"Tis the season to do trail work

Since the Sierra is under snow, I've been looking for ways to keep my trail work skills up to speed, and I've found a few projects around Napa that have done that in spades. While today I spent a few hours clearing the local riverbanks of French broom and wild berry vines, yesterday I was back up at Soscol Headwaters park building armored trails.

Here's fellow volunteer Steve working at fitting the rocks into a tight pattern. Note the size of some of these rocks. Tha's a rock sling behind him, because many of these are too large for any one person to lift on his or her own. This is real stonework!

And what, you may ask, is an armored trail? It's one that is built up with rocks set in permanently to withstand mad mountain bikers even in the muddy season. We don't finish the entire trail this way--only those sections that are likely to have a steady supply of water in the rainy season. And when it is all done, it looks like this:

Built to last by your friendly trail volunteers.