The Oakland Tech High School mountain bike team worked hard and smart on 1/28/23. They improved drainage on trails in Joaquin Miller Park. This was coordinated by their head coach, Bill Carson. In attendance were 31 young athletes and coaches. We held a safety talk first that lasted 15 minutes. We all then started drainage work on the Camp Trail, where the team built exemplary rainwater drain knicks. In terms of erosion control, some coaches seemed like experts in their knowledge and craft, even though it was their first time doing trail work. When asked, a coach replied that this was because he had attended the recent online trail crew training BTCEB offered to Oakland NICA coaches.
Because of the larger size, we then broke out into two working groups. Bill led half the group which had prior trail work experience and headed to the Cinderella Trail. I worked with the mild half of the group on the northern portions of the Big Trees, and Sequoia Bayview, where we stopped frequently and had great learning discussions.
We are always learning. For example, we did not have trash bags. Necessity is the mother of invention. So each group instead carried a bucket for picking up the trash we found on the trail. A bucket can be re-used, whereas a trash bag cannot. Plus, the bucket also carried a small saw, this way allowing the cutting back of non-native plant species that had died and fallen over the trail after the recent storms. Plant-loving coaches demonstrated different phone Apps used in identifying plant species during our hike. A thank you goes out to the admirable young athletes and coaches that worked so hard, and smart, on this day to make a difference in our park!
