Gab Dam Bypass Vol. 2

I was wrong again! Those of you familiar with me when we are way out of cell phone service are not surprised. Last month's update ended with an invitation to re-route some washed-out trail, but it turns out we had a lot more prep work to do before tackling that project. So this month, in preparation for future re-routing fun, our amazing volunteers got the entirety of the dam bypass section brushed and the tread scraped!

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Here's an overview of our progress the past couple months.

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This past Sunday, April 19th, a great big group of 25 volunteers splashed their way up the Gabrielino from the JPL trailhead, climbed steeply up over the dam, and got to work. We had a healthy mix show up this time: volunteers of all ages, experience levels, and trail user groups; people from all over the greater Los Angeles area who wanted to connect with nature and help improve other people's experiences in the forest. MWBA welcomes all volunteers, and we are happy to train anyone on sustainable, multi-user, natural-surface trail maintenance techniques.

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A little less than a year ago MWBA volunteers were out maintaining this section of trail, but since then the poison oak has been vigorously encroaching and the upslope side of the trail has been slouching out, over and into the tread corridor. After the effort of getting yourself to the upper Arroyo area--whichever way you get there--going out over the dam and down the Gab is a bit of a gut punch climb. So with the aim to make the Ken Burton loop as pleasant and exhilerating as possible, maintaining and improving this particular part of it is a priority.

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After our invigorating procession up the canyon, up out of the canyon and over the dam, and then back down into the relatively deserted upper Arroyo, our volunteers picked up hoes, rakes, and loppers and got to work. Some of our regular volunteers each took several new or new-ish volunteers and spread out along the work area. With so many hard-working volunteers we were able to fully maintain (brush clear and scrape) approximately 1,400ft of trail, a number that makes my eyes pop out every time I think about it.

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Our volunteers are extra mega dedicated and hard-working but unfortunately there's nothing we can do about the steepness of the hills. What we CAN do though is restore some width to the narrow tread and remove encroaching flora from the trail corridor. It's still a climb whichever way you go, but after Sunday it's much less likely you'll brush up against any poison oak along the way.

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But that wasn't even the full extent of our efforts. Some of our regular volunteers are always champing at the bit on our workdays, eager to push ahead into the thick of it or dig deep on a big project. Since we had such a good group working the main area, I asked three of our hardest-working regulars to pick up tools and hike even further up the Arroyo.

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Up past the bottom of Ken Burton Memorial Trail, near the fading dot on older maps labeled "Shangraw's Rest Stop," a big landslide covered the trail earlier this year. A few of us have been hacking away at it as we had time and found ourselves way up in the Arroyo, but since it happened the several-ton mound of dirt had solidified in place and remained a gnarly obstacle for all trail users. I knew our strike crew could put a huge dent in this problem, but I didn't expect they would clear it entirely! They even made sure it was unlikely to slide over again by removing literal tons of dirt from up above the trail. A truly heroic effort!

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After all the heroism up and down the canyon, our volunteers absolutely earned their banh mi and Topo Chico. We all chowed down as the tools got put away, some of us dipped our toes in the creek, and then we all made our way back down the Gabrielino. Big thanks to everyone who came out!

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As for next month, I'm not going to box myself in! MWBA has several projects we'd like to tackle. Our sawyer teams will be working the Lowelifes Respectable Citizens Club this year on restoring the "lost" section of the Gabrielino between West Fork Campground and Devore Trail Camp (and then up to 2N24 again). We acknowledge that even with the immense user traffic it sees, the Gab between JPL and Paul Little needs some love. Same for the sections above and below Switzer's Picnic Area. And we're keeping a keen eye on restoration efforts in the Eaton Fire burn scar too. Watch our socials and make sure you get notified about our Events on Eventbrite.