On Saturday May 26th 2012 while Plymmer took Ratpick, Fattire400 and I on a tour of the "Forgotten Ones" 10k my wife and a couple of riders spent nearly an hour cleaning up the area around the tree that has fallen by the intersection of Grapevine and Anza trails near the Wood Chopper Spring.
Photos courtesy of the Mudskipper:
You'll still have to crawl under the tree coming down from the Grapevine Trail. The work makes it possible to ride or hike the Anza - Coit Road without much bother. It would be possible to move the trail about four feet up hill to make the connection from Grapevine to Anza rideable. However, the maintenance staff has been notified, and perhaps this will be mitigated before too long.
On May 25th after the CPPF media event to hand-off the check to keep Henry W. Coe SP open, I went on a little ride to saw off some trees on the Middle Ridge Trail.
Okay here's another big one that has been known about for a couple of months almost. Because of a busy schedule no one has been able to address this huge tree, yet. However on Friday May 25th the abundant lush garlands of poison oak vines were removed so that stooping under the massive fallen Valley Oak (and dragging a bike along) is now possible without risking exposure to poison oak.
Eric didn't want to try to tackle it with the chainsaw, nor did he want to improve the go-under by dropping the trail tread. IMO, this is the best and easiest solution to this issue. That tree isn't going anywhere without explosives or a helicopter, or a serious chainsaw crew with some time on their hands.
Instead of doing a bunch of chainsaw work, Eric trimmed up the roots where the trail went around and we improved the reroute. At least one group of hikers tried it out while we were there. Another group of bikers came by before we started working and went under without any trouble. I did manage to pull a McCleod under there and drop the tread a little.
Instead of doing a bunch of chainsaw work, Eric trimmed up the roots where the trail went around and we improved the reroute. At least one group of hikers tried it out while we were there. Another group of bikers came by before we started working and went under without any trouble. I did manage to pull a McCleod under there and drop the tread a little.
Per the DPR Trails Handbook re-routing the trail is the right thing to do. The qualifying factor is a trunk diameter of 3' or greater. The logic is that a fallen tree is a natural feature and should be left alone unless safety is an issue. In this case re-routing above makes perfect sense.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent any policy of the CA Dept. of Parks & Rec.
Who will be first to clean the re-route on a bike?
The reroute is very soft and there are steps cut into soft dirt going around the north side of the tree roots. I would be sad if someone tried to ride it. Please take your wheeled locusts underneath the tree.
I would not be sad at all if someone rerouted the trail 2' deeper under the tree and chain-sawed another foot of clearance around the hole. It could be made rideable and sustainable with a day of hard work if it could be approved.
The idea of rigging the tree and winching it off the hillside so that it would fall into the gulch was advanced earlier. That would be a risky operation with unpredictable results. Alternatively I wonder if it could be jacked (no triangle of death) up until it rolled, and repeated until moved below the trail?
Interesting 'rithamatic you use Eddy; I think you'll find your numbers are off by a bit on the high side. No matter; a Skycrane is well over $5K an hour so I don't think that'll happen considering the DPR's financials. Plus; it looks like if it was sectioned for lifting it would head down the hill anyway (problem solved).
Hey I forgot to thank you for going out and helping Eric and crew!
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent any policy of the CA Dept. of Parks & Rec.
A narrow volunteer trail is well worn in below the tree now. It may damage the tree roots it skirts around eventually, so something will be done eventually.
The photo is from Weds, 10/12.
This tree is still there and since the bypass has become well bedded-in it will likely rot away before it's removed.
More of interest though is that the DPR recently ran the grader all the way down Phegley Ridge Road; for the amount of use it gets it sort of seems like a waste---but for fire/public safety access I guess it makes sense. Here my son starts down the "wall":
My daughter rolls out after descending the Phegley Wall. For thrill seekers this is probably the most rad wall in Coe given the steep/straight/length combo! (There are steeper ones but not this long with a clear roll-out) That grader operator has balls...
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent any policy of the CA Dept. of Parks & Rec.
If it is just the road, it's a not a huge concern. I don't think it required grading, but thanks for cutting the grass.
Personally, I think Redfern is a better descent. It's got the views and the trees, and it's last section is insane. IIRC the Solstice ride is going up that.
First off, let me say "Thank you!" to the folks involved with the tree removals shown in the earlier posts in this thread
For a few months now, there has been a large fallen Oak blocking Cattle Duster Trail near the top of Grapevine. The pedantic will know this is technically Coit Spring Trail but commonly it is thought of as Cattle Duster. Yesterday Roy and I set out to see if we could clear the trail. Here you see Roy and Kangasaw hard at work:
I'm going to switch this around and show the "after" photo first. It was such a mess, maybe this will make more sense?
Looking up hill, after:
…before:
From the opposite direction...after:
And before:
Here is the debris field showing how much was cut and removed:
90 minutes work for two people.
Roy checks the overhead clearance:
Roy is the boss, graaaaahhhhhhhhhh
We also cleared a nearby much smaller fallen tree. You'll be able to ride through here, no problem. Yay!
///Charlie
Last edited by Skyline35; 07-01-2012 at 03:05 PM.
Reason: typo
I have to take my due credit for making the 'before' version passable. Before 'before', people were climbing the bank to the north. I went through there the day before the VOCal trailwork.
Do you think this one could be dragged off the road?
Live Oak Spring Road at 37.142455 -121.4185967 (Sept 15, 2012)
///Charlie
Thanks Charlie! This may explain the shortage of water at Pacheco Camp if it has fallen across the pipe; did you see a wet spot in the vicinity?
I'll pass this along to the proper Authorities (???)
If Staff doesn't get to it first; there will be volunteers in the area with 4x4's 2 weekends in a row---first the UV "ride-a-long" training on 10/13 and then the TASPC work event on 10/20. One way or another I'm sure it'll get moved.
This is a good segue to the new California State Parks Foundation website; About POP ---it's already been met with some skepticism within the MTBing community but I think it looks like a winner.
I've been envisioning something much like it just for Coe but they've "beaten me to the punch"! I hope they expand it to include Coe soon.
Last edited by pliebenberg; 09-21-2012 at 08:18 AM.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent any policy of the CA Dept. of Parks & Rec.
Skyline, congratulations on the huge ride yesterday! You are amazing. Thanks for reporting the tree down on Live Oak. When I copied the post about it, I immediately forwarded the information to the Sector Maintenance Chief and the Coe Mountain Bike Patrol (I think I might have beaten Pliebenberg to it).
It wasn't long before I received word that someone from staff would go out and pull it off the road. And so eventually it was removed.
That's how things are supposed to work!
MTBR is a great medium. Pliebenberg has done so much in his time volunteering with Henry W Coe. This thread is incredibly useful.
The tree that was down at Anza and the Grapevine was reported at the last Coe trails meeting a couple of weeks ago, and must have resulted in it's removal.
Good news: The huge tree which has fallen down on Flat Frog has been re-evaluated by staff and I heard that they have a plan to remove it by sections. It may sound like what Pliebenberg would've liked to do if they let volunteers operate powertools in the park. We might see it gone in two months.
The Pliny tree down, and sign threads are useful. They really help and get things done. Please keep the reports coming. Don't hesitate to ask questions about status etc. as well. It helps to keep pressure on I think.
For next weekend I have my saw's sights on a tree down on Bear Spring Trail.
Again, thanks Skyline35, and good job on the 100k ride. You and the other heroes of this weekend are an inspiration.
Now I know I need to make time in my life to prepare for the 2013 10k, ,100k, and 100 miles of Coe.
Last edited by Sorcerer; 10-07-2012 at 07:20 PM.
Reason: grammar
Skyline, congratulations on the huge ride yesterday!...good job on the 100k ride. You and the other heroes of this weekend are an inspiration.
Now I know I need to make time in my life to prepare for the 2013 10k, ,100k, and 100 miles of Coe.
Thank you!
Paul, these rides are a continuation of an awesome culture which grew out of your annual Solstice rides. And I have no doubt that if you set your mind to it, you could complete the 100 miles.
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Originally Posted by Fast Eddy
