July 9-10, 2005 - Vicente Flat Trail Logging Project

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Thoughts

Friday, sometimes the stars do line up for you. I had previously decided to leave after work Friday, driving down and sleeping in the car at the trailhead. I'm due off work at 834pm (I drive an electric bus for the San Francisco Municipal Railway),, as I am going over the Union Street hill, a radio announcement comes out: "All 30s and 45s, switchback inbound to outbound at Union and Columbus", this means that I go a few more blocks down the North Beach, turn around and go out to the Presidio terminal and wait for my regular leaving time, skipping the entire downtown segment of the line, except that this is my last trip, so instead of going to the terminal, I turn off a few blocks short of it and take the bus back to the carbarn and go home...45 minutes early. I later find out that it was a bomb scare. I pick up my stuff from home (backpack, toolbag and icechest (oof! all prepacked)) and head to the airport to pick up my rental car. I arrive at the trailhead a bit before 2am and sack out.

Saturday, Mike H. also came down the night before, and we arranged to meet early and start work prior to the published start time (930am), choosing the ungodly hour of 6am. I woke up at 555am and Mike rolled down from his carcamp site a few minutes later. After some preparation, we head up the trail about 7am and clear Log #1, lopping off the projecting stub, and cutting the other chunk in half and rolling it off the trail, after some area brushing we head down towards Log #3, clearing small deadfall obstructing the trail along the way. Crossed a prime example of why the brushing never ends, a scrub oak that had grown a mat of nasty-spiny 6 feet across the trail, that we cleared to bare ground on the survey trip (May 16th) had grown back 24 inches! or about 1/2 inch per day. When we got to #3 it was nearing 9am, so we cached our tools and headed back up, brushing and clearing more deadfall along the way.

We met Jim and Katya P. at the trailhead, arranged our packs and headed back down the trail. At #3 we decided not to clear the main log, settling on trimming all the projecting branches and stubs flush, partly because the main log was loose at the top and probably would have moved and partly because it was getting hot. We stopped for lunch at Log #5. Ice-cold watermelon...always a good idea on a hot day. This whole section of trail, from the road down to Hare Creek is surrounded by encroaching brush and a verdant growth of poison oak in and around the tread. Somehow, I managed to escape infection.

Log #12, despite the fact that the trail is clear, indeed, is clear for pack stock, was one of the least effective efforts on the whole project. This was another long span log across the canyon floor, approximately 30" in diameter, supported 15' north of the trail, and 30' south, with rocks/dirt humps just north and south of the trail. What we did was to cut it once (0:31) just north of the rock on the south side of the trail, then atop the hump north of the trail (0:25), other than a minor end bind after the second cut (which was easily fixed with the axe) the cuts were fairly easy and straightforward. The cut section was then pushed out and rolled partway off the trail. And that is what the situation is now. All of our efforts and time (2:45 overall) did not shift the cut piece off the trail (needs more than 3 people and/or rockbars). Also the stub on the south side of the trail projects into the trail clearance envelope. As a side benefit of our efforts, though, we did remove a foot tall stump in the middle of the tread.

As I see it, we made two major poor decisions (both of which I pushed for), first, we failed to get the Big Picture...that we needed to clear the trail, not just cut the log, second, we tried to minimize cutting. In retrospect, we should have planned on three cuts, the first south of the rock on the south - this would have avoided the end bind, and left that side of the trail entirely clear, the second mid-trail with the same ramp we actually used to clear a moveable chunk, and the last approximately where our actual second cut was. As it is, we need to go back and cut another chunk off the south end, dealing with top bind again (probably another 30 minute cut), and possibly cutting the existing chunk in half so it can be cleared off the trail (also a 30 minute cut). Bottom line: in many cases, an additional cut, even on a large log is faster, easier, more possible and safer than other methods of clearing an obstruction.

That pretty much finished work for the day, Mike and Katya headed down to Vicente Flat Camp to set up camp, while Jim and I cherry-picked a couple of climb-over logs with my small crosscut, reducing those obstacles to step-overs. I stopped at the (second) side stream above Vicente Flat to get water, Mike came back to fill his water there also and made a very welcome offer to carry my daypack back to camp while I carried my water and backpack. The bad news was that someone had already claimed the VWA traditional spot, although, given the size of the camp area, plenty of fine choices remained.

Radio use, coming into Vicente Flat Camp, we were met by a couple backpackers who had a second hand "stuck hiker" report. Score another one for the notorious Middle Fork of Limekiln Creek. Apparently a group of hikers was exploring down the Middle Fork from the Stone Ridge Trail, got to a 15 foot waterfall that stymied them (could go down, couldn't come back up), although they figured they could bypass it on the side of the canyon. While there, they discovered a hiker stuck between that waterfall and another larger one further downstream. They determined that he wasn't injured, and had a few days of food left, turned back and headed out to the Kirk Creek trailhead and Limekiln State Park to report the situation. On their way out they had spoken with the backpackers we were talking to. Since we had the radio, we were able to contact MRD dispatch and pass on the information we had, and perhaps start the ball rolling before the first contacters made it out (expected at the trailhead 45 minutes thereafter).

Given the situation (no injuries, food and gear, near 6pm), we didn't expect any respond Saturday night, Sunday morning, several groups of MCSD S&R (Monterey County Sheriff's Department - Search and Rescue) came down from the Cone Peak Road, accompanied by the the first contacters. Beyond that, we heard no more, presuming that the exit route would be down to the Coast Highway, although when we got to the Cone Peak Road, a couple vehicles and one deputy(?) serving presumably as a radio relay, were present. Incidentally, this was actually our second call to dispatch, earlier, when we were cutting #12, a group of accomplished mountain bikers came down trail, we informed them of wilderness rules, which they didn't seem very concerned about, and eventually called in the situation. My camera, in time lapse mode, managed to catch one of the guys crossing the log.

Back to camp... We ended up at the site just on the south end of the log bridge, location of a rusty old stove in the bushes. A traditional VWA happy hour was indulged in, then when it came to dinner time, Katya informed us that we should put our nasty freeze-dried stuff away and cooked a fine main entree for us. Very few bugs, and temperatures were merely pleasantly cool.

Sunday, we packed up our camp and headed up the trail to Log #18, the 30" tanoak that had so worried me on the survey trip...from the perspective of a few trips, the concern had subsided to "big log, fairly straightforward." Which it was, two cuts, one (0:56) with a bit of top tension (but no bottom bind), then a second cut (0:45) that rolled off (but not away) when Mike was finish-sawing. A bit of leg work, a bit of digging to accomadate a stub, a bit more leg work and the trail was clear. A quick groom job on the trail, and it was lunch time (3:00 total).

We lunched at the flat between Log #17 and #16, a infrequently used campsite, that could be used for future trips. Plenty of flat spots for tents...probably could accomodate nearly a dozen people without difficulty. No watermelon, but we did have pleasant refreshments still cool from the stream storage the night before.

Log #16 lies across the trail just above the lunch site, so we went up to work on that, leaving our packs behind. Fairly difficult log, with a 50 foot span, end to end, and not big enough to get a wedge in before the saw bound up, so everyone's favorite activity, underbucking, was indulged in. After various work, we got the log cut through on both sides, although a minor end-bind kept it from rolling out. At this point, I suggested that now would be a good time to get the packs and move them out of the possible roll zone. When the chunk came free, it did indeed roll over the shrubbery between us and the lunch area, slamming to a stop against a foot diameter redwood, missing becoming a perfect bench for the campsite by rolling a few feet too far...possibly to be remedied in a future trip.

After that, it was just the steep, hot and unpleasant haul out to the Cone Peak Road. Not a fun thing with a heavy pack. My only consolation is that the 6 miles out the other direction would be hot and unpleasant with horrible tread and go on forever. Thank you, I'll take the short sharp pain anytime. A saving grace: the last 1/3-1/2 mile has a more moderate grade (rising to a minor saddle and then dropping to the trailhead). Also, watermelon and cold drinks in the icechest got me to haul ass out the last bit, passing some dayhikers.

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