Bear Mountain Construction – Nov. 28-29, 2012 – More Progress
Nov. 28
It was an eerie start to the day as a dense fog hung low in the Crystal Springs Marina Basin. Capt. Dan expertly steered us to our destination.
Four Traildogs groomed .27 miles. The total distance of new groomed trail is now 1.41 miles. The Traildogs also removed a dead tree near the new bench at Traildog Vista. The crew from Progressive Trail Design is about a mile ahead of us. Now that the crew is back on their pace, they predict a Dec 7 completion date. They have about 1.5 miles remaining.
USFS staff, Tom Ledbetter, Jake Raines and Chris Ham were on the trail today. Their mission was to replace trial course flagging that recently disappeared.
Thursday and Friday will be the last work days until the dig crew reaches Brady Mtn Road. It is currently a 4 mile ATV ride one way to our work site. Work may resume Monday, Dec 10 from the Brady Mountain Trailhead. Stay tuned.
Nov. 29
Four trail dogs were greeted at the work site by an eagle catching updrafts between Little Bear and Big Bear Mountains. We were altereed to his presence by his screeching. That was a rare experience. One may be lucky enough to see an eagle in the wild. This time – we heard him, too.
USFS Jake Raines joined us during lunch. His task today was to GPS the trail from where it crosses the creek between Little Bear and Big Bear Mountains to the most easterly construction site.
During the afternoon, we were joined by Ed and Sue Hawkins. They were riding their mountain bikes. It was Sue’s birthday, and her present from Ed was to ride the new trail and have dinner in Hot Springs. It was a great day to do both. Ed and Sue even took time from their ride to groom some trail – Thank You! Ed related how the lake vista reminds him of the Grand Canyon vistas. The further along the north face of Big Bear Mountain you get, the bigger the vista and the lake seem to be.
Today’s grooming length was .34 miles. We have groomed a total of 1.78 miles of new trail since the first week in November. We are now riding ATVs 4.33 miles to our work site.
Friday will be the last day of trail work until further notice as we wait for the Progressive Trail Design team to complete the new trail to Brady Mountain Road. We hope to resume work in about a week, when we will be starting construction from Brady Mountain Road, rather than leaving from Crystal Springs Marina.
Here are some more views from Traildog Vista: