Trip Report

Snow flurries greeted eight volunteers at the Fox Hollow parking lot. Matt McRae, the Eugene Parks and Open Space supervisor, provided coffee, fruit and pastries while he explained the project. At 9:15, we headed up the Ridgeline Trail in falling snow past freezing trilliums to what had to be the muddiest spot on the trail. Matt Bell and Dan Olmstead immediately headed back down with the motorized wheelbarrow for more logs. Peter Green and Jim Pierce engineered their motorized wheelbarrow in the other direction down to 52nd and Willamette for a load of gravel. The rest of us needed to piece together a “Lincoln Log” framework to hold the gravel. Matt McRae, chainsaw operator, shaped the notches while we dug trenches in the mud to place the “dead man” logs perpendicular to the notches. The hard work was pounding the stakes to stabilize the logs. The sun came out and the snow quickly melted. An hour later, the power wheelbarrow guys returned with adventure stories about a tip over that unfortunately caused them to reload the logs and reshovel the gravel. Everyone pitched in to complete the framework. It was now ready for the Lane County Youth Services to bring up the rest of gravel in the following week. Lane County Youth Services has a contract with the city to spread gravel up the trail from 52nd and Willamette. Trail runners and hikers who sloshed around us in the mud offered many thanks. Matt congratulated the group on a job well done. Smeared with mud, all of us concurred when one volunteer said, “We kicked butt!” Back at the parking lot at 12:45, I estimated that we had contributed 28 hours for this project.

Trail maintenance is usually the last Saturday of the month. Contact Peter Green at 510-1151 or <a href="mailto:trails@obsidians.org">trails@obsidians.org</a> for information about the next trail maintenance on Saturday, April 26th. Email is the easiest way for Peter to keep volunteers informed about the meeting place and description of the work.

Participants: Rick Ahrens, Matt Bell, Max Green (Peter’s brother, high school senior), Peter Green (leader), chair of committee, Janet Jacobsen (reporter), Myriah Marid, Jim Pierce, and Dan Olmstea.