Sometimes the impact of our work is immediately apparent as when a tree blocking a trail is removed or passersby say thank you, but other times it is less obvious. The April workday was one of our longest in several years. The crew that headed out to the Sunset Trail Camp had to stop and clear numerous blockages on Gazos Creek Fire Rd. The impact of this routine work was apparent during the May workday when park staff received a report of a smoldering illegal campfire at the trail camp with rangers and CDF units raced out to check on things. If not for the work of the April crew in clearing the road the response time to the fire would have been much longer!

As for this month's work, we had nine people out and were able to split into two crews and cover issues on the Eagle Rock, Basin, Eastridge and Dool Trails, along with stripping the bark from four redwood bollards that will be used in campground parking areas.

The first month of Spring brought out 10 crew members, which shows the level of support we have been getting! . Four of our regular crew members unable to make the April workday so we had our smallest turnout since last summer.

During the usual morning gathering we received word of a large tree down on the Sunset Trail about a mile from the Sunset Trail Camp, so we decided to break into two groups with five people driving out Gazos Creek (that would be an adventure itself!) to the trail camp to deal with the new report while the remainder would continue the work from last month on the large tree laying length ways along North Escape Rd.

A good turn out of 14 crew members including one new person and Fran from days past!  Two crews this month with most people heading out to N. Escape Rd to work on that massive 100ft length Doug Fir on the road at a 30deg angle with a 16ft circumference at the base that equates to 4.5ft diameter and still ~3.5ft OD at 70ft from base!  Now that some work.  The other crew took care of a couple of things off Lodge Rd for Sempervirens and then a tree on Middle Ridge near Ocean View Overlook.

The Trail Crew had another very good turnout of 17 people on a very spring like February workday. We started the day remembering the Sempervirens Fund's Linda Yule who passed away in December with, what else, pie! Linda would often bring warm pies out for the Trail Crew to enjoy in exchange for help with grove preparation work and I like to think she would have enjoyed being remembered in this way.

The Trail Crew had a record breaking year in 2017 in terms of hours worked with 1,312 and the new year got off to an equally good start with 16 people out in January including three first timers.   We broke into three groups covering the Sunset-STS Connector Trail area, the Shadowbrook-Sempervirens Loop starting from the Kirsch Trail, and finishing the Eastridge Trail tree left over from last month.

There were 12 members out on a cool morning at HQ.  After saying he would not be able to make the December workday and Holiday Party, longtime Trail Crew lead Jeff made a surprise appearance so we knew it would be a good day!  We split up into 2 crews with one heading up to the back side of Howard King Trail and the other headed to Timm's Creek Trail.

With the annual Trail Crew Holiday Party next month, November would be our last full workday of the year and there were several things we wanted to accomplish, so we decided to break into three, yes 3 groups instead of the usual two.  A great Saturday morning with 11 Crew Members turning out. One group of 4 crew members headed to Last Chance trail, 4 took on STTS just past the Maddock cabin site to re-route the trail, and 3 replaced 10 tired signs on the Redwood Loop trail.

It was a typical cool morning/warm afternoon fall day and we had what has become a routine excellent turnout of 13 crew members including two new people. Even with the devastating fires still burning in Napa and Sonoma the skies were clear though new crew member Alyssa Hanover said she had been in the park the day before and there had been a lot of smoke from the fires.

The July Trail Crew blog included a rare video of a large tree actually falling across the popular trail that leads up to Buzzards Roost and as Trail Crew veterans know trails don't magically maintain themselves, so there the tree stayed, waiting.  

The summer months is the time of year we brush (if we have to) and help out the park by filling the wood shed at HQ with a supply of wood for the next winter and for the campers campfires for the rest of the season.