On August 17th 2020 a series of Severe Thunderstorms hit the Bay Area. The storm broke off from Tropical Storm Fausto and although the morning showers cooled off the area the temperature in Santa Cruz broke a record and reached 107F and Death Valley reach a staggering 130F. Multiple lightning strikes stated numerous fires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. These fires grew and turned into one huge fire threatening Big Basin and Boulder Creek on Aug 18th and filled the sky with smoke and ash.

The board in headquarters has never looked so clean. There was one new tree down listed on East Ridge Trail near Blooms Creek Campground but we went ahead with our original plan, which was to clean the steps on the Berry Creek Falls Trail.

There was a report of a large Fir blocking Sequoia Trail so a 4 person crew came out on July 2nd. On the regular workday 10 members came out and split into 2 crews one working along Skyline to the Sea (STTS) and Last Chance with the other working on Meteor and Creeping Forest.

As with the entire world these days, the Trail Crew's June workday was a little different with people wearing masks and visitor vehicle traffic at the parking entrance backed up 10 deep before 9am because of staff's new Covid procedures, but it was great to be back in the park and see everyone. The 3 month break between workdays seemed to go on forever, but as I sat on a Basin Trail Trail overlook eating lunch the break shortened considerably and it seemed like we had been away only a month.

There was no May Trail Crew workday due to the continuing shelter in place order that has been extended until the end of May 2020.

We've all been inundated with Covid-19 news coverage (don't watch too much of it), so it's no news that we'll have to cancel the Trail Crew's April workday scheduled for this Saturday. State Parks has closed day use parking at all 280 of it it's parks and beaches and for Big Basin this means they aren't allowing parking within two miles of headquarters.

Heat, rain, snow, earthquakes haven’t stopped the BBVTC from working the trails; however the Covid19 shut us down. This is the first time in my 23 years on the crew and it may be the first in the 50 year history of BBVTC.

A big turnout of 18 for the workday, which included 10 regulars, one newcomer who seemed interested in our work, six from American Conservation Experience (Americorp) and one friend of Dale P. who wasn't quite sure what Dale had talked her into. We almost had 15 CCC's, but they backed out when we said they needed to bring their own hand tools (that would have been nuts).

As the January workday approached we seemed to face two opposing forces, a shortened workday due to the afternoon Holiday Party and winter weather that left trail issues in almost every part of the park - Skyline-to-Sea, Sequoia, Creeping Forest, Dool, Sunset. And those were just the ones we knew about in advance.

The Trail Crew's December workday looked to be a low turnout day due many regulars being out of town or busy with end of the year holidays, but we were fortunate to have five members of an Americorp crew come out unexpectedly so we ended up with a decent total of 13 for the day.