Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship

From Debbie:

Volunteer of the month? Lets just say volunteers.....

This month we are recognizing all of the volunteers who were a part of the 15th Annual Downieville Classic. Seeing that it takes a village to pull off this event, we would like to thank every single one of you. Sorry, no sweatshirts this month, only words of gratitude since there are over 100 of you.

This year's volunteer posse included folks who had never even been to Downieville to those who had been coming so long that I've lost count... Friends who have recruited friends, generations of families, and kids who began volunteering years back who are now old enough to race!

I thought last year we had the youngest volunteer at 4 years old, but this year we had a family with a 1 month old daughter/granddaughter who worked the Third Divide Water Station!

We'd like to thank a few of our team leaders, without whom this event would not exist: Kathy, Jesse, Johnnie, Milan, Donene, Wanda, Metal, Melissa, Mark, Todd, Tod, Terri, Kim, Jen, Scott, Mickie, Roger, Dave, and Zachi – you all rock.

Dan & Ingrid from the Downieville Grocery deserve an extra special thanks for their ongoing support that happens not only during the classic but all year round. These two are constantly fundraising for us at the Grocery Store and are always willing to step up and help out any way possible. Thanks guys.  Read More »

We are starting up a new trail project next Tuesday, August 3rd and Wednesday, August 4th- and we are hoping to start the project off with a bang and a good showing of volunteers both days. We would love your help! We're looking for volunteers to come out to do some easy brushing on the Silver to Gold Lake Trail located in the Bucks Wilderness near Quincy.

Date: Tuesday & Wednesday, August 3rd & 4th

Time: Volunteers will meet at the trailhead at 9:00am. Please arrive a few minutes early. You are welcome to work for as long as you like, although volunteers usually finish the day by 3:00.

Directions: The trailhead is located at Silver Lake which is 6 miles up Silver Lake road. From Quincy, drive 8 miles west on Bucks Lake Road (AKA Oroville/Quincy HWY) turn right on Silver Lake road; Drive 6 miles up to Silver Lake and to the trailhead. The trail goes across the dam and towards Gold Lake. Silver Lake road requires a high clearance vehicle although 4WD is not necessary.

More: Please bring plenty of water, sunscreen, hat, a pair of work gloves and a lunch. We will provide the tools and instruction -

RSVP: Let us know if you are coming by emailing us at emily@sierratrails.org or calling our office at (530) 836-4333. Help us spread the word, please pass this along to those that might be interested.

If you ride dirt bikes in the area, you probably know Dave. One of the pioneers in the Northern Sierra dirt bike community, Dave has been cutting, clearing, building and advocating for trails for longer than most of us have even been aware of the trails in the Downieville area. If you ever come upon a huge downed tree that someone has cut out of the trail, there is a good chance that there will be a DW carved into the end of it. Like most years, this spring Dave has pretty much single-handedly cleared the majority of the trails in the Downieville area that he has been able to ride to (there is still a lot of snow out there). Also, to add to his usual early season tree clearing, Dave was also instrumental in organizing the Sierra County/Tahoe Forest trail effort for National Trails Day on June 5th. Dave was the driving force behind the 22-strong group of dirt bikers that were able to bust-out a huge amount of work, cleaning-up all of Hall’s Ranch Trail between Cal-Ida Road and Fiddle Creek Ridge Trail. To recognize those efforts, we at SBTS have awarded Dave Wood June’s Volunteer of the Month. Dave receives an SBTS hoodie and our sincerest appreciation for all of his hard work and dedication. Keep up the great work Dave!

Project Leaders: Chris Feucht and Dave Wood. 

Location: Hall’s Ranch.

After a long hot day last May at the 2009 Spring SBTS epic, we knew this trail was inneed of some TLC. So, Dave Wood got the word out over the newsgroups and email to all of his local (and not so local) dirt bike contacts. The turn out was fantastic. We had 22 volunteers and 21 dirt bikes. Unlike walk-in crews, getting to any remote thework site is relatively quick and easy on the dirt bikes, and because of this, the crew was able to completely rework every tight turn and switchback between Cal-Ida Road and Fiddle Creek Ridge Trail. Down, up, down and up again. That’s a lot of turns, over miles of trail and thousands of feet in elevation.

Huge props to crew leaders Dave, Bob Terwilliger and Adam Batchelder, the folks from the Nevada County Woods Riders  the Maier brothers from Maier Mfg. and Steve Davis from High Sierra M.C. for making the day a huge success.

Thanks guys!

Report provided by Crew Supervisor, Ron Heard.  Mills Peak Trail – Upper Trail Segment 6/17/10 Work continues at a steady pace on Mills Peak Trail. Currently the tractor is at the. 59 mile (3115’) point on the upper trail segment, right past the second switchback. This switchback was in steep terrain and required 2 rock walls. The building was hampered by embedded rocks and a lack of dirt to use for building materials. The trail climbs 188 feet over this distance. Of this section,. 18 miles (950’) will require finish work and the rest is complete. In addition 2 rocks will need to be blasted at the. 45 mile point. We tried to use the jackhammer attachment for the tractor here, but the rock proved too tough. We believe the attachment would work fine in more fractured rock. Ron Heard, Dave O and Brett Marty have spent about 150 hours on this section. The cost is fairly low thanks to the trail day. Volunteers beyond the trail day include Melinda Heard, Scott Brand and Dustin Cardoza. Local Daniel Ransom is planning to join us for a day or 2 a week from now, and Crew 1 will be back after they finish the Red Clover burn project.

Report provided by SBTS Crew Leader, Ron Heard. Narrowed the tracks, removed the blade extensions, and made the squeeze. 1/4" to spare. Had to use the boom to lean the tractor, while using every control lever and a rcok bar to mojo the tractor through. We had planned to bust the rock wider or saw a bunch of trees and go around, but several volunteers/friends stopped us and said the squeeze was to cool to alter. Brett had his tape and insisted we could make the squeeeeeze. Though he looked doubtful... Greg and I first flagged this several years ago, and it was good to finally be there. He had a gleam in his eye when we flagged it, as he knew this section was special. After carving a swath to the squeeze we spent most of the day hand buffing the long section below this and let me tell you it will be sweet to ride. Lots of twists and turns, grade reversals, rock ramps and so on. Too many rocks to blast and too big to remove, but they are nicely ramped now. Hikers will enjoy the section too. We are about a half mile in at this point in the new section, with most, but not all of the hand work done as well. Tomorrow will be some saw and stump work, rock picking, raking, and another switchback.

Project Leaders: Henry O’Donnell and Ron Heard. 11 SBTS volunteers were joined by 18 members of Crew 1, a fire fighting team on the Plumas National Forest based in Beckwourth to help build over a thousand feet of trail. A few days before, Brett and Ron drove the trail tractor almost a mile through the snow to get to the work site, which was mostly free of snow thanks to the sunny location. Henry led the Crew 1 saw team up ahead on the trail to get them started clearing hazard trees, and fallen trees from the trail corridor. He then returned to the trail tractor to rough cut trail all day. I started the rest of Crew 1 clearing timber and brush from a wide trail corridor, while the SBTS volunteers did extensive finish work on trail that had been cut by the tractor over the previous 2 days. This crew did a great job, helped by SBTS Crew members Matt and Cody, as well as Melinda. At 2:30 I suggested we start packing up and heading out for cold beer. The SBTS volunteers refused to leave until they finished a big switchback which loomed just ahead. Henry arrived just in time with the tractor to do some heavy work, while other volunteers dug like crazy to finish the switchback. We didn’t leave until well after 3:00. Crew 1 stayed until about 4:00. Melinda and I joined John and Nica the next day to ride the trail from the bike shop to the tractor. We missed first tracks on the new section, as Dustin Cardoza and his friend Chris Barbara from Reno got there ahead of us. They rode up, grabbed tools out of the stash, and proceeded to put the finishing touches on the switchback they had worked on the day before.  Read More »

GRAEAGLE, CALIFORNIA, The prospect of building and discovering new trails brought 206 volunteers to Graeagle for the first annual Lost Sierra Trail Daze event in celebration of National Trails Day.

In addition to the tremendous number of local volunteers who participated, folks came from as far away as Seattle and Southern California to volunteer for the day. Volunteers ranged in age from 5 years old to 87 years young, showing us all, that building trail is for everyone. Six separate projects were tackled during the event. In the Plumas National Forest volunteers worked on Lake Davis Trail, Gray Eagle Creek Trail and Mills Peak Trail. In the Tahoe National Forest, Halls Ranch Trail was rehabilitated. And on Graeagle Land and Water property, the Graeagle Community Pathway was started and the Middle Fork of the Feather River received a clean up.

Many thanks to all of the event sponsors, partners and volunteers who made this day one of the biggest trail building events in California on National Trails Day.

This event marks the start of the trail building season. Volunteers for the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship are needed! People of any age or ability are welcome to join us Mondays through Saturdays until the snow falls again.

Ben Lomond Trail - report provided by SBTS crew leader, Henry O'Donnell

5-24-10 The SBTS started the week with an eight man crew consisting of Coz, Max, Maggie, Eric Stringer, Jim, Chuck, Mark and Henry. Chuck and Eric went up the trail and continued logging out the trail until they reached the snow line, cutting out 16 more trees and covering approximately 500 feet of trail. The majority of the crew worked on a 64 foot long and two foot tall rock wall in an extremely wet section of trail. Most of the wall was completed, but some work was left for the next day. Coz and Max built a 14 foot long wall that is four feet tall, then did touch up rock work, chiseling and braking rock until they caught up with the rest of the crew.

5-25-10 Will came down making us a nine man crew and we all continued doing rock work. The 64 foot rock wall form the day before was completed, and two more were started, but not finished before we were rained out. The crew spread out and worked on a nasty root section, a 34 foot by 4 foot wall and a 24 foot by 2 foot rock wall. All the work was in the same wet section of trail covering an additional 128 feet of trail.