Monday, January 17, 2011: Trees and Trails and Thoughts

Monday, January 17, 2011

Trees and Trails and Thoughts


On Saturday 01/15 I had to Coe it alone, I had time to stop and remove some trees in the way. I brought a small sliding Fiskar saw, one of my last. here it is being employed on the Milias Trail on Saturday.



That saw is too small for my tastes now. On top of that, the blade is bent. I sort of straighten it out, but when it heats up, it seems to revert back to the bent state. I'm not going to get another one of these. I'm moving up to a 14" saw from now on. The Sven saw is not my favorite either.



On Willow Ridge Trail there was a pine tree top that had impaled itself into the ground like a dart, an upside down christmas tree.



It was tough to pull it out. then up higher there was a fallen tree trunk, which was easy to roll off.



To tell the truth, it was nice to have an excuse to get off the bike at that point.



But it got me to thinking about the modes of travel, about what the rider's purpose is, when mountain biking. Most people do not carry saws. A lot of people are interested in making time, or getting somewhere, and I'm like that a lot too. But maybe they are missing something when they see fallen trees as merely inconveniences. There's a story for every fallen tree, and it is fascinating to speculate on the circumstances that led to the fall, and what else happened.



Hoover Lake was full, but not overflowing at the spillway when I got there.




The trail now actually exists, although the section between the pines just west of the dam still looks like no trail is there. But you just can't get lost now.



The trail immediately off of Willow Ridge Road is bumpy at first, but it is actually really fun, and the reversals, on this downhill direction are pumpable. Very cool. The Pliny shrine is all gone.



Now we get to enjoy this excellent route to the lake and stay high and dry out of the mud and water.



It is good to see this pond so full this early in the year. I'm glad we trimmed this pine too.



The switchbacks have been packed down by the rain and were already quite firm.



Hopefully some herbs will take up residence around here. It is a good place for poppies. But it is a parched and hot place in the summer.



On the Milias trail I checked out the go-around and log-over I made this summer when a huge oak fell across the trail just at the bottom of the final steep half-pipe section.



Then just below that there are two trenches dug by the former resource ecologist (he has since quit the DPR) which were cut with complete disregard for trail users, like bike riders. Last summer I modified the shape to permit riding this section. [I do have pics somewhere of the way this looked before, and I ought to post them here at some point.]



It was good. The RE was right though. There is a flash gully here which must drain a wide area of mountain top, and evidence of a large aount of water drainage from the recent rains showed that the drains were working.



There was a new pine tree across the trail not too far down from there (sawn through in first photo). And it was removed.



On Cross Canyon Trail there is a huge fallen live oak across the road bed.



I trimmed out a way to stoop underneath and roll your bike through.



On Sunday I saw volunteer Tom Conrad on the Grizzly Gulch Trail and he reported that the tree on Grizzly just above the gully crossing below the Cullen Trail had been removed. Did one of the CMBP do it? I didn't.

Edit:

Diesel was in the park today and took a photo of the tree cut on Grizzly Gulch just mentioned. Diesel sent this photo:



That looks pretty nasty for a mountain bike. I hope to head up there on Weds and finish it off. I have to admit it was pretty lame of me to not go up there and hack at that limb on Sunday. I was so close. Yet, I had decided I needed to focus on one thing only. I want to test the culvert section on a bike too.

See this entry for the remediation:

http://henry-w-coe-bike-patrol.blogspot.com/2011_01_21_archive.html
(end edit)


Well, the trees never stop falling out there. it is truly the gift that just keeps giving as Plymmer is fond of saying.

Sunday, January 16, 2011: Rocking Grizzly Gulch

Sunday, January 16, 2011 at 10:57 PM

Rocking Grizzly Gulch
This blog has moved to:

http://henry-w-coe-bike-patrol.blogspot.com/

I slept until 8:30am this Sunday; tired from the Saturday bike patrol ride. Thought I would ride in Henry W Coe and do a little trail maintenance. I needed to inspect my bike closely in the morning. Towards the end of Saturday it wasn't running right. I notice one of the two main pins that hold the derailleur parallelogram together had almost backed out completely.



Well that sucks! Probably lucky I finished the ride yesterday. At least I have a new XTR derailleur for the bike already. But I want to rebuild the whole bike again. It needs love. So I just went to do trail work alone. It was good not to bring a bike, in the end, because the trail work took all the time I had.

I got to the Canada Station just before noon. Opened the gate, and I drove into the park and parked at the turn-around at the bottom of Spike Jones. Libby's GMC Jimmy was there too. (It was gone when I left.) I hiked up Grizzly Gulch Trail, across the creek, and then stopped just above the rock culvert.



My tools: mcleod, d-handle spade shovel, light ash handle cutter mattock, polish trench spade, pin flags, chalk, level. Also took a small red cone to alert any riders coming down of something going on. Only one rider came by. It was sunny and warm; only one rider?



I knew what I wanted to do, and realized it was ambitious. I kept at it, and made rapid progress, jogging around instead of walking when I needed to fetch something, and just went to town.

Looking down.



Looking up:



Upon inspection I determined that the main problem was from water delivered to this section from a very effective drain on the next section of trail above. I would have to divert this drain water before I left. I ended doing that hastily in the near dark at the end of the day. The drained water had smoothed down the grass and made it look like people or deer had been shortcutting the trail. But it was just storm run-off that did it. The run-off was hosing this fragile section of trail. (Note to self: consider downhill consequences of drains.)

The drain from the switchback above:



The drainage ditch diversion:



[This drainage diversion ditch is not a "final solution" and represents a disappointment and a compromise. It will silt up in one season. There's a lot of history behind the work in this area of the trail. I continue to learn a lot from the school of hard knocks, I hope. A tremendous amount of water barrels down from the stacked turn above and the hillside above during episodic downpours of rain. What I propose for the future is to direct this drainage to inside of the trail and right into the throat of the the upper stone culvert. This would make a natural flow. But right now, the rest of the section still needs fine tuning and testing for durability.]



The work at hand immediately was to fix the erosion gutter and make the trail better. I set out to restore and close the straight-line descent bike line first. Now I had to finish something. Then I prepared to build a retaining wall to support a mildly insloped berm to support a wider arcing tread of a shallow turn. This was the hardest part. I carried a lot of rock and placed as carefully and swiftly as I could.










The retaining wall-berm, came out pretty good. If that wasn't ambitious enough, the next to do was fix the drainage gutter so that you could ride and hike across it. I wanted to make another variation on the rock culvert theme. It was getting towards dark soon as I was nearing completion of this piece of work. I was forced to improvise quickly.











That's the last photo I took. Another thing I did, which isn't in the photo, on a part of the trail in the last photo, is the bottom left area. Here there is grass growing out of a heavily rock armored section (installed like six years ago by me) which was supposed to be a place to descend on a bike. It was used for a while, but as soon as the straight-line run was enabled, this crescent went unused. I hoed the grass down and raked all the detritus up and threw it up on the hillside where I had harvested the soil for the berm. I also widened the trail above the original rock culvert on the uphill side to suggest a crescent to turn on. You can see the flags indicating this idea in some of the earlier photos. I pulled all the flags and took them home, except for some marking the entrance to this section, to let riders know that something has changed here.

Well, I think it looks a little better than before. It should hold up in a rain okay for a while. It should be fun to ride. It takes skill to go fast, and locking the rear brake is a dumb thing to do here. one thing for certain, it is much better to walk up and down now. I wanted to put in some steps just above the new rock culvert on the downslope side, but I ran out of time. Seeing how the original rock culvert is still standing strong, emboldened me to build another one. Time will tell. At least there a lot of rock to work with for future repairs.

Yes, we've considered rerouting the trail to the downslope side to reduce grade. The reason why I've not done this before the rock culvert, was that technically it would need permissions, it would bring the edge of the trail closer to the cliff, it would skirt just above an active landslide and it's days would be numbered, the steep section is a valuable challenge on this downhill for riders, the steep section is quicker for hikers, the trail is already located here, it is fun to see what you can do here with trail work.

I look forward to the chance to check out my work!



Comments (2)
Comments:

#2Re: Rocking Grizzly Gulch
You've had that 2nd rock culvert on your mind for at least a year, must be satisfying to finally complete it.

///Charlie
Comment by Skyline35 on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 07:08 AM


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#1Re: Rocking Grizzly Gulch
Looks awesome. That's a lot of work to excavate and place all of those rocks. Looking forward to checking it out!

-D
Comment by Diesel~ on Monday, January 17, 2011 at 06:53 AM

Saturday, January 15, 2011: No Balloons

Saturday, January 15, 2011

No Balloons

I decided to Coe it alone. I went balloon hunting, and got skunked. But that's the way it is sometimes when you are after big game like balloons.

[Most of us are familiar with the phenomenon of feral mylar balloons coming to their final resting place somwhere in the mountains. These airborne emmisaries of greetings past represent a serious contribution of unwelcome trash in Henry W Coe State Park. A steady trickle of birthdays, and seasonal mass releases of Mother's Day and Graduation etc. balloons rain upon Coe Park. It seems there are vorticies within the park determined by prevailing winds interacting with topography, where balloons may be found, gassed out, and laying upon the hills and amongst the foliage of oaks, pines, and brush. One of the spoken missions of the patrol person in the park is to seek and retrieve these balloons for disposal.]



This was actually my first mountain bike patrol ride of 2011. I'd let my fitness slide in the days after Thanksgiving until now. The ride felt difficult for me. And that's another reason why I went alone, so that I could go my own pace, etc. Also, I just wanted to find a little solitude.

Got started as early as I could. Got out of bed at 5:30 am, and needed to work on my bike a bit, service on the main pivot bushings too, so that by the time I got to Coe, it was 8:30 am already. I grabbed a park radio, and did not log in with central until about 9:30, after climbing out of the canyon. It was my first ride with the new patrol long sleeve jersey and the patrol wind breaker. on top of the regular short sleeve jersey, it was the perfect combination for the cool morning.

Rode up Coit Rd to Mahoney Rd, and Lost Spring Trail, to Los Cruzeros. No trees down on the Lost Spring Trail. Great. Someone has improved the drainage a bit at the top of Lost Spring Trail since the last I saw it, and the trail is excellent. I stopped at the spring and checked it out. Just a trickle. I expected a better flow. (Video of peaceful spring below:)



At Los Cruzeros I took a break by the big pools near the step-up trail section and hiked up a small rock knob. I noticed something, probably a person up on top of Poverty Flat Rd across and way up on the other side, and took out my binoculars to see. Yep, and the guy got on his bike and rode down towards me. I ended up seeing him ride across the Coyote Creek (wished I had my camera out), it was so deep it went over his fork stanchions. Not good for the bike. I found another place, and carried my bike.




I rode up Poverty Flat Rd (aka The Magic Carpet) and would have cleaned it, except I screwed up on a little stone, and flipped my front end, and put a foot down. After this climb, I was done for the day, as far as feeling any strength. As expected, later on Willow Ridge, I would have to walk a couple of sections.

So the main planned event of the day was an exploratory look at the Schafer Trail area for a real trail alignment, instead of the ludicrous plummeting route. Yes, a lot of potential, and very very nice prospect.



At the bottom the flare from the sun on the cheap lens of the camera captured the aura of dancing canyon spirits. It was actually startling deep purple experience. There is an ineffable magic in this area. (Not so good video of the crossing:)



I stopped twice on the Willow Ridge Trail climb to pull fallen trees of the trail. It's all open now. The sun was out in strength, and for the first time this year, I was actually hot. I rode south on Willow Ridge Rd, once at the top, and stopped to enjoy a view of the Sierra Nevada. I spent a long time trying to get a photo of this through the binoculars, and this is what I got.



The whole time my companion was the park radio quietly jibber-jabbering about motorcyle accidents in Hollister Hills SRA. The carnage never ends.

At this point I was not sure where I would go next. But I soon realized that I would be able to ride the newly tread benched Hoover Lake Trail that I had organized so much work on in 2010, and also see the lake, and how full it was getting. So I did. I rode up and down it twice and loitered for a lunch break here too.



In honor of Pliebenberg I took a moment to pose for the camera. There were some great mushrooms growing below the sole grey pine on the climb up to the airstrip. That tree is dead. It won't be long until it crashes down. I'll give it a year.



The trail is good! The two switchbacks are totally rideable, just a nice tight arc for the bike, and aren't too easy either. The upper one will have some erosion problems eventually, but that is not a big deal, as the remedies are straight forward.



Next I decided that I would ride down the George Milias Trail, and back up Cross canyon to Willow Ridge Rd, just to see what things are like down there, and check on my trail work there too. It was good too! But there was a good sized tree down on Milias after the trail work section, and I got my saw out. It took a while.



I went out on a knoll along the Milias Trail and found a beautiful big berry manzanita and a nice view, and hung around. There was a pair of big looking hummingbirds and a couple of butterflys, and some bees hanging around the huge manzanita. It was a nice place.



Then on Cross Canyon there is a huge oak down. I'd heard of this one. I got out my saw and cut the branches out and made a way to roll the bike under it and stoop to get by. this took a while as well. This last tree is green oak and at least 2 feet thick. It looks like it might slide down some more too, if the dirt get's wet enough. Otherwise you could dig it out underneath to get more clearance. Sawing through this would need a cross-cut saw or a chainsaw.



By the time I got up to the road again, I needed another break. I was getting pooped out, and needed to eat more, to keep from getting a bonk. The radio traffic reminded me that it was four o'clock already. I hit the trail a 1610. I had decided that I wanted to descend Middle Steer Ridge at the end. The sun sets at 1730 or a bit earlier now, so that meant that I would need to ride express to get there. I was a little concerned for my fitness. Going up Cross Canyon felt hard to me. I was on the come-back trail. But it went by nicely. The views were nice. At Rodeo Pond I saw two mountain bikers. I did not stop because it was getting late. I asked them if they were okay, and they nodded and gave me a thumbs up. It looked like they were going to go down Grizzly Gulch to go out, which is fine, and I figured was just about the same amount of time as what I was going to do. I felt bad that I should have inquired a bit more as I climbed up Steer Ridge Rd.



I cleaned the climb, slowly, and was relieved to know that I would have enough light to enjoy the descent with. I climbed to the summit of Willson Peak and logged off the radio at 1726. On the way there along the ridge, I saw the sun go down as I rode along. It reminded me of the 10ks we've done.



I put on the long sleeve jersey and knee warmers for the descent. However I found the hillside was still warm from the day's sunshine. It was a delight. I hadn't been down this great long descent in a few months. It's a favorite. The bottom section of graded trail I organized to put in for safety is a blast too. I got the the parking lot okay. I walked one of the stream crossings because it was too dark to see, and thought I would've fallen in if I tried to ride it. The water was very cold.



Pretty much night-time when I got to the car. A good day was over.