Yesterday, Monday, November 21, 2022, the FOSM Trails Maintenance Crew hiked Crest Trail 130 South from the Crest to Tree Spring Trail and down to remove fallen trees reported in a recent posting by Jamey Browning and to do other work as needed. We found all the trees in Jamey's report plus ten others in areas he did not hike. By day's end, the crew had removed thirty-three fallen trees and parts thereof. The trees ranged in size from three to seventeen inches in diameter. Crosscut type saws and other hand tools were used for this work. It appeared that most of the fallen trees or associated debris were brought down by the recent high wind event on the mountain. Unlike the usual variety of dead and dry fallen trees, the vast majority of materials on the ground this time were green. All the large portions of the fallen materials were removed, but some of the small, green fir branches were firmly frozen in the snow and will remain in place until the Spring thaw.

It was fortunate that eight of our members reported for this project. That gave us the opportunity to divide into two, four person teams which worked in a "leap-frog" manner to do the work. A smaller crew would have certainly resulted in a return trip to finish all the work. As far as we know, the thirty-three trees removed Monday is the second largest number of trees removed by our FOSM trail maintenance crew in one day. If memory is correct, the record for trees removed in one day is thirty-seven, set a few years ago by a FOSM trail maintenance crew consisting of two chain sawyers and other crew members hiking down all of Switchback trail on snowshoes. (Note - Our crews do not go out to set records. Safety is always our primary concern.)