National Trails Day, June 6th 2015, Romero Canyon Trail

Special thanks to the agencies and all the volunteers who helped make National Trails Day on Romero Canyon a success!  Lots of work was completed opening up trail narrow by slough, slides, and brush.  In addition, long lost water drainage features were reinstated, and short cuts were eliminated.

The volunteers gathered at the trail head

Steve, Jim, and Mitch removing slough and brush 

After, the trail as it should be

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Jesusita Fire - 3 Years Later, The Recovery Continues

Volunteers rake ash and "dry ravel" off of Tunnel Trail in June of 2009

Same Location, 4/2012

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State Trails Day 2012, San Antonio Creek Trail

A group of 20 + volunteers showed up for State Trails Day 2012 held this year held on San Antonio Creek Trail.  The event focused on brush removal and repairing water drainage features on this great trail.  SB County Parks along with City of SB, SBMTV, SB County Outdoor Foundation, and ourselves all participated.

The group preparing to depart from Tuckers Grove Park

Chris Orr and Stephan compacting wet soil

Curt Cragg of SBCOF taking pix

Some of the 6 women representing this day

Corey Anderson talks with Mandy from SB City Parks

Kevin finishes off a water drainage feature

Stephan and Lauren  finishing a rolling grade dip

Mark Guy from SB County Parks

The mini excavator opening up a culvert to prevent water from entering the trail

Ocean view from upper SACT

John and Roberta standing on their proud new WDF

Before- note the water running down the trail has created a small rut

After- this water drainage feature will prevent further rutting

Cold Spring Trail Care Day A Success- 4/30/11

Before

After

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National Trails Day Report and Photos

It was a beautiful sight to see so many cars pour into Skofield Park this past Saturday AM. You always wonder if the turnout is going to be enough to get the goals accomplished. In this case the turnout was so great just about every last tool available was being used. The main objective of the day for the 100 or so volunteers would be to clear a shale like material or "dry ravel" covering the trails and repair water drainage structures in preparation for the upcoming rains.

The crew of 14 I led was dropped off at the bottom of Tunnel Trail and we worked on Tunnel between the trail head and Rattlesnake Connector. It is extremely tiring work cleaning a trail following a fire. Beneath piles of rubble lies the trail, getting to the trail required pulling tons of this shale material and rock from above the trail to prevent future slides and then off the trail itself. Most of this work is accomplished by using Mcleods, which is a tool that was invented for wild land firefighting but has become a staple in trail building. Vegetation that was lost in the fire clearly had a huge role in the stability of these hillsides. My hat goes off to the 14 who helped on Lower Tunnel and the other 80+ volunteers that worked on Upper Tunnel, Jesusita, Rattlesnake, and Cold Springs- all trails effected by the Jesusita Fire.

We were proud to participate in this event sponsored by the USFS, City, and County who did a excellent job of organizing it. The agencies told the crowd at the beginning of this event what factors are going to be taken into consideration before re-opening the Front Country Trails damaged by the Jesusita Fire. They included a re-evaluation of the trails to determine the safety of the trails and further maintenance, whether or not a "hydromulch" is to be used on the burnt hillsides, and respect and privacy of the homeowners near the trail heads who are still trying to recover from this fire.

Thanks to all that showed up and helped out at this event, below are some photos from the crew working on Lower Tunnel Trail. Dave on behalf of the MTC.

The Crew(still clean)

Uncovering a Switchback

Shale Removal

Shale Covered Section- Before

Shale Covered Section-After

One Of The Few Plants That Survived- Yucca

Creating Dust

The Crew(dirty)

Uncovering Trail

Hiking Towards Rattlesnake

Lot's of Work

The Trail is Under There Somewhere

One Of The Worst Sections On Tunnel

The View

Creating Water Control Structures

One of Many Sections of Trail That Was Damaged

Rattlesnake Connector

Heading Into Rattlesnake Canyon

View From Rattlesnake

Rattlesnake Meadow