APR 2014 - Meteor and Fence Part 2

Call to arms brought out 11 members and one new recruit.  With the little rain (4-5") we got, it was more like a November rain than an end of the season spring storm.  Everything came down.  We had planned to work on finishing the fence and you should have seen Cindy's face when someone suggested the entire crew work on the trails.  Well we honored the commitment and we split the and I took 4 others to start on Meteor Trail and Mike took the rest.

Last month we started work on the split rail fence project across from the parks stores, but because it had been many years since we did a fence and were digging the post holes by hand, we only completed about one-third.

 

We hoped to complete the remaining stretch this month and with the addition of a gas powered auger to drill the holes it seemed doable, although I thought it might require a long day.

I was wrong about the long day - the auger made things MUCH easier. We quickly split into teams and while some used the auger to quickly drill all the holes, others dug out the loose soil and made sure the holes were the correct dimensions and others did the prep work on the posts and rails.

After an hour of work we were already installing the posts and rails and by the time we broke for lunch we had about two thirds of the posts and rails installed. After lunch we completed the fence work and even had time to take care of finishing touches like rounding off edges on the posts and using a draw knife to smooth down the tops rails.

All in all a very productive day and a nice looking fence in the end.

 Fence Crew with Maintenance Lead Cindy on the left

I took the other crew on what was reported as a 4ft tree down on Meteor Trail about 15 minutes from the top at Middleridge Road.  We headed up Gazos and then took the roller coast called Middlefield Road.  We gathered all the gear and it dawned on me that it only takes about a 1/2 hour to hike the trail especially from the top.  Wonder where the tree really was located.

Many Newts and Banana Slugs were on the upper part of the trail.

What the . . . Yes this huge root ball was right in the middle of the trail and what are we going to do with it?

A couple of us worked on clearing the route up and around the root ball and the rest started on a 11" Tan Oak on the other side.

 

After the Tan Oak and around the corner we came across the report.  Not 4ft but close at 36" Fir. 

  Dale cutting slices

Peter cutting out the slices

Out comes a round and some fun and wonderful log time

Cleared of trip hazards it was easier to get around the root ball and after clearing another 7" Tan the trail was cleared.  Janie earlier walked the rest of the trail and it turned out we were about 2 minutes from No. Escape.  Boy that would have been too easy parking there.  We decided to lug all the gear back up.

 

On the way down we passed this and since we ran out of monkeys we broke out the gorilla

With the rain the mushrooms final emerged as well as wild flowers

 

Redwood Violet

Good days work and we're done for the day.

So both crews were successful and we put in 100 hours.  Thanks to Janie, Dale P., Dale S., Norm, Mike, Peter, Michelle, Francis, Steve, Janette, and new member David.

See you on the trails

Jeff and Mike

Birds of the Day

Pacific Wren

Acorn Woodpecker

Pacific-slope Flycatcher

Purple Finch

Robin

Raven

Hairy Woodpecker

Nuttal's Woodpecker

Warbling Vireo

Dark-eyed Junco, Oregon