Trail Lovers:
Today was our first workday on the initial phase of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains Trail Restoration Project. We met at the south trailhead to the North Lykken Trail at 8:00 am. Steve Harris of the BLM and Rich Jarvinen of DTHC welcomed the twenty four volunteers: seventeen from DTHC and seven from CVHC (Nancy Bone, Ron Chang, Susanne Randell, Ellen Willinger, Doug Young, Cutler Lewis and Charles Nisbet). Some people, of course, belong to both hiking clubs. Steve and Rich went over the tasks of eliminating short-cuts and explained safety measure with each of the hand tools pertinent to this type of trails work. Teams of four proceeded up the mountain in piggy back rotation from one short-cut to another. The volunteers from DTHC were totally familiar with this kind of work and spearheaded the effort. I for example, was mentored by, Dave, Kathy, Charley, Bob, and Alan.
We chopped up and disturbed the ground on short-cuts, brought in dead vegetation to disquise, transplanted other vegetation, raked the ground and moved small and large rocks.We lunched at the picnic tables above the Museum Trail and some of us bragged about CVHC’s efforts in rebuilding four sets of picnic tables in the National Monument over a three year period. After lunch we proceeded down the trail improving and putting in new water breaks along the way. The route down was so obvious, so clear, so clean. At one point I asked Dave, “Where are the short-cuts.” He replied, “Charles they are gone.”
I can’t believe what we accomplished in one outing. We finished the entire North Lykken up to the picnic tables when I thought it would possibly take three such workdays to complete the job. Up, up we went, tackling some problems along the way. It was fun. It was productive. People worked so well together. What a great way for people from the two clubs to get together.
We are planning our second joint DTHC/CVHC workday for March (notice will be sent as soon as we know the date) where we will complete the initial phase of this project by eliminating the small short-cuts on the South Lykken Trail and installing new trail signage on the South Lykken and North Lykken Trails.
I can’t believe what we accomplished in one workday! What a group. What an effort. Check out the North Lykken Trail for yourself at the end of Ramon.
If this e-mail contains mistakes, please forgive, I am tired, but a good tired,
Charles
Hi all,
I was greeted this morning by an ebullient voicemail message from Chuck Nisbet describing the success of yesterday’s project on the North Lykken Trail … a great start to my week!
My heartfelt thanks to all that participated in and/or supported the project. It’s so encouraging to me to see this much positive energy directed to a project that improves trail experiences for everyone.
Again, thank you and happy trails!
Jim Foote Monument Manager
Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument
Pictures by Rich Jarvinen
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