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

Join volunteers from the Rock Ice & Mountain Club, and REI from 10am-2pm on May 22, 2010 with much needed service projects such as trail maintenance, trash clean up and fence repair work. Parking is limited,  so please carpool to the parking lot on Hwy 29 and join us afterward for a raffle and BBQ. Contact Harrison Hood at 707-217-4730. For more information, see the Rock Ice & Mountain Club site.

In partnership with: The Access Fund, REI and Hood Mountain Adventures.

Sponsored by: Calistoga Roasters, Calistoga Water, Marmot, Lagunitas Brewery and Trinchero Family Estate Wine, LowePro, CamelBak.

Contact:  Tim Mayer 707-528-8089, email allwet@sonic.net

The Sonoma County Trails Council and Sonoma County Regional Parks Department need your help to complete some trail repairs in Shiloh Ranch Regional Park.  We will work on two consecutive Saturdays (May 1 and May 8) to repair some sections of the Creekside Trail.  This one of the best hiking trails in the park, but it needs some work.

On May 1 we will work on two sections that are too steep and narrow.  We’ll widen the trail and reduce the grade so that the trail won’t be a slippery mess in the rainy season.

On May 8 we will fix a mudhole where the trail approaches a foot bridge.

Come join us on either day, or on both days.  No experience is necessary.  We’ll provide the tools and instruction.  If you would like to help out please RSVP, and I will send you additional information.   Feel free to call or email if you have any questions.

Contact:  Tim Mayer 707-528-8089, email allwet@sonic.net

• Saturday, April 17: Maxwell Farms Regional Parks Stewardship. Earth Day creek cleanup. Contact Mallory with questions 343-5221 or maldavenport@comcast.net
• Thursday, March 18th: Hood Mountain Regional Park
• Saturday, March 27th: Hood Mountain Regional Park

April

• Saturday, April 3rd: Hood Mountain Regional Park
• Thursday, April 8th: Hood Mountain Regional Park
• Tuesday, April 27th: Hood Mountain Regional Park

May

• Tuesday, May 4th: Hood Mountain Regional Park
• Thursday, May 13th: Hood Mountain Regional Park
• Saturday, May 22nd: Hood Mountain Regional Park

June

• Saturday, June 5th – National Trail Day: Hood Mountain Regional Park

Hood Mountain workdays notes from Dave Chalk: All workdays are from 9am to 1pm. Most of the upcoming workdays will focus on finishing off the Merganser pond backpacking sites. Once those are completed we will move up and over the mountain to the second backpacking site located at Azalea Creek. This backpacking site has been around since the 1970s but hasn’t been open to the public since the 80s. It won’t need anywhere near the work put into Merganser. It’s basically all set to go with just a couple of workdays needed to spruce it up. Contact John Ryan (565-3356) for more information.

Directions: Meet in the Pythian Road parking lot (1450 Pythian Road) for all Hood Mountain workdays.

May

• Saturday, May 1 & 8: Creekside Trail maintenance, Shiloh Regional Park. In the first part of this two-day project, we’ll rebuild a steep and entrenched section, as well as several other problem areas. On our second day at Shiloh, we plan to build a causeway on the upper approach to the bridge to reduce erosion and make the trail more usable year round. Workday will be from 9am to 2pm. Meet at Shiloh parking lot, 5750 Faught Road, Windsor, CA. Contact Tim Mayer for more information or to sign up.
• Saturday, May 15: Helen Putnam Regional Park. Tread maintenance and improvements on Savannah Trail (or other trail TBD). Workday will be from 9am to 2pm. Meet at the parking lot on Chileno Valley Rd. Contact Tim Mayer for more information or to sign up.
  
• Sunday, May 16: Little Black Mountain Celebration: Save the date for a hike and trail celebration on Little Black Mountain, a Sonoma Land Trust property near Cazadero. Be one of the first to explore the trail (recently upgraded by SCTC) to the “Lone Antler Lookout” and experience the unfolding panoramic vista of Sonoma County’s beyond. This is special event open to SCTC and SLT members — a perk since this property is generally not open to the public. For more information or to sign-up, please email Sonoma Land Trust

June

• Saturday & Sunday, June 6 & 7: Pickin’ at the Point 2010. We return to Salt Point for a weekend project. We expect to work on the Stump Beach Trail and more. Free camping available for all volunteers — additional details TBA. Contact Rob Helms to sign up or for more info.
• Sunday, June 12: Americorp Trail, Sebastopol’s Laguna de Santa Rosa Preserve. Clear blackberries, willow and debris to reopen this trail near downtown Sebastopol. Details TBA. Contact Geoffrey Skinner to sign up for more info.

This is the trail project SCTC worked on last year (under contract).This is our chance to get out there and see the product of all that hard work. It’ll also be a good time to catch-up with each other and meet some SLT folks. This is special event open to SCTC and SLT members — a perk since this property is generally not open to the public. For more information or to sign-up, please email Sonoma Land Trust

Completed causeway

Thanks to the great efforts of Tim Mayer and the State Parks staff, we successfully repaired a portion of the Spring Creek Trail located about one half mile up from the Spring Creek/Canyon trail intersection. For this project, completed the weekend of Oct. 31/Nov. 1, we built two sections of causeway to elevate the trail through particularly muddy spots. Over the course of the two days, a dozen volunteers prepared the trail bed with McLeods and mattocks, laid down geotextile to prevent materials from sinking into the muck, and moved rock and tread mix in wheelbarrows to create the raised surface before a final compaction.

A few large boulders hid under the tread with only a small portion cropping out — a few volunteers valiantly excavated and moved them out of the way. The other challenge was the amount of traffic on the trail while we worked, which had the benefit of forcing the crew to take frequent breaks.

Check out the rest of Tim’s photos from the project, then take a ride, hike or run to see the finished project. The causeways are located about 1/2 mi. south of the intersection of Spring Creek and Canyon trails; they are roughly 100 yards north of the Ilsanjo spillway drainage.

This summer we hauled rock and tread mix up to the project site, so some of the heavy work has already been done.  Now we would like to get together a crew of 6 or 8 to actually build the project.   The work will consist of preparing the trail bed with McLeods and mattocks, moving rock and tread mix in wheelbarrows for a short distance (50 to 100 feet, generally downhill), placing materials (fabric, border rocks, drain rock, and tread mix), and finally compacting the surface.  We plan to begin work on Saturday, October 31.  This trail is gets a lot of use, and we don’t want to leave the project unfinished, so those who can will work on Sunday, Nov 1 as well.

If the weather doesn’t cooperate for the 31st or 1st, we’ll try again the following weekend, Nov. 7th and/or 8th.

Leader for this project is Tim Mayer. Please contact Tim directly to sign up for either (or both) days.