We had a great workday on Saturday with 27 volunteers. We poured the abutment for the Redwood Creek Bridge and built a smaller bridge over a small ditch on the approach. Our next workday (March 16th) we will be building two more small bridges and a working on a few other tasks to get the trail ready to open. The South Bay Mountain Biking Meetup Group will be sponsoring lunch on the 16th. Please sign up at www.trailworkers.com.

We will be meeting at the Pogonip Ranger Station at 9am and working until 1pm. The ranger station is a few hundred feet past the old clubhouse and it takes about 10 minutes to walk to from the gate at the end of Golf Club Drive. Parking has been real tight on workdays at Golf Club Drive and there have been some complaints from neighbors. It would be great if people could park at the City corporation yard lot or along Golf Club Drive before the train trestle. We will have Rebecca’s Mighty Muffins donated by Rebecca’s at the Tannery. Please bring sturdy shoes, long pants, gloves, and water. Tools and instruction will be provided. Questions? email trails@mbosc.org

Lots of good news here. Thanks to all of our great volunteers we have been making lots of progress on the Emma McCrary Trail and I hope that we will be opening before the end of March, weather permitting.

Building rock wall near north end of trail

Our last workday began with tasty coffee from Verve Coffee Roasters and Rebecca’s Mighty Muffins from Rebecca’s at the Tannery (they have beer too for post ride recovery). The 25 volunteers split up into two teams and hand built the several hundred feet across the meadows that connect Golf Club Drive to the portion of the trail we built earlier in the year. After a hard day’s work we enjoyed pizza and beverages courtesy of Eric Decker. Special thanks to Pierre Tardiff who climbed two large beautiful oaks near the southern bridge site and removed a huge amount of ivy from the trees. They look great now!

Students from Ponderosa High build a rock wall near Rincon Road

We have also been busy working on the U-Con end of the trail. For the last five weeks we have had high school volunteers working with the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum’s  Earth Stewards Project come work on the trail. The students from Natural Bridges and Ponderosa High Schools have been great! The last three weeks they collected rocks and built two walls on the north end of the trail. This Friday we will have students from Ponderosa, Natural Bridges, and Georgiana Bruce Kirby working on the trail and hope to finish cutting the north end of the trail. Thank you to Peter at the Natural History Museum for coordinating these groups.

John leads the effort

Tom and Emilio secure rebar in the form

Speaking of bridges, work has begun on the first of our two big bridges. Big, big, thank you to regular volunteer and professional contractor John Cunniff for providing his construction knowledge and experience and leading the effort to get the bridge work started. Also, thank you to Brad and Bruce for providing some pro-bono engineering work.

Excavating pads for bridge abutments

On President’s Day John, Tom, Gary, Emilio donated their holiday to install forms and rebar for the abutments of the bridge on the south end of the trail a few hundred feet from Golf Club Drive. It is likely John will be working on finishing up the abutments Wednesday and/or Friday and could use a helper or two. Please email me if you are interested in helping.

Which brings me to our next workday this Sunday February 24th. We are hoping that we will be transporting and pouring concrete for the abutments and maybe moving the stringers to the bridge sites, as well as a few other tasks. This day will take some organizing with several different crews going, so please sign up at www.trailworkers.com, it really helps!

Parking for Pogonip Trailwork at Golf Club Drive

We will be meeting at the Pogonip Ranger Station at 9am and working until 1pm. Park your car or bike at the gate at the end of Golf Club Drive and walk up the paved road for about 10 minutes. The ranger station is a few hundred feet past the old clubhouse. Parking has been real tight on workdays at Golf Club Drive and there have been some complaints from neighbors. It would be great if people could park at the City corporation yard lot or along Golf Club Drive before the train trestle.

We will have very tasty coffee to get us started donated by Verve Coffee Roasters as well as Rebecca’s Mighty Muffins donated by Rebecca’s at the Tannery. Pizza lunch after work courtesy of Amy Haberman D.C.

Please bring sturdy shoes, long pants, gloves, and water. Tools and instruction will be provided.