The week started off very strong with us completing our last field day of S-212 Chainsaw training. Our field site offered some quick, amazing views of the mountain ranges and snow covered peaks out in the distance. Most of the day focused on felling trees between 20-40 feet tall and 4-8 inches in diameter at breast height (DBH). Other things practiced during the day were chainsaw refueling, chain tightening and sharpening, swamping (clearing recently cut items from sawyers work area) and carrying the saw properly. It is with great pride to state that Verde Uno is now
The next two days were filled with the work members of the team had signed up to do. The main trail that we’ll be assigned to work on is known as Trail 58, named after the nearby Wildland Firefighting station. Trail 58 has plans to run along the Middle Creek, a seasonal creek that runs from October to June. Because of the length and strength of the water flow in this creek, several bridges will be built for the trail to go over the creek a couple times. We helped bring cement down from up the trail to the cement mixer for the abutments for our first bridge. Along with the movement of the cement, Verde Uno began cutting new trail from the first bridge to the second proposed site for a bridge. Generally, the BLM cuts new trail with the Swaco, a small backhoe bull dozer that can’t always fit in some areas of the trail.
Our last work day was met by a rainy day. We were relegated to combing/raking rocks off the main trail and naturalizing edges of the trail that were tracked with ATV tires (to move cement). Once we completed that, we drove to the Upper Ditch trailhead by Shasta Dam to complete some maintenance that we started last week. Trail maintenance is easily accomplishable during rainy days because we are able to cut back encroaching bushes and trees while staying dry in our rain suits. When building trail, you can not dig into the dirt when it’s wet because it’ll either be too muddy or clumpy due to moisture.
Fun things we did this week, visited the Sundial Bridge in Redding. It is apparently the world’s largest, working sundial.