Trail work party October 6-9

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balzaccom
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Trail work party October 6-9

Post by balzaccom »

I've agreed to help do some trail work over the weekend of October 6-9 with the USFS in the Mokelumne Wilderness. This is an isolated and rugged area--definitely not for beginners. But it you are interested in joining the fun, drop me a note and I'll put you in touch with the rangers in charge....
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

Post by rightstar76 »

I read your trip report to Summit City Canyon. Very nice photos. Is your group rebuilding the trail or is it mainly brushing and downfall removal?
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

Post by gplhiker »

Hi Rightstar76 --
The plan is to remove much of the deadfall and mark the trail as far south as we can get, but with the amount of debris on the trail between the Horse Canyon junction and Camp Irene, it will probably be very slow progress. This entire area is in the Mokelumne Wilderness, so all work has to be done with hand tools. That definitely slows the progress down, so the more people who can help, the better. We are just crossing our fingers for good weather!
Greg
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

Post by rightstar76 »

I think it's terrific what your group is doing. I might join and help out next year. Too bad the event isn't this weekend because the weather is going to be great. Do you have a web site or Facebook page for the volunteers? I googled for it and I got a whole bunch of web pages with events from the past several years but nothing current.
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

Post by gplhiker »

Hi again --
I have actually been tagged by the group to work on updating their Mokelumne Volunteer website sometime in the next couple months because as you saw they haven't done anything with it for awhile and one of my volunteer 'friends' (ha ha) let slip that I do web development. I'm not sure when I'll get to it, because as you mentioned the weather is so nice right now I spend a lot of my free time in the mountains! Please don't hesitate to check in with us... we didn't have very good participation the volunteer program this year. Only three of us did any trail scouting, reporting and maintenance outside of the ranger-scheduled work days.
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

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I'm back from a three day trip to Summit City Canyon with a trail work party. Spectacular weather and a group of really nice guys made this a real pleasure.

I began by leaving Napa at a little before 5 a.m. to get to the trailhead in time to meet the group, At about 9:30 the first team hit the trail, while others stayed behind to load up the mules with the heavy lifting: tools for the trail. My little group of three split up at the Horse Creek Trail junction, when Greg headed back over the ridge to take care of his ailing wife. Dave and I continued down for another mile or so and set up camp. By the time we had the tents up, the pack team arrived, and everyone else got there soon after to join us for lunch.

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By 1:30 we were at the first major obstacle of the trail: a massive tree that blocked things from the far side of the river to the granite cliffs on the other side of the trail. And since the only way to get past it was to get on your hands and knees and crawl under it, this one had to go. Ranger Chip had been there some weeks before, but had been unable to cut through the monster. In fact, he'd had to leave two wedges stuck in place in the saw cut. The damn tree was still alive, with some of its roots drawing water from the creek, and the wood expanded around every cut and wedge.

So we set to work. The buck saw would bind up completely after a few strokes, despite the wedges we were pounding into the cut. We cut from below, then we started another cut on the other end to reduce the tension, and final hacked out the wedges and Chip and I began a second cut parallel to the first one, whacking out the material between the two cuts with a small saw and a hatchet. Bear in mind that all of this was done with hand tools, as any engine is prohibited in the Wilderness Area! After a couple of hours, we began to make progress, and finally cut through the first cut.

The tree didn't move.

Now we started on the second cut, with Tom and Dave pulling much of the work. But now we were able to use the wedges with some effect, and about 4 p.m. we finally cut through on the second side. The middle section was now held up by the branches we had propped under it, and with a few whacks we dropped it to the ground.

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With much heaving and hollering, we slowly inched it up onto a smaller branch, rotated it, and rolled it off to the side of the trail. After that, it was back to camp for a well-deserved rest and dinner.

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It was a beautiful evening, with fall colors all around, but after dark the temperature dropped quicker than that big log, and we were in bed soon after.

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The next day we left our camp and headed down the trail for more fun. This time it was a large aspen that had fallen almost directly on the trail. And while the tree was smaller, it was lower to the ground and still green. Tom, Dave and I sawed away on it for more than an hour before we finally cut it through on both ends, and then maneuvered it off the trail. Chip had gone farther down the trail to scout out our next project: a maze of trail braids through the jungle of ferns above the first crossing. He arrived just in time to see us polish off the aspen.

From there is was a short walk down to the ferns, where the trail had become quite confused due to a large tree blocking the route. We used a Macleod, a shovel, some loppers and lots of hard work to mark the best trail through, and then lined it with larger branches to make sure it was easy to see. By the time we had done this in two different sections of the trail, it was lunch time.

Meanwhile, Mark and Greg got off to a late start, but hiked past us to head down to the second crossing to get to work down closer to the Mokelumne River.

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After lunch our team hiked down to within a mile of the second crossing, hitting the trail with the Macleod from time to time, lopping off a few branches, kicking bigger logs out of the trail, and occasionally restacking a cairn for better visibility.

We stopped at a glorious granite plateau by the creek, refilled out water bottles, and started to hike uphill back to camp. On the way back Tom, who had never been down the canyon before, led the way so that we could get a fresh pair of eyes on the trail. We found a few places where it wasn't clear, and did what we could to mark it better.

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Chip raced down to chat with Mark and Greg below, and then joined us in camp for the second night's dinner. It was another stunning evening in the wilderness.

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On day three Tom and Chip were going to hike down and join Mark and Greg, while Dave and I hiked out. But we weren't done with our work detail. We took the post hole digger along for the ride, so that we could dig new holes for two of the posts that Chip was having brought in by mule that day.

The first one, at the junction of the Horse Creek Trail, was a cakewalk. Dave wiggled it a bit and pulled the old pole neatly out of the perfectly preserved post hole. It took all of thirty seconds, and we were a bit gleeful about that.

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(You may remember that sign post from our trip report a month ago.)

But the second post hole, at the junction with the Fourth of July Lake Trail, was not so much fun. It had broken off right at the ground, and as we dug a new hole we discovered that the old hole had been packed with rocks to hold the post tight. They worked, and so did we, digging it out one rock at a time. But after twenty minutes of combined sweat, David and I declared the second post hole dug, and left the tool beside the trail for the mules to collect. Our work was done.

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We hiked out and made the trailhead by noon, and I managed to get back to Napa through the stunning aspen trees around Carson Pass by 4 p.m. As I drove into town I noticed a fire burning in the grasslands by the airport south of town. Later that night, Napa would be surrounded by fires on three sides, with blustery winds blowing them quickly across the landscape. Our own home only suffered a light coating of falling ash, but our more rural neighbors found themselves in dire straights. We can only hope the easing of the winds will make controlling the fires possible today.
Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-R ... 0984884963
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

Post by rlown »

balzaccom wrote:
We hiked out and made the trailhead by noon, and I managed to get back to Napa through the stunning aspen trees around Carson Pass by 4 p.m. As I drove into town I noticed a fire burning in the grasslands by the airport south of town. Later that night, Napa would be surrounded by fires on three sides, with blustery winds blowing them quickly across the landscape. Our own home only suffered a light coating of falling ash, but our more rural neighbors found themselves in dire straights. We can only hope the easing of the winds will make controlling the fires possible today.
I woke up at 2am in Petaluma and thought my wife was cooking bacon or something. 35,000 acres in and around Santa Rosa burned. Can't see Sonoma Mountain still and lots of houses/businesses just gone.

Nice Trial work report! I think it's about time to use chainsaws for the work. Faster, more efficient and more can be done in less time. I'd put up with the noise as it makes the trail better for future hikers.
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balzaccom
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

Post by balzaccom »

Yeah--Napa is getting hammered by these fires. I'm OK in downtown, but lots of our more or less rural friends are suffering. We expect to have some of them as house guests tonight...
Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-R ... 0984884963
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

Post by LonePine »

Great report and let's hope the fires are contained soon. I use an electric battery driven chain saw and it's fantastic. Would that be allowed in the wilderness areas? It's very quiet. If so, I may join you on your next party. Also have a battery driven hedge trimmer that takes out pretty good sized vines.
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Re: Trail work party October 6-9

Post by balzaccom »

I don't think any motorized devices are allowed....although there are always exceptions for one reason or another.
Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-R ... 0984884963
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