Trail Crew Cleans Up Creekside

The SCTC’s trail stewards, ably led by Tim Mayer, descended on Shiloh Ranch Regional Park’s Creekside Trail for two days of great work. On May 1, we tackled a pair of eroded sections that we discussed during last year’s trail stewardship training, as well as some smaller sections with ruts and berms.  For the largest section, the crew removed a stump at the top of a short, steep grade and dropped the overall  grade of the trail down over a 20 foot stretch to reduce erosion.

The problem -- a mudhole where the trail approaches the bridge. Our plan -- put in a French drain and build the trail up with crushed rock.

The crew returned on May 8 to address a boggy stretch just east of the bridge. Though the soil was now fairly dry, water seeping from the hillside where the trail passes across the nose of a small ridge had made the area difficult to traverse much of the winter. We installed a French drain above the trail to capture  seepage and installed a turnpike with gravel on the trail itself. Regional Parks staff delivered a motorized compactor to make sure the new material would stand up to horse traffic — the old boot tool (or hand compactor) don’t cut it when there will be immediate heavy use.

At the end of the day, we had a great looking stretch of hardened trail and it should keep the trail more passable next winter and beyond. Thanks, trail crew!

The finished product

See additional photos from Tim Mayer