September 2011 - STS - Timm's - Sunset Loop

We were back at the park HQ this month with a plan to brush Pine Mountain trail but the big board had 5 trees down on the Skyline to the Sea (STS), Alternate, and Timm's Creek trails. We split up to take care of a couple of things, one to open up the burnt out redwood on the Redwood Loop.
A second crew took care of fir that had fallen across Dool trail very near STS. The tree had fallen from the picnic area off of Gazos Creek fire road across the ravine landing on the trail (close to 100 feet at least).
It took about a half hour to clear the trail but it looked great after the work was done.
The two crews came together at the regular spot at Middle Ridge and Sunset intersection. The Loop crew first took care of a fire pit off Middle Ridge and then we headed down Sunset to the Connector then up STS towards the first obstruction - 2 Tan Oaks.
It took 3 cuts to clear the trail then we were off to the second area on the Alternate trail that parallels STS.
This was an easy clear but there was also some brushing required since we haven't been on this trail for a number of years. As we headed toward the last report on Timm's Creek trail we came across these bright blue berries.
Red Clintonia (Clintonia andrewsiana) Family liliaceae (lily), Common Name: bead lily
The board said that the tree down on Timm's Creek was 2-3 feet but we figured it was probably 1-2 feet and the small 14" bar saw would do the trick, plus it's a lot lighter than my Husqvarna 55.
On a redwood, we came across this Wood Wasp Urocerus gigas, which was about 3 inches long.
It turned out that the tree was close to 4 feet and that would require a bigger saw. We cleaned up around the tree to make it easier to climb over and then started back up Timm's Creek and then along Sunset. It's been years since we did this loop in this direction and I now know why. Going back STS is a gradual stead climb out but Timm's has a steep section up to Sunset and then Sunset has 3 steep sections over 2.5 miles, which seems to take forever.

We hiked close to 6 miles making for a long day, plus it was humid from the remanence of a monsoon from Arizona. There was 10 members out and I would like to thank Dale P., Dale S., Fran, Herman, Gene, Norm, Tom, Bill, and Janie for all the hard work. We put in 85 hours on our way to maybe another 1000+ hour year. We have put in 731 hours so far with 269 to reach 1000 hours.

See you on the trail

Jeff