As the Trail Crew's work on Pine Mountain Trail proceeds we try to stay current with the various aspects of the effort. Everything from initial clearing of the trail corridor itself to cutting back trailside vegetation, finding a home for the cleared debris and final detail work, but news from park staff several days before our Sept. 12 work caused an abrupt change in plans.
A new CCC crew would be arriving in Big Basin at the end of September and begin working on Pine Mtn Trail as well, just as we were getting close to clearing the final section below Buzzards Roost. But having already completed 80 per cent of the 1.8 mile trail over the past 14 months, we wanted to finish the remaining stretch ourselves before the CCC crew arrived!
The usual methodical approach that the crew have been using would need to give way to a sprint with the focus on completing a rough cut trail. Everything else that needed to be done could wait until the CCC arrives and we have help with the remainder of the work.
So with a crew of 16 for the Sept. 12 workday, we decided to split into two groups with one continuing uphill work from where we left off the previous workday while the second crew drove the fire road to Buzzards Roost and began clearing the trail in the downhill direction.
The crew working from the Buzzards Roost end established an assembly line approach to the work with differing size saws out front removing everything blocking the trail from small woody debris and the myriad of Knobcone pines that have regrown since the 2020 fires to bigger fallen dead wood that required a large chainsaw.
Behind them, others removed the numerous Knobcone pine stobs that remained on the trail like trip hazards after the initial chainsaw work. Overall the crew made good progress and by late morning could see the lower crew making its way uphill.
Meanwhile, after hiking in from the fire road the lower crew continued its work clearing the heavier debris load from the trail, leaving an unending line of debris along the trail edge in order to maintain focus on clearing the trail and making forward progress.
The crew briefly lost the trail in the thick regrowth and found itself off trail, but were able to backtrack and identify the correct path forward.
Back on track after lunch, they cleared a section of trail that after one more turn will take them to the final stretch of trail toward the top where the other crew had begun its work.
The crew put in 120 hours and thanks to Fremont Bainbridge, Rory Brooks, Peter Gelblum, Drew Granzella, Andrea Lee, Bill Lock, Jack Marshall, Mike Peasland, Adrian Rahardja, Sam Rahardja, Kenna Wang, Brian Washburn, Kris Kiefer-Woolery, Chris Young, Daniel Zichuhr, and newcomer Abhi Singh, for helping push us forward.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bill, Daniel, Jack, and Mike