Sunday, February 20, 2011

Bluebird Day On La Cumbre Peak- Santa Barbara's Snow, 2/20/11

Cathedral (Arlington) Pk, Santa Barbara Harbor, & Santa Cruz Island
La Cumbre Peak Lookout
Santa Barbara Harbor Snowcapped Panoramic

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Tunnel Trail Blizzard Photos- 2/19/11

Yes it snows in Santa Barbara. OK the mountains of Santa Barbara but who's counting. Tunnel Trail and the rest of the Front Country range got dusted with a few inches of snow down to about 3000ft today. Below are some photos taken on Tunnel Trail while surveying trail damage from recent storms. So far the trails are intact but muddy.....and snowy. -D


Snow On Santa Barbara's Mountains- Taken From Tunnel TH
Upper Tunnel Trail- A Winter Wonderland
Yes it's that Tunnel Trail

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Interactive Trail Maintenance Map- The Future Of Trail Maintenance Has Arrived

The idea behind this map was to create something that would be easy for people to use, inexpensive to make, and allow all trail volunteers and agencies to see current trail maintenance needs. This map, as the title says, is interactive. Any piece of info including photos or descriptions can be inserted into the symbols; double clicking will activate this information and display it on the screen. Clicking on a given trail also gives information about current trail conditions and previous maintenance. This is very useful to keep track of areas needing work.

From beginning to end this project provided challenges that needed to be overcome. The trick was to develop a set of symbols that were easily recognizable to represent features that people often perform trail maintenance on. Because this had not been done before, questions like "what should a waterbar (WDF) symbol look like?" had to be answered. Once the symbols were created, the next trick was to get them into the GPS unit and on the internet to be displayed on Google Earth. More time was actually spent on the computer processing the files than on the trails collecting the data.

The possibilities for the use of these new handheld GPS devices are endless. What used to be only possible with hugely expensive, complicated units and highly trained technicians are now doable with inexpensive GPS units ($300 in this case) and by the average trail user. Please visit our homepage to view the current ITM Map kmz file.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Jesusita Berm Busting Photos 2/5/11

If you use Jesusita Trail in the near future and wonder, "why does the trail seems like it is in such good shape?!" Don't wonder why any longer. It was all made possible due to the hard work of Steve, Joani, Corey, Steve, Wayne, and Dave. We went out with the idea of busting some berms and were challenged by the biggest, meanest, deepest entrenched section of trail. Lot of dirt was moved and now instead of being an area where people want to avoid at all costs after a rain event, they will look forward to walking or riding right on through.

We also managed to repair the long neglected "first switchback" at the creek crossing, making it wider and better than it has been in a number of years.


The Crew: Steve, Joani, Corey, Steve, Wayne, Dave

"The" section from below
"The" section from above







Working on switchback #1

Better than ever!