Lab volunteers join East Bay park trail blazers

Do you hike in parks around the East Bay? Have you ever wondered who built those stone steps or the dirt tread that seems to go on forever? Craig Fish of the Lab's Environmental Protection Department has often asked those questions. He found the answers with the organization "Volunteers for Outdoor California."

Volunteers for Outdoor California (V-O-Cal), is a nonprofit agency, that helps build new and maintain existing hiking trails in the Bay Area.

"With cuts in park operating budgets, volunteers are needed more than ever to help cut new or repair overgrown trails," said Fish, a hiking enthusiast who joined the group and spent five weekends last year as a crew leader in parks from Gilroy to Napa.

Closer to home, volunteers from V-O-Cal completed a trail maintenance project just last weekend — the first of the season — in Las Trampas Regional Wilderness in western San Ramon, a place Fish calls "one of the East Bay Regional Park District's gems."

Volunteers for Outdoor California partnered with East Bay Regional Park District's (EBRPD) to improve one mile of the Sycamore Trail in the remote southwest corner of the park, bringing together 100 volunteers Saturday and 45 volunteers Sunday, assisted by 12 certified V-O-Cal crew leaders and four EBRPD rangers.  

Volunteers from LLNL included: Ginny Dance-Rios, Ayano Kohlgruber and Nancy Reason. Fish managed the 12 crew leaders, interfaced with EBRPD staff on the trail and provided technical supervision on trail standards.

Fish explains that the Sycamore Trail is very steep and narrow in places and rises 700 feet in elevation over one mile; the brush has tried hard to overtake it.

"The work done by volunteers has opened up overgrown and buried sections of the trail and will mitigate erosion on steeper sections," Fish said, adding that the work was performed while minimizing impacts to the Alameda Whipsnake habitat.

According to Fish, there are many beautiful views from Sycamore Trail of undeveloped hills and canyons to the west covered with trees, scrub and grasses.  "There are also views of San Francisco Bay when the low summer fog clears. Winds off the Bay also provide cooling breezes," he said.

The next project by V-O-Cal will take place at Corona Park in San Francisco on Aug. 21-22. Fish says this is an excellent opportunity for those interested in camping in San Francisco and building a brand new trail on a wooded hillside. Corona Heights Park is near the Castro, Cole Valley and Haight-Ashbury districts in San Francisco and boasts some of the best views in the City.

Volunteers on this project will be lending a hand to improve Corona Park — a park that endures a lot of foot traffic, whose trails are suffering from erosion. V-O-Cal volunteers will repair some existing trails, replace steps and improve drainage throughout the site.

For more information or to register for upcoming projects, go to the Volunteers for Outdoor California Website.