Trail Tamers at Bastrop State Park (report by Vick Hines, Crew Leader)
The Bastrop State Park project was a great success despite the weather and OU Weekend. We had about 25 folks helping out and put in over 180 hours of trail work. It looks as if we now have a good relationship with BSP, and hope to have other working weekends in the Spring and throughout next year. The following gives the details.
Summary of Trail Tamers work 11/28 - 12/5/09:
Trail Tamer crews worked 179 hours. Social trails located mainly inside PR1A were renaturalized. All other trails were brushed and social trails were renaturalized. Approximately 10 percent of problem slopes on the trail system were graded, side burms removed and drain swales installed. At least 10 creek crossings were cleaned and channelized and crossing aids installed. Two relocations were completed totaling 150 yards of improved trail. Several relocations are recommended for your consideration in addition to currently scheduled relocations.
11/28: 15 volunteers @ 6 hrs ea. = 90 hours
Red, green, white, black trails; renaturalized social trails.
Black Trail; installed drain and burm.
Blue trail E. of power line; Brushing and creek crossings, general trail maintenance, relocation of washed out trail section, renaturalization of old trail,
11/29: 3 volunteers @ 6 hrs ea. = 18 hrs
South Blue trail, Harmon Rd. to power line and Blue north, power line to Harmon, brushing, burm and drains, social trails, campfire debris removal.
11/30: 1 volunteer @ 6 hrs = 6 hrs.
Black trail, burm and drain (removal of concrete pour preventing proper drainage), Grey trail, burm and drains.
12/1: 1 vol @ 5 hrs = 5 hrs
Roosevelt’s Cutoff, brushing; N. Blue trail West to old road, brushing; S. Blue trail W. of Harmon Rd., deadfalls and social trails.
12/2: 1 vol @ 5 hrs = 5 hrs.
N. Blue trail from Harmon Rd. E., brushing and drains.
12/3: 2 vols. @ 5 hrs = 10 hrs.
Blue trail loop E. of power line, 5 creek crossings channelized and rocked, social trails concealed, brushing.
12/4: 2 vols. @ 5 hrs = 10 hr.
N. Blue trail E. of fence line, drains and burms on downslope.
12/5: 7 vols @ 5 hrs = 35 hrs
Green trail, relocated c. 120 yds of trail with dips and drains, relocated trail marker post, renaturalized old trail, channelized and rocked 3 creek crossings, removed debris from creeks.
Suggested Trail Relocations
Blue Loop E. of power line: At the far eastern end, after the southmost creek crossing, the trail is easily confused with a fire break and the approach to the creek crossing is heavily eroded. Recommend a relocation diverging from the existing trail approximately 35 yards west-southwest of current intersection with the fire break and rejoining the existing trail at or near the current creek crossing. This location would permit a lower gradient as it descends to the creek and would avoid confusion with the fire break entirely. Check steps would still be required for the descent.
N. Blue Trail approx. 0.25 to 0.5 miles E. of Gotier Trace Remnant. Several sections of this trail are 0˚ to the slope. Recommend replacing these sections with properly graded side hill segments.
N. Blue Trail, 0.25 mir. W. of Harmon Rd. receives surface and near surface runoff from both Harmon Rd. and an adjacent slope. Recommend relocation up the slope with an undulating side hill trail rejoining the existing trail at the next drainage west.
S. Blue Trail from the power line to 0.25 mi.W. of the power line is 0˚ to the slope and heavily guttered, ending in a poorly drained area that includes the last several yards of the new relocation which diverts the trail from the nearby pond. Recommend constructing a side hill trail from the power line north of the existing trail, intersecting the latest relocation on high ground.
S. Blue Trail from Scout Area to Roosevelt’s Cutoff is heavily guttered due to poor location. Several superior locations are available for each problem segment.
Roosevelt’s Cutoff. The southern 150 yards of the trail are 0˚ to the slope in sugar sand and heavily guttered. Recommend relocation east to rejoin existing trail at next drainage.
Grey Trail, E. of intersection w/ Red Trail is currently down-slope in an old road bed and heavily guttered. Recommend relocation up slope to N. 25 to 50 yards.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Big Bend or Bust!
Trail Tamers experience Big Bend (report by Pat Dixon, Crew Leader)
The Central Texas Trail Tamers visited Big Bend national park Oct 17-24, 2009 to help maintain hiking trails and park features, as well as enjoy the beautiful surroundings. The week was well spent.
This was a personal quest for me. After residing in Texas for over a decade I had not been to Big Bend. It seems every year some conflict arose. This year I finally made it.
I arrived at the park on Sunday Oct 18 and hiked the 5 mile Lost Mine trail, which was well worth the effort. We setup camp later at the Remuda bunkhouse that evening, which is in the Chisos Basin lodging area. Our crew of 13 people had all arrived.
Monday morning we had a safety session with trails crew supervisor Eric Walker. The Friends of Big Bend provided us breakfast at the Chisos Basin lodge. We then set out for some brushing work on the Window trail. We had a nice lunch at the Window which is a waterfall with a precipitous drop.
The following day we split into 2 crews lead by park service representatives. Our crew was lead by Laura Hicks and we went to Pine Canyon to build some erosion mitigation structures. We hiked all the way up to the waterfall for lunch which is a beautiful area. On the way out Jerry Levenson got 2 flat tires. We removed the wheels and left the car behind for the night. The park maintenance shop was able to repair both tires that afternoon.
The other crew lead by Collin Carroll went to the Rio Grande village area to clear brush from the old hotel building at Hot Springs. The vegetation had grown thick around the structure and it took a lot of work to thin out the undesired growth.
On Wednesday the crews returned to the same work assignments. The Pine Canyon crew used cedar logs to build water bars. The weather was great, cool and comfortable with low clouds surrounding Casa Grande and surrounding peaks. The other crew continued work at Rio Grande.
On Thursday the crews returned to there respective places but after lunch the Pine Canyon crew went to Rio Grande to meet with the other crew and have a concluding gathering with Eric Walker. We were given volunteer patches and served cold drinks and Eric complimented us on our work.
Friday was our play day. I did a 15 mile hike on the South Rim loop, which was fantastic. Again the weather was perfect. Other TrailTamers found other diversions. We travelled that evening to Terlingua to have dinner at La Kiva.
We broke camp and departed Saturday morning.
Our cook Martha Spetseris did a great job. Experienced TrailTamers know that the cook is the most important member of the crew and we made it through the week happy and healthy.
We saw quite a bit of wildlife. There were several black bear spottings. We had a crew of javelina visit us one evening at the Remuda. A mountain lion walked past our cook tent one evening. We saw 2 mountain lion crossing a road near Chisos Basin lodging area. We saw a fox on the drive to Terlingua.
In conclusion, we got significant work done which was appreciated by the park service hosts and had a very enjoyable time in the great weather and beautiful surroundings.
Trail Tamer participants:
Pat Dixon (crew leader)
Martha Spetseris (cook)
Tina Drake
Richard Drake
Bill Swaim
Charles Grant
Donald Edson
Dorothy Lay
Jerry Levenson
Lin Risner
Loren Ramshur
Lorenzo Perez
Vick Hines
Photos:
From Jerry Levenson:
Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/pigomatic and look for the folder named "CTTT at BBNP, Oct 2009". When viewing a picture in Flickr, you can hit the "all sizes" button for a larger view.
From Vick Hines:
http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/vickrhines/Big%20Bend%2009/?albumview=slideshow&track=share_email_album_view_click
From Pat Dixon:
Photos and video
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44653950@N00/sets/72157622592627513/show/
Video of Monday morning safety orientation:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44653950@N00/4079730995/
Video of Thursday concluding meeting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44653950@N00/4079756977/
The Central Texas Trail Tamers visited Big Bend national park Oct 17-24, 2009 to help maintain hiking trails and park features, as well as enjoy the beautiful surroundings. The week was well spent.
This was a personal quest for me. After residing in Texas for over a decade I had not been to Big Bend. It seems every year some conflict arose. This year I finally made it.
I arrived at the park on Sunday Oct 18 and hiked the 5 mile Lost Mine trail, which was well worth the effort. We setup camp later at the Remuda bunkhouse that evening, which is in the Chisos Basin lodging area. Our crew of 13 people had all arrived.
Monday morning we had a safety session with trails crew supervisor Eric Walker. The Friends of Big Bend provided us breakfast at the Chisos Basin lodge. We then set out for some brushing work on the Window trail. We had a nice lunch at the Window which is a waterfall with a precipitous drop.
The following day we split into 2 crews lead by park service representatives. Our crew was lead by Laura Hicks and we went to Pine Canyon to build some erosion mitigation structures. We hiked all the way up to the waterfall for lunch which is a beautiful area. On the way out Jerry Levenson got 2 flat tires. We removed the wheels and left the car behind for the night. The park maintenance shop was able to repair both tires that afternoon.
The other crew lead by Collin Carroll went to the Rio Grande village area to clear brush from the old hotel building at Hot Springs. The vegetation had grown thick around the structure and it took a lot of work to thin out the undesired growth.
On Wednesday the crews returned to the same work assignments. The Pine Canyon crew used cedar logs to build water bars. The weather was great, cool and comfortable with low clouds surrounding Casa Grande and surrounding peaks. The other crew continued work at Rio Grande.
On Thursday the crews returned to there respective places but after lunch the Pine Canyon crew went to Rio Grande to meet with the other crew and have a concluding gathering with Eric Walker. We were given volunteer patches and served cold drinks and Eric complimented us on our work.
Friday was our play day. I did a 15 mile hike on the South Rim loop, which was fantastic. Again the weather was perfect. Other TrailTamers found other diversions. We travelled that evening to Terlingua to have dinner at La Kiva.
We broke camp and departed Saturday morning.
Our cook Martha Spetseris did a great job. Experienced TrailTamers know that the cook is the most important member of the crew and we made it through the week happy and healthy.
We saw quite a bit of wildlife. There were several black bear spottings. We had a crew of javelina visit us one evening at the Remuda. A mountain lion walked past our cook tent one evening. We saw 2 mountain lion crossing a road near Chisos Basin lodging area. We saw a fox on the drive to Terlingua.
In conclusion, we got significant work done which was appreciated by the park service hosts and had a very enjoyable time in the great weather and beautiful surroundings.
Trail Tamer participants:
Pat Dixon (crew leader)
Martha Spetseris (cook)
Tina Drake
Richard Drake
Bill Swaim
Charles Grant
Donald Edson
Dorothy Lay
Jerry Levenson
Lin Risner
Loren Ramshur
Lorenzo Perez
Vick Hines
Photos:
From Jerry Levenson:
Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/pigomatic and look for the folder named "CTTT at BBNP, Oct 2009". When viewing a picture in Flickr, you can hit the "all sizes" button for a larger view.
From Vick Hines:
http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/vickrhines/Big%20Bend%2009/?albumview=slideshow&track=share_email_album_view_click
From Pat Dixon:
Photos and video
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44653950@N00/sets/72157622592627513/show/
Video of Monday morning safety orientation:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44653950@N00/4079730995/
Video of Thursday concluding meeting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44653950@N00/4079756977/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
