The Trail Companion

Early Spring 1999

Trail Notes

Castle Rock Trail, Castle Rock State Park:

Although bad weather continued to plague us this winter and put us behind schedule, we have made good progress toward completing the first segment of the Castle Rock Trail reroute.

Geoffrey and coffee cake - so much we needed the wheelbarrow to carry it.

Photo by David Crosby

Over the past several workdays, a hearty group of volunteers have built several hundred feet of trail in either direction from our December starting point, a switchback below Castle Rock; David "Dave-O-Matic" Kison alone has built over two hundred feet of trail and others aren’t far behind. The new trail features more rock walls than any other single project since the Stiles Ranch Trail. Climbers have already discovered the partly-completed trail and have been using it regularly to access several popular bouldering rocks.
Hobee’s Restaurant in Palo Alto (Town & Country Village) generously donated coffee cake for the March 20th build.

Some of the many rocks at Castle Rock--before construction

Photo by David Crosby

They will also supply treats for two additional days this spring.
We have scheduled an extra workday on May 22 to prepare for National Trails Day on June 5th, when we will officially open the new segment and close the upper half of the old trail between Saratoga Gap Trail and Castle Rock.
We will spend nearly all of our summer workdays on the second segment of the reroute.

Jasper Ridge, Stanford University:

For our last scheduled maintenance day at Jasper Ridge for 1999, we plan to complete tread work on Trail 2 (near San Francisquito Creek), where we battled poison oak in the fall, but still managed to brush nearly a half-mile of trail in a single workday. We will also build a small plank bridge to complete work on Trail "a" that we started last September. As a treat, a docent will lead volunteers on a wildflower walk in the serpentine grasslands following the trail build.

...and the rock wall we built with a few of those boulders.

Photo by David Crosby

Arastradero Preserve, Palo Alto:

This year’s California Trail Days project takes place at Arastradero Preserve. We will work with Bay Area Action again to continue work on the Perimeter Trail, site of last year’s CTD project. We will also repair a short section of the Acorn Trail on May 8.

Whether you’re reading or eating lunch, the outdoors is a great place to do it.

Photo by David Crosby