The Bear Creek / Boulder Creek trail connecting the Stuart’s Fork drainage with Canyon Creek in the Trinity Alps Wilderness received attention from 5 stalwart crew members during the weekend of July 11 – July 14.
Most of the work was lopping the alder laden north facing slope of this trail, in addition to moving 39 trail crossing logs off of the footpath. There were two large logs towards the top and two towards the bottom, plus a giant root ball, that were beyond our tool sets’ capabilities. Other than these 4 large logs, the trail is in solid condition from Stuart’s Fork to the ridge. We were lucky enough to have great visibility widow from the ridge which provided views of Monument Peak above Weaverville all the way to the Black Lassic, peaking out past South Fork Mountain to the southwest.
Crossing the snow heavy flows of Stuart’s Fork was more challenging than first anticipated, and while we were all nervous, the whole crew rose to the stream crossing challenge.
As fortune would have it, we were lucky enough to have a visit with a couple from Oakland who were celebrating their honeymoon by hiking the Bigfoot Trail, south to north, in its entirety.
Led by the intrepid Bigfoot Trail Volunteer Coordinator Dennis Houghton, the crew also included a physics professor (who had hiked in from Siskiyou County), an international governance specialist, the director of a regional zoo and an education data analyst. Conversations on trail ranged from quantum physics, to birds species, to stories of Bhutan. Local resident Jeff Morris provided local historical context and some intel on the trail itself, having hiked the section a few years ago when Scott Herriott was filming “Asquatchalypse Now: A Season On and Around The Bigfoot Trail.”
The whole crew is looking forward to another adventure opportunity on The Bigfoot Trail.
We appreciate Michael Kauffman for pioneering the Bigfoot Trial and rallying people to
help establish and maintain it for future users. Many thanks and recognition to the hard working trail crew volunteering time and effort on this brush out.