May 2011: RDO

First I would like to pass on an appreciation from Kevin Williams from last month.

Hi Jeff and crew,

As always, the volunteer crew amazes me with the spirit and work accomplished each month in the Santa Cruz Mountain parks. It has been a real help so that others can enjoy the trails and sights safely! Kudos again for all the winter storm repairs removing tree falls, repairing smashed bridges, and rerouting trails around thousand year old trees that fell down!!

Thank you on behalf of the people of California, the park staff, and California State Parks!

Let me know if there is anything we can do to help.

Kevin

This month we headed to the coast this time out. Rain was in the forecast but all we had were clouds.

We met at the RDO HQ and Marti set us to work. A Scrub Jay welcomed us as well as a number of other birds.

Our first project was Twin Redwood camp grounds. There was a large 3 foot diameter oak down through campsites 5 and 6. I worked on the trail while Peter tackle the top of the tree.

There was a lot of work done on bring the sites up to standard. But the biggest effort was finding a place for all the limbs and stuff from the limbing of the oak.


We put in posts for campsite location markers and directions. Once again it amazes me what volunteers in number can do.



We moved the larger sections to the campsite to make a comfortable place to sit for the visitors.

The next job was to clean up Alder campsite. This job was to create a campsite and to take down the grass. We planned a few post and ended the day.



We had 9 members out and a special thanks to Roger, Gene, Janette, Fran, Tim, Peter, Mike, and Tom. Next month the plan is to head back out to RDO since Marti has offer up a BBQ. We should respond in kind with an offering of a pot luck dish.

Here's another thanks to the trail crew.

HEY MIKE,

WANTED TO THANK YOU AND THE CREW FOR A GREAT JOB TODAY. YOU GUYS ROCK! i AM LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTHS BAR-b-QUE.

THANKS AGAIN. MARTI

See you on the trails

Jeff

April 2011: STS and Meteor

It was impressive that we had 13 crew members out again for our April trail work day. There were so many trees down that we split up into 2 crews. Dale lead one to cover the reported down trees around HQ, Dool, and Meteor trails. Most were taken care of except a large Madrone that fell right on the trail. There was a lot of clearing of branches to open that trail.

I lead the second crew on the Berry Creek Falls inner loop (not an official name) covering Sunset to Timm’s Creek then back on STS to the connector. Some of you have done this loop many times and know it’s not easy 5 mile loop. Francis and I would worked ahead of the main crew clearing the large obstructions leaving anything less than about 6 inches for hand saws with Francis reminding me that “there are bigger fish to fry” when I would stop for a small obstruction.

One obstruction that did require a chainsaw was a fir the fell onto a bridge basically destroying it. After clearing the fir off the bridge Francis used nails pulled from some of the boards to stabilize the crossing although it was still pretty shaky.

We had lunch at the Timm’s Creek trail junction and continue on removing 6-8 obstructions with hand saws and 8 oak and 2 fir up to 15” with a chainsaw.

The wildflowers were numerous with the redwood sorel in bloom atop a downed redwood.

It was a good day with a real sense of accomplishment and we put in a good 8 hour day and many thanks to Janette Mello, Roger Miller, Gene Nelson, Janie Leifhelm, Bill Leifhelm, Michele Estrin-Gelblum, Peter Gelblum, Michael Ishaq, Dale Petersen, Fran Loop, Francis Padilla, and Norm Beeson. With us 1/3 into the year we are at 345 volunteer hours and on our way on beating last year’s record (at least since I’ve been keeping track).

See you on the trails

Jeff

March 2011: Lasr Chance Trail

There were 13 crew members out in March to work on the Last Chance trail where we did a lot of brushing and even used a weed whacker all day. This is a very little used trail but it runs along the West Waddell creek and is very beautiful and a pretty good birding area. Heard and saw one Pacific Wren who wasn’t too happy with us working in her home.

I was clearing the trail with Francis ahead of the main group looking for the large items so I mostly saw the before picture. On the way back it was such a noticeable improvement. It reminded me of the trail we put in when Sempervirens Fund purchased the Lompico watershed property. I was marking the trail all day and when I was finished and was returning there was a trail that looked like it was there for some time.

We only made it to the creek crossing since the creek was running fast and was above the rocks. We still put in a good 8 hour day and many thanks to Janette Mello, Roger Miller, Gene Nelson, Janie Leifhelm, Mike Peasland, Fran Loop, Francis Padilla, Josh Rile, Loren Edwards, Jennie Odryna, Gary Edwards, and Tim Hoge.

See you on the trails

Jeff