On Saturday at Henry Coe State Park 13 mountain bikers turned up for the ROMP lead trail work. Additionally another 20 equestrians and hikers turned up to form a seperate squad. This 30 plus strong squad of volunteers were mustered by the Coe Trail Advisory Council as part of a strong season of much needed trail maintenance in Coe.The hikers and equestrians drove into the park and hiked and worked down the Cattle Duster Trail (horses were left home), one of the access trails to a favorite known to cyclists as “The Rock Garden”. They used tools belonging to the park’s cache of tools.

Meanwhile, because of our ability to penetrate distance while carrying tools on BOB trailers, us cyclists headed up the single track to remedy erosion problems on the Jackson Trail. We used the two Ibex trailers loaded down with 8 mclouds, 3 bench cut shovels, 3 shovels, and 3 pulaskis to outfit our crew with an effective assortment of ork-like trail anarchy fighters. All of these tools are ROMP’s property. (By the way, the ROMP BOB and Ibex trailers are available for members to borrow when not being used for trail work, which is most of the time.)

Many digital photos were taken to document our work before and after. The Sweco-built Jackson Trail is a great trail, but there have been erosion problems because of some faults with the execution in many places. One problem we observe is that the builders left berms of soil on the outside of the trail in many places, which traps water in the tread, rendering the outslope setting of the Sweco ineffective. In other places the trail follows a conveniently moderate grade but on the fall line, which again channels water straight down the trail. Also, critical dips before switchbacks are absent. The few places where grade reversals were built, perhaps more by accident than design, clearly illustrated their value in effective drainage as these places required no work.

This results in the formation of deep gutters that if left unchecked ruin the trail and gouge deep into the hillside. We filled gutters with native rock and filled and packed the tread with mineral soil. We created drains, lots of them, where none existed before. Given the intensity of recent storms it was obvious that the trail was a virtual creek during the storms.

We helped the trail. Some sections remain untreated above the area we reached. Also, the steepest section of the trail just before a grade reversal (going upwards), which is a fall line alignment we left untreated because I am going to recoomend that this be abandoned in favor of an older alignment which was originally built. This was a long switchback. The turn was never finished, probably because it needed extensive hand work, and the steep fall line trail was adopted socially. At the next Coe meeting I will present photos of this section and get approval to restore the current trail and simultaneously establish and build a sutainable switchback, complete with a grade reversal and a crown. We should be able to do this within this trail work season.

We also rock armoured a soggy gully crossing below a seasonal wet seep next to a pig wall using native rock.

After quitting we cached our tools and trailers and rode up our work did a short loop around Elderberry and up Jackson to the top, and descended our work. Now we wait for a drenching storm to test our work. We were surprised at how much the rocking of the gully quickly drained and hardened this soggy spot (formerly marked by deep tire tracks). I’ll keep an eye out on this section to see how the rock fares. It will probably need more work (more and bigger rock) to be maintenance-free, and so a good project for the future.

Some goody-bags were given out to participants care of Specialized.

Future Coe Trail dates are: Jan 24, the IMBA visit (with classroom seesions at Specilaized’s HQ on Feb 14-15, Feb 21, and March 13. Please join us at one of these dates.

On January 24th we will go to work on the Cullen Trail. Get ready for this awesome trail job!
By the way, these trail days make for a great all body work out, especially when combined with pulling a trailer and a brisk ride!

Wtih Warmest Regards,

– Paul

Today we had another 12 volunteers assemble on the top of Charcoal Road in Stevens Canyon County Park to continue trail maintenance on the Table Mountain Trail that had been started three weeks ago. This time we evaluated our work from the last work day, spent a little time improving one of the drains, then got to work installing more drainage features as we hiked our way down the hill.
Heavy rains in the last couple of weeks helped demonstrate how effective our efforts have been so far. Most of the rolling grade dips we have installed are working to get water off the trail before its gets a chance to soften the trail bed. One of the drains was dug too shallow to do its job all year, so deepening and widening it was our first project for the day. We also moved some dirt from where we were digging and tamped it onto the trail to build up the facing side of the ramp that rolls out of the dip. Fred Stanke worked off trail moving material out of the way while Janet Wagner packed down dirt to keep the trail surface durable.

Further down trail, Bob Waites from Stevens Creek County Park, Loren Thomas from Team Wrongway, Brent Forsythe of F.O.R.E.S.T, Adrienne Harber, Jack Leckrone and John Leckrone dug a huge nick into the right side of the trail just before a steep section that had been roding into a cupped shape. Once a trail develops this cupping, it retains water and sends it down trail with increasing velocity. Water softens the trail, user wear and water further the erosion process, and soon you end up with a trench instead of a trail. This drainage feature is large enough to move a lot of water, even after silting up during periods of light rain, but is also subtle enough to not trip up any hikers.

Patty Ciesla of F.O.R.E.S.T led the realignment of one of the switchbacks we worked on today. Trail users had been shortcutting it, and it was becoming deeply troughed because of that. A mound of dirt was put back into the apex of the turn and tamped down solid. Wendy Ballreich harvested ferns from the hillside above and they were planted in the mound, as well as a chunk of Madrone tree that had fallen nearby. Jack’s dump truck had to be brought in to move excess material that had been cut off the uphill bank.

Trails consultant Frank Deto, also from Santa Clara County Parks, was on hand to provide his expert digging skills. The work we did today should hold up for a couple of years, but we left some for you to do next month. We made almost to the halfway point down Table Mountain toward Stevens Creek and will be out there again on Sunday, January 18. Send me an email letting me know you will be coming and I will bring a couple extra tools for you. ROMP and the
Stewards of Soquel Forest loaned tools for this project, and F.O.R.E.S.T provided coffee, hot cider and tea. Their efforts will improve everyones’ experience in our parks.

There are more Trail Days on the calendar for trails in other Santa Clara County Parks, and two more to finish what we started in Stevens Canyon. Find out more at http://www.parkhere.org

We work from 8:00 until about 12:00, and the rewards last all season.

Charles Jalgunas
County Parks Volunteer Crew Leader
Friends Of Rugged Environmentally Sound Trails

Clouds parted and the sun looked down on the puddled parking lot of Hunting Hollow Sunday morning to greet 43 cyclists about to embark upon some interesting rides into the Coe trail system.

We divided into two main groups: 12 headed out for an epic loop towards headquarters and Middle Ridge; while 31 more, the rest of the group, settled in for a tour of the front ridges, Jackson Hill, Willson Ridge, and Phegley Ridge, a route with plenty of places to abandon.

And abandon they did, in that second group, with just 19 finishing the route, which actually left out a planned loop out to Vasquez Ridge because yours truly is a bit off form.

The original dirty dozen, however, were committted and no bailouts were possible along their route.

After the ride a BBQ took place at co-leaders Ligaya and Phil’s house in Morgan Hill. The feasting and conversation made us forget our tired legs and the upcoming workweek for a while.

Trail conditions were ideal, and many a leg was worn to shreds. Beauty surrounded us on all sides. No mechanicals, no reportable crashes. Fortune smiled upon this event.