A Day Out of the Office—MHW Marketing Team Repairs Trails on Mount Tamalpais (Hardwear Sessions)

By Victor Ichioka, MHW Creative Services

It was a fine, bay-area-late-spring morning, the sun promising to break through the high fog, when we drove across the Richmond Bridge to Fairfax. The marketing department was on its way to the Sky Oaks office of the Marin Municipal Water District to engage in a day of trail maintenance on the northern slopes of Mount Tamalpais. After assembling and meeting our trail boss, John, we crowded into a shuttle van and rode by Lake Lagunitas and Bon Tempe Lake, through a locked gate, and up a fire road for a couple of miles. We unloaded, got a tool-safety lesson, signed the requisite liability forms, packed up our lunches, chose a couple of tools to carry (our choices: lopper, folding hand saw, shovel, McLeod tool—a combination rake-hoe firefighting implement, Pulaski tool—a hybrid axe-mattock) and headed up the trail.

After a brisk ten-minute hike, John set us to work. The lopper/saw wielders were set to work clearing sections of trail with encroaching vegetation ("Be on the lookout for poison oak."). He said to leave plenty of lateral space on both sides since the next clearing-out of brush wasn't scheduled for another three or four years. The Pulaski/shovel/McLeod gang's task was to even out the trail surface (what John referred to as the "tread") at selected rough spots and to create or improve cross-trail drainage at strategic runoff points. The sun had burned off the fog, but we were in the dappled light under redwoods, Douglas firs, a few coast live oaks, California nutmegs, and a scattering of Madrone. Happy to be away from our desks, we all set to work with a vengeance.

It was a treat to be outside, on undeveloped land, on the slopes of the west bay's landmark peak, doing physical work. It was interesting to observe folks who are ordinarily office dwellers set to their outdoor labors with such vigor and enthusiasm. Underlying the energy, I believe, was a sense of giving something back for all the good times we have all experienced in the outdoors. After lunch, a group of elder-hostel-type hikers passed by and thanked us for doing the work. "No," I thought. "The thanks go to those people who had the good sense and vision to keep this land open so there would be trails that needed occasional maintenance."

Walking back to the van after the day's work, John praised our group for the amount of work we had accomplished. In his words, we had "kicked ass." We rode back to our parked cars, washed off with Technu to ward off the evil poison oak spirits, and celebrated our day of trail work with a pint or two at a San Rafael pub. We went home tired and happy.

Anyone interested in volunteering for trail work can contact Carl Sanders at csanders@marinwater.org.