Poison Oak Caper on Cabin Creek Trail tomorrow morning at 8:30

Believe it or not, I have a half dozen deranged volunteers who’ve agreed to help clean the trail and remove poison oak on the Cabin Creek Trail tomorrow morning, Friday, June 17, at 8:30. Here are the rules:

  1. Meet at the Park and Ride at the junction of I-5 and Hwy 89 at 8:30 am. We’ll try to leave together by 8:45. We’ll drive to the Cabin Creek Trailhead in McCloud, open the locked gate, and drive to the bottom of the trail. Easy, huh?
  2. Weather predictions are for scattered showers and about 63 degrees. If we don’t go, we’ll get no rain. If we go, we’re guaranteed to get some rain, so best to go.
  3. Wear boots, long pants, long-sleeved shirt. I have gloves and protective glasses, but if you have your own favorites, bring ‘em.
  4. Glenn and I have all the tools and hard hats. Bring water and a snack or lunch…and eat your vegetables…and look both ways before you cross the street…
  5. If you detest poison oak, you can stay at the end of a long rake and fling the cut pieces off the trail, go for a hike, or just stand there and jeer at us for being so stupid. There may be other entertaining things to do as well, like watch us scratch ourselves.
  6. Bring a change of clothes. If you end up rolling in the poison oak (like Tim and Glenn and I plan to do) then you should remove your garments before climbing back in your car (this will avoid marital discord later).
  7. Recommended cleanup for the urushiol oil in poison ivy includes Tecnu soap, rubbing alcohol, and Dawn dishwashing soap. I toss my clothes right into the washing machine and haven’t had a problem.
  8. I plan to work to about noon or 1. You can leave anytime you want; this isn’t a prison crew.

The photo shows the prep for tomorrow.

This is gonna be fun!

Trail Work Opportunities June 24, 25, and 26

If you’ve been eager for trail work, but the chance to frolic around in the poison oak on Cabin Creek doesn’t light your candle, we have other options.

A group of dedicated trail work volunteers called Trail Center are coming from the Bay Area to help us with Gateway II construction. Between 15 and 20 people will arrive on Thursday evening, June 23rd, to set up camp at the KOA. They will work on trails all day Friday, Saturday, and half of Sunday. To support this effort, MSTA needs the following:

  1. You can do trail work alongside the visiting group between 9 and 3 on Friday or Saturday. We’ll announce where to meet and we’ll provide lunch. You can work any amount of time you wish and leave at your leisure. It will be fun to have a large group of locals and visitors contributing to our signature trail project.
  2. Glenn Harvey will be cooking breakfast for the visitors all three mornings. He needs help with that on Friday and Sunday mornings at 6:30 am—yes, you heard me correctly, 6:30 am. But if you want to come at 7 or 7:30, we’ll hug you and say thanks. Everyone needs a hug.
  3. We need help setting up lunch at the worksite on Friday and Saturday—likely at noon.

If any of these options sound like a thumbs up for you, contact me or Glenn Harvey via email or phone.

Glenn  Harvey: 530-925-9287  glennharvey54@gmail.com

John Harch: 530-859-2454 john@harchms.com

More info to come as the dates near.

MSTA Trail Challenge Treasure Hunt #3

To begin your search for the third trail treasure, you will need to find the trail that circumnavigates a manmade body of water. When you reach the river delta walk the plank over untroubled waters. You are standing on the treasure. Here’s a map to help you:

Also, if you haven’t completed Treasure Hunts #1 and/or #2, you have up until the entire Trail Challenge is over to find and turn in those treasures.

Trail Work at Cabin Creek on Friday, June 17 at 8:30 am

Trail Crew Masochists:

How about this for a fun proposition: let’s gather at the Park and Ride in south Mt. Shasta, burn $7.50/gallon gas to drive out to Cabin Creek, go to the bottom of the trail, and remove poison oak? Sounds like a blast, doesn’t it?

We’ve cleared the top end of the trail and have only the bottom portion (perhaps 25%) left. If you don’t want to mess with poison oak, you can clear trees, branches, and other debris. Also, you could just wield a fine rake and fling the cut poison oak to the side. We’ve done this carefully in the past (including using power equipment) and haven’t gotten a problem with the poison oak.

It takes about 40 minutes to get out there and we’ll probably work for about 2-3 hours.

How could you miss this?

Amazon Smile — Donate As You Shop

For those of you who shop online at the Amazon website, here’s a way to make a portion of your purchase a donation to the Mount Shasta Trail Association.  What a deal!

Instead of logging on to the regular Amazon website, log on to the smile.amazon.com site and register the Mount Shasta Trail Association as your chosen charity and bookmark the Smile page.  Then as you shop, 0.5% of your purchases — at no extra cost to you — will go towards trails in the Mount Shasta area. Every little bit helps!

MSTA Trail Challenge Treasure Hunt #2

To begin your search for the second trail treasure, you will need to find the trail that is named for a  four sided container and a deep gorge with a river flowing through it. Continue along the trail looking for an unusual old site.  This site has many historical artifacts. Find a “body” that dates back to the 30s. A map to help you is located at the end of this post.

Here are the rules of the hunt. Each time you locate a treasure, send us a photo or description of the treasure along with your contact information to: mtshastatrail@gmail.com. Then, your name will be entered into a drawing for the grand prize. In addition, the first person to locate each new treasure will receive their choice of a prize, and their name will be placed into the grand prize drawing.  For example, if you find 5 treasures your name will be added five times to the grand prize drawing.

Also, if you haven’t completed the first treasure hunt, you have up until the entire Trail Challenge is over.

APPEAL FOR HELP WITH MOTORCYCLES ON GATEWAY TRAILS

MSTA is receiving ongoing and increasing reports of motorcycles on existing, newly constructed, and partially constructed Gateway Trails. Evidence of significant damage to the trails can be seen already. When the soils dry out, this damage will become exponentially worse and will threaten all the time, energy, and money that have been expended by the USFS, MSTA, BikeShasta, and all our donors. Keep in mind that we have spent about a half million dollars on these trails and expect to spend at least another $1.3 million before we’re done. It would be a great loss to the community to see these trails destroyed. In addition, heavy, fast-moving motorcycles are a big risk to hikers, dogs, and bicyclists.

MSTA and the USFS have initiated a plan to stop this activity, but we need the public’s assistance. Please help us identify where and when the motorcyclists enter the Gateway System, where they are riding, and when they seem to be present. Photos would be useful. The USFS will step up surveillance and enforcement with increased personnel and possibly trail cameras. Please do not confront the riders yourself.

You can send reports to mtshastatrail@gmail.com

Trail Challenge Treasure Hunt #1

The Trail Challenge for 2022 has begun! Here’s the clue to finding “treasure” along one of the trails in the Mount Shasta area:

To begin your search for the first trail treasure, go to the Gateway Trailhead and then hike, run or bike to the trail that is named for the phase of construction for every house, the first makeup that is applied, or the name of a philanthropic organization. Continue along the trail looking for a tree that is unique to the entire Gateway Trail system. You will know this tree because it will remind you of a time at the beach when you got a bad sunburn and peeled. If you come to the trail that is named after you and me, you will know that you went too far and missed the tree.

To help you, below is a map to the treasure.

Here are the rules of the hunt. Each time you locate a treasure, send us a photo or description of the treasure along with your contact information to: mtshastatrail@gmail.com. Then, your name will be entered into a drawing for the grand prize.

In addition, the first person to locate each new treasure will receive their choice of a prize, and their name will be placed into the grand prize drawing.  For example, if you find 5 treasures your name will added five times to the grand prize drawing.

Great Day at Fowler’s Campground

The combination of blowdown, thinning, and hazard-tree removal left a rather shocking mess across the entire Fowler’s Campground. Virtually every campsite was uninhabitable.

A group of about 50 people from MSTA and the USFS got busy in there, with rakes, brooms, blowers, and chainsaws. Massive amounts of slash were piled for later burning. The trail to Middle Falls was cleared of downed trees. Every campsite was made ready for campers, and the campground will be open starting this Sunday.

Everyone was so famished by 1:00 that several people were injured in the scuffle for the front of the line at the delicious BBQ lunch hosted by the USFS. First aid was promptly administered and then everyone got a full tummy.

It was a beautiful day in the forest. If you missed it, we’ll save a spot for you on the next workday. Don’t you dare miss that one.

WHY DO THEY KEEP BOTHERING US?

This is the final bother about the joint work effort with the USFS tomorrow at 9 am at Fowler’s Campground. We’ll be removing downed trees and generally cleaning up. Hope you can help us on this big job, and bring friends.

BBQ courtesy of USFS afterward.