Eighteen Trail Center volunteers spruced up the Mount Ellen Nature Trail in San Mateo County’s Memorial Park. For a nature trail, it was quite challenging with steep parts and large roots obstructing the trail. Dave Taylor was the day’s Trail Boss and he was assisted by Hank Magnuski, Judd Volino, and Larry Stites/Kathy Diamond as Crew Leaders. The effort focused on general trail maintenance. Plenty of duff and leaves had accumulated which needed to be removed. Roots had been exposed in considerable numbers and needed to be removed or “topped off.” Volunteers constructed a few drain diversions and a temporary trail diversion around a location which had, until recently, had a large Douglas Fir blocking the trail. The Ranger, Dave Vasquez and a Ranger Aide, Mike, helped by constructing a step down from a particularly large root after this unsafe situation was pointed out. Finishing off the day, all three teams joined up to create some new drainage diversions and fill in some gullies near the entrance to the trail. Crushed rock from the temporary trail around the Doug Fir was repurposed to help fill in the troughs we decommissioned the temporary trail.
The day was beautiful and everyone got a good workout, even without extensive digging required. All agreed that the trail network was confusing, but everyone found his or her way back down. Several locations were identified where retaining walls would be beneficial to get around large roots half blocking the trail. This is a project for another day. A special thanks to Bill Farrell who scouted and wrote up this and some pending Memorial projects and Judd who walked the trail help scout it out for the work day along with Dave.
Dave Taylor
9/21/16