MJR Trail Crew

Rick, Tam, Chris, John and I arrived at the gate at 8:45 (on time!) and were greeted by most of the group! After hosting the safety meeting, Doug announced the plan for the day: to continue draining and fill in the remaining creek overflow at the 3N93 crossing. We used pickup and work trucks to cart rocks around from other areas of the trail.

At the end of the day, it was almost unbelievable that we completed the job! Trying to do the math, we loaded Kurt with about 2000 pounds per load and hauled 7 loads; Chris hauled roughly 1000 each load; and Karstic hauled about 1000 per load – that is 28,000 pounds (14 tons)! Plus a few more truck loads from others.

The photos say it all… thanks to such a great crew, and Doug for being the trail leader for the day.

5 Hardworking Adopt-A-Trail volunteers; Chuck, Alycia, Doug, Cathy, and Ryan, worked an eleven hour work day on the Holcomb Creek trail moving rocks, mud, and even bigger rocks. The AAT day began with our safety meeting and breifing at the valero market/gas station. We traveled through green valley and stopped at the “west” entrance to 3N93 to check on the fence. We were glad to see the fence was still intact from out previous AAT day two weeks prior. Since Ryan had managed to pickup the forest service trailer along with some extra fencing materials, the AAT crew added some additional posts to futher prohibit access through the west end entrance. The AAT crew spent about an hour working on the fence.

Traveling to the east entrance of Holcomb Creek, by means of 3N14, the AAT Crew entered the Holcomb Creek Trail and approached the MAJOR project of the day – draining the nasty black pond formed at the creek crossing. After discussing various options a plan was formed to divert water from the pond to allow the pond to drain. A diversionary dam was constructed using four trailer loads of rocks to applish this. The goal of this task was to follow Greg’s direction to raise the stream crossing with rocks to eliminate stream water contact on vehicle under carraiges. After allowing the pond to slowly drain we found the nasty murky mud hidden below the water. This work project will certainly need many more workers and AAT days to help raise the stream bed.

After lunch our AAT crew moved toward the rock garden to continue building and extending it. Together the crew managed to add about 3-4 more feet of rock to the end of the rock garden. And yes, at days end Chuck managed to move the biggest rock of the day which now helps futher enhance his bragging rights!

Our work party finished work on the Holcomb Creek trail at about 6pm with no injuries or broken equipment.

-The rock garden still needs about 10-20feet more of rock but this project now falls second in priority to raising the stream bed.

Doug = 15hrs
Chuck = 15hrs
Alycia = 15 hrs
Cathy = 15.5hrs (pickup trailer)
Ryan = 15.5hrs (pickup trailer)

Total hrs 76hrs

By Ryan – Our Trail Maintenance day on the Holcomb Creek trail began with our safety meeting at the Valero gas station. Kurt, Chuck and Alicia, along with AAT leaders Ryan and Cathy traveled to the west entrance to the Holcomb Creek trail through Green Valley. Upon arrival, we found the fence/gate to the west entrance down. Further inspection showed that the gate/fence was obviously/intentionally cut to gain unauthroized access to the trail. All AAT trail crew members worked on re-building/re-establishing the fence to block access. It took us about 45 minutes to rebuild and pound stakes back into the ground to accomplish this task. …read on…

By Chuck (Dirtman) – We had 7 on the trail today and man was it hot. We headed out to the trail just after 11am. On the way we were pleased to see that the west end fence was still in place. At the end of 2N06X we ran into Greg and some FJ’s taking their lunch break. They were doing maintenance on 2N06X. …read on…

By Chuck (Dirtman) – Small group this time out but hard workers none the less. We entered the trail via 3N06X per Greg’s request. Upon arrival to the rock garden we noticed that we definitely had visitors on the trail. Some people decided that the rock garden was a little to difficult so they drove around through the brush. …read on…

By Ryan – Eleven hardworking AAT members met at the Fawnskin Fire Station at 9:00am to continue the dedicated effort to repair the Holcomb Creek trail. We started off the day with our usual driver safety meeting and sign in session. …read on…

By Ryan – Our AAT maintenance day began with our safety meeting/sign-in at the Union 76 gas station on HWY 18 at 0830 hrs. Once gathered up, we proceed to the west entrance to Holcomb Creek. Upon arrival to the west entrance we found the wire fence intact. After traveling through the west end rock graden, we rallied up again and established our objectives for our AAT day. Our high priority work was to mitigate trail erosion caused from slope drainage, and install a gabion basket futher up trail to repair a washout/deep rut. …read on…

Report from Nick and Kurt: Saturday started off really nice with a full morning of planting trees with over 100 volunteers showing up, and according to Tree People, approx. 1200 trees were put into the ground. Quality work too! …read on…

After the way the day started I though for sure we wouldn’t get much done. Randy and Carmen’s Jeep broke early on and had to be towed to town for repairs. Jim towed them so they both left for the day. Thanks guys for coming and we hope you got home safely. During the hubbub Greg took a hike up to the shelf road to look at what we have already done. When we got there he was working on the cliff face, knocking sluff off the face. He likes what he saw and gave us the green light to complete the job. Thanks Greg. Ryan was very happy about that… …read on…

Thanks to Art, Chuck, Nick, and Tom for their hard work lifting and moving rocks. In total we moved approximatley 7,000-10,000 lbs for rocks to fill 5 gabion baskets. …read on…