Wrestling With Manzanita

BONC had another great day of trailwork at Malakoff Diggins creating a new section of singletrack at the top of the Slaughterhouse Trail.

About ten of us (two with chainsaws) worked this trail until we were ready to retire, drink beer and suck on salsa and chips back at the trailhead.

The trailwork was slow going because of the thick, deep manzanita roots that were so difficult to remove. The next time I work on a project like this, I will insist that we route the trail around such old thickets of manzanita. It is just requires too much effort to cut through this stuff; we have had to work this 1/2 mile section on two days and we are still not done yet.

Having said this, the trail looks really nice and it is in a very pretty area of the park. The plan is to return to finish this trail this fall or winter once we see some rainfall. Stay tuned for details.

In the meantime, you can help out by walking or riding the new section to help settle in the trail and prevent the plants from growing over our work. Just watch out for the remaining manzanita stumps :-)