Newsletter Spring 2002
Trail Maintenace Class
The Advocates for Nisene Marks workday on Sunday, February 24, 2002, was quite a learning experience. Kirk Lingenfelter, the newly appointed District Supervisor responsible for Roads, Trails and Equipment, was looking forward to this initial experience of training “labs” that he organized with the help of Barbi Barry, Equipment Superintendent of the South Sector. With approximately 10 State Parks “instructors” in attendance, we were able to learn the finer points of “trio maintenance” for trail maintenance and (something none of us had ever seen), a “grip hoist” show.
In terms of volunteers, we had 18 hearty soles who met at the kiosk parking lot at 9am. Many of them were repeat customers and were excited to be involved in this new type of classroom. We were glad to see Patti Ciesla and Charles Jalgunas from the Stewards of Soquel Forest in attendance. They have lots of trail building experience but seemed interested in any new information they could obtain.
Most of the volunteers like Jim Belcher, Chris Foster, Carol Cuminale, Mike Hammes, Dan Chen, Chris Chang, Greg and Margrite Weaver and Linda Moore, had previous experience in trail maintenance but came to see how Trio Maintenance proved to be very helpful in increasing our knowledge of how to build great trails. Some of the volunteers who were new to the Advocates work days, like Chris Steele and Credence Shaw were impressed with the level of instruction. And from Trailworkers was Chuck Wisse to get a chance to learn about how large objects, like downed trees, are dealt with. Natasha Perry and Aaron Hunter, of the newly formed responsible bicycle group for Nisene Marks State Park, were there to become familiar with the logistics of maintaining a trail. And Chuck Woodson, a property owner on the border of Nisene, welcomed a chance to see more of the park. Leslie Johnson was there as an equestrian who enjoys the companionship and positive energy from working with volunteers.
Because of the group size, we were able to have 3 locations going simultaneously. One site worked on the removal of a tree that was encroaching on a trail and two groups were performing Trio Maintenance. The groups would work in one location and then rotate so that everyone had a chance to participate in each activity.
Grip hoisting is a process that utilized two hoists and several cables. The principle is to maintain control of an object (in this case a tree but it could also be a boulder) while moving it. One hoist “pulls” while another hoist holds tension to keep the object from breaking loose and rolling out of control. It required teamwork and many people got the chance to be the “rigging boss”.
Trio Maintenance is trail maintenance that incorporated several passes by different people in the same area. One person would start by breaking the area to be refurbished and each person following along would refine the area being addressed. This makes the work go fast and creates uniformity with each person adding to the finished product.
As the photos show, many people came back from this workday with not only a great sense of accomplishment but new knowledge.
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