our tool room in Jay Camp.)
If like me, you're wondering how long we'll have to continue signing in every - single - workday, the short answer is a long time! Chris said 118 fire recovery projects were approved after the 2020 CZU fires and Sacramento is still getting reimbursed by FEMA. (Sacto fronts the money to State Parks for the work and then submits paperwork (including our sign-in sheets) to get reimbursed by FEMA. Chris said that because everything was approved years ago and before the current political climate, things continue to move smoothly. He speculated that if the same event were to happen now, California and Basin, would be on it's own.
Regarding our current work on Pine Mtn Trail heading towards the Buzzard Roost Overlook, Chris P. said the FEMA approved project ends at Buzzard Roost, but agreed the Pine Mtn. overlook itself was a nice area as well. We would probably have to do the work ourselves or any staff-CCC help would have to come out of the District's general budget money. Knobcone pines had taken over the top of Pine Mtn and blocked many views prior to the fire, so not sure what it will look like when we get to the area. (Knob cone pines are closed cone pines and only drop seeds after fires.)
Because of fire recovery funding, District roads and trails is well staffed with 19 which includes equipment operators along with actual trail workers. Of course it's a big district from Half Moon Bay to the Santa Cruz.-Monterey county line along the coast and up to Castle Rock and Portola, so a lot of trails! (Prior to the fires, the District crew was about half the size.)
by Mike and Jeff
photos and video by Jack, Jeff, Karen, Mike, and Mimi