DEC 2014 - Hollow Tree and STS

Last work day of the year we had 10 crew members out so we split up into 2 crews.  One crew worked on the Hollow Tree Trail and I took one to work on the STS and Creeping Forest.

 

 

10" Tan Oak on the STS just before Maddox Cabin site.

 

 

 3 small things to clear on Creeping Forest

 Redwood to the sky

 

 A little rain and the shrooms come out

 

 Small but messy

 Slugs on the run

 

 Another small but messy blockage

 At last water after 3 year drought

 

 We thought we were done but came across 3 small trees across Gazos Creek Road

 Some new member for the year added to the strength of the crew

 

 

 

Holiday dinner at the Boulder Creek Brewery

In 2014 we had 33 people help out in maintaining the trails and we put in 852 hours.  Each work day we had over 7 members and up to 13.  I would like to thank Francis, Dale S., Mike, Norm, Janie, David B., Peter, Michelle David P., and Janette for the time they put in on this work day.  Hope to see you in the New Year.

See you on the trails.

Jeff

Birds of the Day

Acorn Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Pacific Wren

Hutton's Vireo

Raven

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Varied Thrush

NOV 2014 - STS and Creeping Forest

Growing up in the NE, when it's Fall you know it and it does start in early October.  Here we are in the second week of November and half way through fall with temperatures in the 70's it's sometime hard for me to tell the season.  However, what has been a sign for me is the emergence of mushrooms soon after the first rain.  A week before we got .6" of rain and sure enough the mushrooms have started to show up.

The crew started out in search of a couple of downed trees on STS near the Maddox's Cabin site.  We got to the site but no trees.  One of the crew scouted ahead and found a Fir and Oak just past the site.

Two down

Limbing for ease of clearing

Final roll and trail cleared

After clearing STS, we headed up the Creeping Forest trail and first came across a downed Tan Oak that caused a hiker reroute around the brush pile.

Clear and in contemplation of banana slugs

Another obstacle was a Madrone about chest high across the trail.

This was about 60 ft long

Slug making a break for safer grounds

One last toss and tail cleared

Old man Douglas Fir

Band-tail Pigeon hunter's victim

We finished off the day moving firewood for HQ and the cooler mornings coming.  It's great to have a large group to make a difficult one person job into an easy job (it took 17 minutes to unload and stack about 2 cords of wood).

We put in 66 hours on a beautiful day in the park.  I would like to thank Francis, Dale S., Janette, David B, Shelly, David P., and Jan.

See you on the trails.

Jeff

Birds of the Day

1 Band-tailed Pigeon, Patagioenas fasciata

5 Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus

1 Hairy Woodpecker, Picoides villosus

1 Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus

1 Hutton's Vireo, Vireo huttoni

8 Steller's Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri

12 Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens

2 Brown Creeper, Certhia americana

1 Golden-crowned Kinglet, Regulus satrapa

4 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula

1 Hermit Thrush, Catharus guttatus

2 Varied Thrush, Ixoreus naevius

OCT 2014 - Sempervirens Falls and STS

Mike took over for me this month as I headed out to Nevada and Lake Tahoe. 

Although the plan was to work the Basin Trail and likely a lot of brushing, a couple of other things came up when we got to headquarters. Susan Blake mentioned she had come across a Madrone on the East Ridge Trail up off Lodge Rd that was blocking the trail, so Dale Petersen and Pete Gelblum headed out with a chainsaw to take care of it.

The main project for the day came up after several park staff mentioned that way too many visitors to Sempervirens Falls were climbing over the railings and trampling what little vegetation that was there to begin with. The goal was re-duff the area (bad choice of words on my part as the reaction from the crew was about the same as if I said let's spend eight hours brushing a trail!) so it looked more natural and to hopefully deter people from jumping the fence.

 Duff around the Falls

 We spent a couple of hours filling a wheel barrow with leaves and bringing them down to the falls along with dragging over any dead branches and trees we could find. By the end we were cutting up down Tan Oaks off the Sequoia Trail and dragging them down the hill, across Sky Meadow Rd and to the falls area. When finished the area looked a lot better and hopefully our work and the winter rains will encourage people to stay where they belong - on the viewing platform.

After eating lunch at the falls and admiring our work, we headed off to look for a tree that was reported down on the Skyline-to-Sea Trail between Creeping Forest and the Maddock Cabin Site. As we headed out, Ranger Emily mentioned there was an ultra marathon coming down from Castle Rock and we were likely to run into 'sweaty people'. As we walked along from the Gazos Creek picnic area we asked several runners if they saw any down trees and the responses ranged from 'Just a little ahead' to 'We didn't see anything'. 

As we got closer to the Maddock Cabin Site end we came across a small 2-4 inch Tan Oak laying across the trail that didn't seem large enough to even generate a tree down report. It was quickly cut up by hand and rolled off the trail even before the entire crew gathered.

A couple of minutes further along the trail we found what we were really looking for; an 8-10 inch Tan Oak. There had been a steady stream of runners as we had walked out, but we were lucky to catch a break and cut and remove the down tree without interfering with any of the runners.

The crew put in 44 hours and thanks to Norm Beeson, David Bryan, Peter Gelblum, Janie Liefhelm, Dale Petersen, Dale Stadelman and new comer Chris DeKonink, for coming out.

Mike

SEP 2014 - Last Chance Trail, Part 2

This was the second time we worked on Last Chance Trail this summer.  Ashley and Jason were the leads from the the state Resource Management Department and they were joined by 7 regular crew members and 2 new ones.

Over the past month, Francis completed refinishing the redwood round at HQ (sprouted 544 CE, 1392 yrs old when cut down)

The crew headed off to the the trail head on Hihn Hammond road and hiked down to where we were to put in steps.  A few of us went with Jason to put in a rock water bar farther down the trail. 

 Crew getting instructions

As the crew was setting up to start the work, I hiked down the trail and crossed over the creek to look for an American Dipper.  No luck on the Dipper but there were a couple of Ravens and blooming fuchsia.

Ravens calling from a Fir in blue sky

California fuchsia (Epilobium canum)

Laying the first step

California Sister (Adelpha bredowii eulalia) drinking at the rock spring

Coast Range Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii) watching the work

Rebar through the steps

The steps were placed and rock was collected and crushed to back fill behind the steps.  I had the Sam Cooke song "Chain Gang" going through my head as we crushed big rocks into little ones (That's the sound of the men working on the chain gang").

Lunch

Boss Lady Ashley (not really she would fit right in with the crew)

Time to pack the tools out

Peeling Madrone

It was a light day but we picked up a few tricks.  The State crew has done a great job on not only clearing the trail but significantly improving the trail drainage.  We put in 68 hour bringing our total to 656 for the year.  I would like to thank Norm, Francis, Dale S., David B., Janette, Joan, new members Jan and Bill (a winemaker).  Special thanks to Ashley and Jason for asking us to help on the project and showing us a few new skills.

See you on the trails

Jeff

Birds of the Day

1 Red-shouldered Hawk (California) Buteo lineatus elegans

1 Band-tailed Pigeon Patagioenas fasciata

2 Acorn Woodpecker Melanerpes formicivorus

1 Nuttall's Woodpecker Picoides nuttallii

2 Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosus

3 Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus

1 Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus

1 Hutton's Vireo Vireo huttoni

8 Steller's Jay Cyanocitta stelleri

2 Common Raven Corvus corax

12 Chestnut-backed Chickadee Poecile rufescens

1 Townsend's Warbler Setophaga townsendi

4 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) Junco hyemalis [oreganus Group]