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The park needed the BBVTC help in splitting wood for the HQ fireplace. We usually move the wood from the Maintenance Yard but this year the park asked if we could split the wood too. So we came out for a second NOV workday. Seven crew members came out on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and we split about three cords of wood.
We cut some of the logs into manageable lengths while the rest of the crew used the log spliter for most of the job but some we split by hand.
Hopefully 3 cords with keep the fire going over the winter
The crew put in 44 hrs cutting about 3 cords of wood and thanks to John Collins, John Martin, Mike Peasland, David Philleo, Aaron Poulos, Devdutt Sheth and Chris Young, for splitting firewood on the second workday in Nov 2019.
The November workday started as a classic example of the microclimate weather you often hear about on weather reports. As I left home on the San Jose side of the hill the temperature was in the low 50's with valley fog. As I headed downhill from Saratoga Gap towards Boulder Creek the car outside temperature sensor said it was 70 and by the time I arrived at park headquarters it was a chilly 43.
October's workday looked to be a full day with chainsaw restrictions from the Murrelet nesting season lifted and problems on Dool, Pine Mountain and Sequoia Group Camp trails, to deal with.
The biggest issue was going to be a 5-foot Doug fir on Dool just below Gazos Creek Fire Rd that had closed the trail since May. We had requested the State Trail Crew leave a splitting maul and steel wedges at HQ so we could split the rounds as they came off the tree, but unfortunately the request fell through the cracks and sent us on an early morning scramble to find replacements and delayed the work. Fortunately the Pine Mtn/Sequoia Group Camp crew decided to head out for their work rather than wait for the Dool crew to get itself untracked.
Sometimes trail work doesn't go quite as imagined and our September workday seemed to be one of those days. The plan was to spend the morning working with the State Crew on a new bridge on Skyline-to-Sea near the Maddock Cabin Site with the afternoon reserved for prepping the Sky Meadow Ramada for the October overnight.
A GREAT summer turnout of 17 on our July work day, which included two newcomers. We worked the Sky-line to the Sea (STS) Trail just beyond Creeping Forest with the State Crew. The July workday really began back in February when we worked on clearing a 4-ft Doug fir from the Skyline-to-Sea Trail just north of Creeping Forest.
We met as usual at HQ and 6 crew members showed up and 4 new members. We drove up to Eagle Rock trailhead to address 7 trees reported by Kurt Leal that were in various states of blocking the path. We left Dale S car at the bottom of Little Basin Road and then we all piled into two trucks with Dale P and new guy Mike S. driving to the trailhead.
Working with the Trail Crew often provides new opportunities like hiking a seldom used trail like Last Chance, driving the fire roads to work in the backcountry, and learning about different aspects of the park's history. Logging has played a large role in the history of the Santa Cruz Mountains and during our May workday we had the opportunity to see a logging demonstration on Redtrees property just north of China Grade.
The initial plan for the April workday was to have two crews, but with an excellent turnout of 17 we decided to make it three crews with one group removing a tan oak jumble near the campfire center, the second tackling a redwood blocking the East Ridge Trail behind the Blooms Creek Campground and the third following up on a Kurt Leal trail report of numerous trees on Creeping Forest Trail.
