MAR 2016 - 2 Crews Part II

Rain usually brings out the crew and in the light rain on the March workday 10 members showed up.  Again we had enough members to split up with Norm taking on and I took another.

Norm: Our merry band, consisting of Curt, Kurt, Dale S. Dale P., David P., & I, headed up the Sequoia Trail looking for our 24" tree.  About a quarter of the way up we found a 20"ish Madrone that was totally blocking the trail.  Dale P. used his chain saw for the big stuff & we lopped & hand sawed the rest.  There was quite a lot of water running down the cleared trail so used 4-5' long Madrone branch to create a water bar to shunt the water down into a drainage.  Kurt walked up the trail to 236 & found no further stuff.

We drove out to the kiosk on N. Escape and headed up Hollow Tree Trail, looking for the 3 trees in Curts' pictures.  We came across a small Doug fir not on our list and took care of it.  Hiking further up we came upon Curts' 3 trees - already cut and cleared!!  We headed back down HTT to the cars, and did a little clearing of small stuff on the way back to HQ.  Dale S. & I went in the office where we noticed on our map a post it about an 18" tan oak behind the campfire center and walked over to check it out.  It's leaning across the access road, several feet off the ground and we agreed it was a bit too much for the two of us.  Thankfully we didn't really get rained on until we we were done!  Not a great day but a good one!

Dale S: We started off driving out North Escape Rd. to Sequoia Trail, after a short hike we found a Madrone tree patiently waiting for us

With a few precise cuts with his saw, Dale P. and the rest of us had the tree cleared in no time.

Next we were off to Hollow Tree Trail were we found

A few more saw cuts and we ended with this

Our final stop on Hollow Tree Trail was some saw dust. Apparently a Parks crew got to our destination first.  So just on account of because, we did a little clearing of North Escape Rd. on our way back, including a spot marking X.

We left just a slash

Jeff: I took Mike, Jan, Janie, Janette, and David B. to do the Sequoia Eastridge loop.  I guess the rain was on our side of the park but it was light and after we ended the day it started to rain in for real totaling 4.3" through Sunday.

 

 

The first thing we can across was this 6" Fir

 

Small 6" oak  was quickly cleared

 

At the bridge leading to the Huckleberry Campground a 12" Fir took out some oaks completely closing the access

I would like to thank the wet crew of Norm, Curt, Kurt, Dale S. Dale P., David P., Mike, Jan, Janie, Janette, and David B. for putting in 98 volunteer hours.

See you on the trails

Blog by Jeff, Dale S. and Norm

Photos by Jeff and Dale S.

Birds of the Day

Allen's Hummingbird
Common Raven

Hairy Woodpecker

Pacific Wren

American Robin

Northern Flicker

Acorn Woodpecker

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Dark-eyed Junco

Varied Thrush