Lowelifes 2024 Trail Work Review
2024 was a solid year of progress for Lowelifes’ Trail Crew. Our volunteers made a significant contribution to trail restoration within the Bobcat Fire zone. We continued work on many of the trails within our agreement, both with maintenance and restoration.
Our main focus was in the West Fork area of the Bobcat Fire zone. In 2024, we completed the restoration of Rim trail, Kenyon Devore, and also made major progress on Gabrielino NRT heading from Newcomb Pass towards Chanty Flat.
In January 2024, our crew worked 4 days on Rim trail and restoration of this important trail down from Mt. Wilson continued throughout the year. Its steep nature and difficult terminus access made for challenging hikes in and out of the work areas. Rim trail restoration was completed in late 2024.
Full restoration of Kenyon Devore trail is another of Lowelifes’ 2024 accomplishments with our USFS support. Across February and March, our trail crew put in significant hours completing the Kenyon Devore restoration, including expanding a wire retaining wall in a narrow, troublesome drainage area.
In April 2024, due to late season snow, our crew shifted gears to our beloved Condor Peak trail. The trail continues to be popular with hikers & mountain bikers since its restoration. Our team handled much-needed brushing maintenance during April.
In May 2024, Lowelifes’ turned our attention to Idlehour trail. With USFS coordination on materials delivery, our crew successfully built a new sutter wall to hold sediment in a problematic drainage area. This project had been long discussed and planned. The sutter wall installation was a great accomplishment for our crew.
June 2024 found our crew back out on Rim trail pushing thru to the final ⅓ mile of trail to Newcomb Pass. After this weekend, the trail still required bench work to meet our standards of full restoration. However, the trail was now “clear” end to end.
With the heat of summer well on its way, July took a small Lowelifes’ crew into the Chantry Flats area. Based from Sturtevant Camp, our volunteers focused on heavy chainsaw work to remove multiple trees from the corridor. We took time to accurately re-establish the correct trail corridor per previous GPS tracks.
In October 2024, we rallied on the Rim trail and finalized its restoration. 25 volunteers came out and Lowelifes’ was able to bring the benched trail up to our standards. Rim trail has had a long history of very narrow tread and our volunteers brought the trail to a better condition than before the Bobcat Fire.
In November and December 2024, we adjusted our focus to Gabrielino trail from Newcomb Pass heading down into the Chantry Flat area. This section of the Gabrielino has been a priority for Lowelifes as it offers essential connectivity deep into the forest.
We have also made significant progress and coordination on new trail signs for the West Fork area. In late 2024, we presented a close-to-final sign plan for production. The Eaton Fire has delayed our final, in-field confirmation of sign details. In the coming months, we plan to continue this sign planning, confirm all details in the field, and place an order for sign construction to begin via an approved outside vendor.