Author: Trail Association

It was a cool and windy morning on Everitt Memorial Hwy when the eager, unsuspecting volunteer crew pulled into the turnout for the boring safety talk and tool distribution. Yours truly disembarked for lower terrain to help supervise a 16-person Deadwood Crew. The group then trudged into the forest to attack problems on Upper Deadwood Trail. Trees were cut, branches limbed off, trees freed from dirt at their bases, jumps modified, boulders moved, stumps cut, and pretty much everyone got tired as hell (and rather dirty).

Down below, the Deadwood Crew got busy modifying a flyover jump, scuttling some pirate trails, and cutting in about 400 feet of brand new bypass trail. It was beautiful to behold.

Big applause for Rick Cory, Jason Barr, Crystal Blackburn, Kevin Metz, Dawn Bitterman, Corey Bitterman, Renee Casterline, Caryn Johansen, Becs Walker, Art Horvath, Mark Derby, Bryson Schreder…and Captain Kelly and the Deadwood Crew. These folks are busting their asses so you all can enjoy the trails!

The Deadwood Crew was called away for Wednesday, and there’s bad weather coming in on Friday, so we’re cancelling work those two days. Also, we’ve beaten up some of the heroes from Monday and Tuesday (can you say Jason and Rick?), so we need to give them a rest.

Lots of trees were dropped/cleared, soil pits filled, and backslopes flattened. The Deadwood Crew did a great job on the lower segment. Just look at that trail. One of the guys said it looked like a brown carpet. Yeah, we’re rolling out the brown carpet for our trail users. And look at that nice, angled backslope on the left side.

Thanks to Rick Cory, Jason Barr, Renee Casterline, Paul Schwartz, Mark Derby, Laura Franklin, Art Horvath, Renee Thomas, Bob Ireland, Keith McKinley, Jeff Freeman, Chad Lancour, Jim Wrona, Bryson Adams, and Jessica Jorgensen for these two great days of work.

Thirteen volunteers along with Taylor from the FS got a ton of work done today on upper Magma. Mike Hupp supervised the Deadwood Crew on lower Magma as well.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be at the Ten Gallon Trailhead with the tool trailer at 9 am. We’ll discuss how to divide the labor and tools, then head down the trail. Taylor (and Jason from Bike Shasta) will stay with the volunteer group, and I’ll go to the GW Trailhead to meet the Deadwood Crew to continue work below.

This was a fantastic start to finishing this trail.

We may cancel Wed and Friday (no Deadwood Crew on Wed, and bad weather coming in on Friday).

Stay tuned, and hope to see you tomorrow at Ten Gallon!

Oh, yeah, what about the time and exact location? Let’s meet at the Ten Gallon Trailhead parking lot at 9 am each day. It’s about 2 1/2 miles above McBride Springs Campground. Take the right turn off Everitt Memorial Hwy at the Ten Gallon Trailhead sign and go about .3 miles down that dirt road to the large parking lot.

Magma and Deadwood Trails are built, but we need to complete some modifications to be in full compliance with US Forest Service specifications. To that end, we’ll be attacking Magma (and possibly Deadwood, depending on time) with a Cal Fire Deadwood Crew and volunteers next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The work will be lopping and removal of small trees to widen the trail corridor, clearing soil from the base of trees, and “naturalizing” borrow pits and debris piles next to trails. Trail Labs will follow us later with some excavator work to finalize some big berm work.

This will be a big effort and we need a lot of help, but it’s a chance to see this amazing trail and to mobilize an entire community of trail enthusiasts who can have fun working with one another.

I cannot be there Monday, but we’ll have at least two MSTA board members to provide direction, and I’ll be present the other days. The Deadwood Crew will start from the bottom of Magma and volunteers will start from the top. We’re looking for at least one sawyer each day to cut small trees. Hoping to see volunteers from MSTA, Bike Shasta, Shasta Gravity Adventures, and anyone else who gives a damn.

Let’s kick some ass out there and get these trails open. And if you’re feeling like a banana slug in this cooler weather, it’s a chance to get some exercise out in the forest. It’s good for you…trust me, I’m a doctor.

We’re changing the workday from Wednesday to Thursday this week(Sept. 18). The very popular segment of Bear Springs Trail south of Old McCloud (called “Cub Creek” by locals) needs some love—brushing, tread work, etc. Come join us at the RR tracks on Old McCloud (Road 31) at 8:30 am. Bring water, a snack, and your gloves. Stay only as long as you want.

There are a couple tight switchbacks in the Learning Zone that need to be widened and made less steep, so we’re gonna attack them Sat. morning. We should have a handful of Americorp workers to speed us along. Come join the fun and stay only as long as you want. These workdays will be getting fewer as the cold, wet weather approaches, so get involved now.

We cut 660 ft of trail with saws, loppers, and muscles Thur morning. Ted D, who lives in Oakland, was visiting friends in Redding and drove up to help us with the chainsawing (that’s the spirit!!). Thanks, Ted, Sarah, Steve, Rick, Paula, Keith, Jim, Renee, and Bryson. We’ll have Trail Labs dig out the tread sometime in the future to create a higher, drier trail.

Don’t forget: we’re meeting in the Nordic Center parking lot at 8:30 am tomorrow, Aug. 28. We’ll take a short walk (6-8 minutes) up Huckleberry Loop to create a 300-400 foot bypass trail to avoid a marshy section of trail. There will be some chainsaw work, clearing of brush, lopping, and arguing over the best way to accomplish the task. We’ll quit before it gets hot. You can leave anytime you want; I suggest it’s just after you argue the loudest and finish up your shoving match. 

Just come and join the fun, OK? We’re not accepting excuses.

The mission yesterday, and we chose to accept it, was to finish blocking many of the alternate user trails to Heart Lake. So Bryson cut dead trees and the rest of us carried branches and logs to obstruct the many little pathways that hikers deviate into as they ascend or descend on this very popular trail. Thanks to new volunteers Marianne and Sarah, and repeaters Mark, Christine, Keith, David, Hank, Isaiah, and John T. 
Props to Bryson for carrying his chainsaw and protective gear up the hill (and doing all the sweaty chainsaw work) so yours truly could have an easy day (a geezer day). And thanks to USFS staff Taylor and Cory for directing this little orchestra and doing more than their share of the grunt work.