November 2010: Howard King & Creeping Forest Trails

In November we had a good turnout of 13 Trail Crew members. The day started
with Jeff announcing that he would not be able to work the trails due to a
twisted ankle from the previous day. Jeff's new puppy/pony/horse (choose one)
picked up something she wasn't supposed to have and in the ensuing chase
Jeff twisted the ankle. (If you're scoring at home it's Puppy - 1 Jeff - 0).

Kaja the Pony (7 months)

As for the work, since we had a large turnout and some needed to leave by
1, we split into different groups. Peter Gelblum led the first group and
headed up the Creeping Forest trail to check on a reported down tree. Peter
reports there 'had' been a 3-4 foot diameter redwood across the trail, but it
was recently removed judging by the cut and sawdust. Otherwise, there was a
4-inch diameter tree that was sort of leaning a bit over the trail that they
cut up and a bunch of overgrown huckleberry that was trimmed back. They
extended the hike by going up Dool to Middle Ridge Fire Road, along Middle Ridge
to Sunset and back to headquarters.

The second group took a longer hike by heading up the Skyline-to-Sea to
Middle Ridge and then picking up the Howard King Trail to the Mt. McAbee
Overlook. The majority of the trail was clear except for a couple of chaparral
areas that needed the usual intensive brushing. With the 6.5 mile hike and the
work it was a long day with the group getting back a little before 5.

The smallest group of the day was Fran Loop's work party of one. Fran
arrived a little before 10 and after checking with the office staff headed up the
Dool Trail hoping to meet the first group. She did some brushing on the
trail and removed a 6-inch tan oak near the Gazos Creek Fire Road, but didn't
meet the first group. Fran also worked a section of the Hihn Hammond Fire
Road from the Blooms Creek Campground area. (Thanks for taking the initiative
Fran!)

Thanks to Tom Batley, Peter and Michele Gelblum, Michael Ishaq, Bill and
Janie Leifhelm, Fran Loop, Roger Miller, Gene Nelso, Jennie Odryna and her
step son Loren, Francis Padilla and Mike Peasland for their work.


Hope to see you at the park or at the party this Saturday!

Mike & Jeff

October 2010: RDO

It’s the second Saturday of November 2010 coming up and the Trail Crew will be back in the core Basin area. We’ll meet as usual at park headquarters about 9. The forecast is for nice weather, so I hope you can make it out.

Thanks to everyone who worked at Rancho del Oso (RDO) last month! We had enough people to split into two groups with one crew planting trail signs around the RDO office while the second crew worked on widening the fire road where a slide had closed it.

Crew at HQ

It’s nice to make a positive impression to those who may not be familiar with our work and Ranger Marti at RDO has been impressed with what we have done for her this year. After last month, she sent me the following note.

Please forward this note to your crew as I want to tell them all again Thanks for their hard work! The work/projects the volunteer crew is helping us do here at RDO just couldn't get done without them. It's apparent the dedication everyone on the team has towards the park. It truly shows and it is so appreciated. The public certainly reaps the benefits from all you do.

Thanks again and I will definitely contact you again soon! How does everyone feel about working in the rain??

Working on the washout

Opened up for emergency access to the Falls

Thanks to Tom Batley, Norm Beeson, Jeff Bleam, Peter and Michele Gelblum, Michael Ishaq, Fran Loop, Janette Mello, Gene Nelson, Sara Palomo, and Dale and Dell Petersen, for their efforts.

Fire has always been an important of any forest and each year the State Parks staff tries to do a controlled burn at Big Basin . If you happened to blink, you probably missed this year’s burn. The plan was to burn 319 acres between the Meteor and Hollow Tree Trails and this past Friday they finally got the right weather conditions and we able to ignite the fire. Of course on Sunday it started to rain and just as quickly the controlled burn season ended. The final burned area was only about 30 acres, so the season was not a blazing success.

Hope you can make it out this Saturday!

Mike & Jeff

APR 2010: Fire Roads & Trails

Another storm was a day away on the April 10^th trail crew day. I left the house expecting a pleasant day (wishful thinking after the previous couple of warm spring days) and on the way to the park it started to drizzle. The park offered to lend me a rain jacket and I gladly accepted it. We had a nice turn out of 14 crew members so we split up. I took one crew to open the fire roads starting on Middle Ridge at Gazos then to Johansen where there were 4 trees across the road with 100 meters then back down Gazos.
There was about 8-10 trees across the roads and this was an 18” Fir but with a little effort; open road ahead.


There was a lot of hard working going on …well most of the time. We saw numerous banana slugs but they were smaller than the one at my house, which you can see is almost 7” long. Her name is George.

The second crew, lead by Mike, started the day by going over to the Kirsch Trail and taking out the tan oak that was overhanging the trail just before the bridge. After that they hiked a short distance up the Shadowbrook Trail toward Huckleberry and found the blockages (18-inch d/f and 10-inch t/o) that the ranger had mentioned. Norm caught up to the crew and reported there was nothing on the trail between Huckleberry where he parked and the work area.

After finishing with Shadowbrook, they drove out N. Escape as far as we could before they hit a locked gate. So they parked where the short connector trail goes between N. Escape and the Maddock cabin site. They hiked up and back on the Meteor removing some small debris and a 24-inch t/o which tested the limits of Dale's small saw.

It was an average work day but with it the BBVTC has racked up 407 hours year to date. If we can keep this up we can break our 2008 record of 943 hours.

See you on the trail - Jeff

MAR 2010: Sempervirens

FEB/MAR 2010: Sempervirens

The Sempervirens Fund purchased two redwood tracts totaling 267 acres from Redtree Properties of Santa Cruz, CA. Redtree had obtained state permits to cut 35% of the redwood and Douglas fir trees larger than 18 inches in diameter on the smaller 107-acre tract at the intersection of Hwy 9 and 236 before the acquisition of the property. We started preparing the sight on February 27 with Aaron from Sempervirens.

Meadow where the dedication would be held

Looks like the gardening continues from the February weeding work at Rancho del Oso.

Steps were put in to keep people from slipping down the bank.

After about 2 years, with a little help from the crew, my camper shell is going back on.

Short day but a BBQ was a nice ending.

There were 11 crew members that helped out and we were done in about 4 hours. Lunch was ready for us when we got to my house for the BBQ. Thanks J.

MAR 12^th

As most of the crew knows we get a lot more rain on the right side of the hill compared to the bay area. San Jose had a total of 13.01” as of 3-3-10 where Boulder Creek was at 46.29”. Needless to say, the week leading up to the event was very wet. I received a call from Linda the night before asking for advice and help. A long story short. Van got stuck, huge tow rig got stuck and had to use a winch to get it out. The road down to the meadow was a mess. We were able to round up 3 crew members for a day before fix and Linda had hired a contractor too. There was about 12-15 people total. It rained all day and it took about 8 hours to lay a boardwalk, improve the steps, and carry all the supplies needed for the dedication. I was soaked by the time I got home and it took about 2 hour in front of a fire to warm up.

MAR13^th

The trail crew mascot was showing his support with his buddy looking on (too bad they couldn’t attend: other plans).

Junction of Hwy 9 and 236 with the trail head off to the left.

Crew helping people down the trail after spending the morning finishing up preparing the trail.

>Boardwalk viewed from the trail

Landing after the steps

The initial thought was about 100 would attend but over 325 people showed up.

It was a long day and even the supervisor was tired thinking about the past 2 days. There were 15 crew members out on Saturday and some stayed to help break down the dedication area. We start around 8 and ended the day around 4 but there was no rain.

We have received many kind comments about the work we did with this comment being typical.

“That was a beautiful event you put on, just superb. Must have been harrowing yesterday, in the heavy rain, but everything was perfect today. The plywood and steps on the trail, the solicitous young people stationed at strategic points, keeping elderly donors from slipping and sliding. “

There was only one minor slip and one woman could not make it down the trail. I think that is a good showing. Thank all.

See you on the trail - Jeff

FEB 2010: Sequoia Trail

This was day where we traveled .4 miles in about 3 hours. We start at the bottom of the Sequoia trail at No. Escape and from there cleared about 8 fallen trees on our way to Hwy 236.
The last blockage was a Madrone and 2 Tan Oaks. It took a little scrambling to get through.

Along the way we had a little fun rolling the cut sections off the trail.

There was 6 of us out and it took the rest of the day to complete the loop back to HQ. Along the way we heard 2 Pileated Woodpeckers and spotted one at the top of a Fir near the Kirsch trail.

See you on the trail - Jeff

JAN 2010: Rancho del Oso

The first trail work day was by the coast at Rancho del Oso. They wanted some trees taken out and one of the things I don't think fits our job description: WEEDING.

We had a long time member, Dale, showing up all the way from Texas. He has the longest commute of any member.



We cleared 4 trees from the side of the deck. Before we started you could not see the deck from this view.
After lunch we headed out on the trails where one group planted sign posts and I took another to cleared the trail from Alder camp ground to the park HQ.




It was a satisfying day and it stayed foggy all day. Some of us finished the day with a pint at the Davenport Roadhouse.

See you on the trail - Jeff

DEC 2009: Rainy Day and Good Food

This was the Trail Crew's 2nd annual gathering. This year we had it at our home in Boulder Creek. Jeannine and I had just completed a kitchen remodel and were excited to do some real cooking. The crew showed up around 1 pm after a short but wet day. We had a fire going and the food was just about ready.

I think the biggest hit was the pot roast but I preferred the garlic rosemary leg of lamb. We had plenty of veggys from roasted butternut squash and sauteed green beans.There was pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and Fran brought a fantastic pumpkin cheese cake. It was nice to have everyone over and enjoy the stories and conversation.

See you on the trail - Jeff

NOV 2009: A Walk in the Park

This Cedar Waxwing was found on Hwy 9. I was so tame just sitting in our hands. The plan for the day was to clear a redwood off of STS trail but when we got there it was already open.

All day we follow the same route that the State crew did a week earlier. It was a nice walk an there were numerous mushrooms. We had lunch on Middle Ridge fire road near Johansen fire road with three baby rattle snakes. Luck for us it was a cool day and no one sat on them before we noticed them.









This was the tree we were after to clear. I brought the whip saw but we didn't get a chance to use it.


See you on the trail - Jeff