Building a rock border to prevent “trail creep”

Our current trail rehab project is well underway! The specialized crew we’ve brought in to undertake this endeavor, American Conservation Experience (ACE), is hard into the second “hitch” or work segment of the project, which is scheduled to wrap up on May 21. These improvements are designed to last beyond our lifetimes and will help ameliorate the rougher bits of SOT’s upper trail section.

The first hitch went pretty well, save the need to navigate a bit of poison oak and a quick visit from a rattler.  Morale is good and the crew assigned to this project are determined, mighty and enthusiastic.

Boulders are hauled up the trail with a tiny, tank-like mover

A little info about ACE:
ACE is a non-profit that provides invaluable environmental service opportunities for young adults and emerging professionals of all backgrounds to explore and improve public lands while gaining practical professional and field experience through meaningful, hands-on conservation. They recruit, coordinate and train them to participate in practical environmental restoration projects in U.S. national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other public lands. Some of the other types of projects they undertake include forest thinning and fuels reduction, habitat restoration, invasive species, historic preservation, wildlife surveying & monitoring. ACE has been our go-to for trail rehab for years.