Ben Lomond Trail - report provided by SBTS crew leader, Henry O'Donnell
5-24-10 The SBTS started the week with an eight man crew consisting of Coz, Max, Maggie, Eric Stringer, Jim, Chuck, Mark and Henry. Chuck and Eric went up the trail and continued logging out the trail until they reached the snow line, cutting out 16 more trees and covering approximately 500 feet of trail. The majority of the crew worked on a 64 foot long and two foot tall rock wall in an extremely wet section of trail. Most of the wall was completed, but some work was left for the next day. Coz and Max built a 14 foot long wall that is four feet tall, then did touch up rock work, chiseling and braking rock until they caught up with the rest of the crew.
5-25-10 Will came down making us a nine man crew and we all continued doing rock work. The 64 foot rock wall form the day before was completed, and two more were started, but not finished before we were rained out. The crew spread out and worked on a nasty root section, a 34 foot by 4 foot wall and a 24 foot by 2 foot rock wall. All the work was in the same wet section of trail covering an additional 128 feet of trail.
Report provided by Crew Supervisor, Ron Heard. Mills Peak Trail – Upper Trail Segment 6/17/10 Work continues at a steady pace on Mills Peak Trail. Currently the tractor is at the. 59 mile (3115’) point on the upper trail segment, right past the second switchback. This switchback was in steep terrain and required 2 rock walls. The building was hampered by embedded rocks and a lack of dirt to use for building materials. The trail climbs 188 feet over this distance. Of this section,. 18 miles (950’) will require finish work and the rest is complete. In addition 2 rocks will need to be blasted at the. 45 mile point. We tried to use the jackhammer attachment for the tractor here, but the rock proved too tough. We believe the attachment would work fine in more fractured rock. Ron Heard, Dave O and Brett Marty have spent about 150 hours on this section. The cost is fairly low thanks to the trail day. Volunteers beyond the trail day include Melinda Heard, Scott Brand and Dustin Cardoza. Local Daniel Ransom is planning to join us for a day or 2 a week from now, and Crew 1 will be back after they finish the Red Clover burn project.
Report provided by SBTS Crew Leader, Ron Heard. Narrowed the tracks, removed the blade extensions, and made the squeeze. 1/4" to spare. Had to use the boom to lean the tractor, while using every control lever and a rcok bar to mojo the tractor through. We had planned to bust the rock wider or saw a bunch of trees and go around, but several volunteers/friends stopped us and said the squeeze was to cool to alter. Brett had his tape and insisted we could make the squeeeeeze. Though he looked doubtful... Greg and I first flagged this several years ago, and it was good to finally be there. He had a gleam in his eye when we flagged it, as he knew this section was special. After carving a swath to the squeeze we spent most of the day hand buffing the long section below this and let me tell you it will be sweet to ride. Lots of twists and turns, grade reversals, rock ramps and so on. Too many rocks to blast and too big to remove, but they are nicely ramped now. Hikers will enjoy the section too. We are about a half mile in at this point in the new section, with most, but not all of the hand work done as well. Tomorrow will be some saw and stump work, rock picking, raking, and another switchback.
Project Leaders: Henry O’Donnell and Ron Heard. 11 SBTS volunteers were joined by 18 members of Crew 1, a fire fighting team on the Plumas National Forest based in Beckwourth to help build over a thousand feet of trail. A few days before, Brett and Ron drove the trail tractor almost a mile through the snow to get to the work site, which was mostly free of snow thanks to the sunny location. Henry led the Crew 1 saw team up ahead on the trail to get them started clearing hazard trees, and fallen trees from the trail corridor. He then returned to the trail tractor to rough cut trail all day. I started the rest of Crew 1 clearing timber and brush from a wide trail corridor, while the SBTS volunteers did extensive finish work on trail that had been cut by the tractor over the previous 2 days. This crew did a great job, helped by SBTS Crew members Matt and Cody, as well as Melinda. At 2:30 I suggested we start packing up and heading out for cold beer. The SBTS volunteers refused to leave until they finished a big switchback which loomed just ahead. Henry arrived just in time with the tractor to do some heavy work, while other volunteers dug like crazy to finish the switchback. We didn’t leave until well after 3:00. Crew 1 stayed until about 4:00. Melinda and I joined John and Nica the next day to ride the trail from the bike shop to the tractor. We missed first tracks on the new section, as Dustin Cardoza and his friend Chris Barbara from Reno got there ahead of us. They rode up, grabbed tools out of the stash, and proceeded to put the finishing touches on the switchback they had worked on the day before. 
GRAEAGLE, CALIFORNIA, The prospect of building and discovering new trails brought 206 volunteers to Graeagle for the first annual Lost Sierra Trail Daze event in celebration of National Trails Day.
