Volunteers meet with Scouts of America to start working on this project. Here, they are learning about all of the tools that they will need to build, deconstruct, and maintain the trail.
There were a few different issues at Castle Rock that the TRTA addressed through this trail rehabilitation and reroute project.
First, Castle Rock is a Peregrine Falcon nesting area. In recent years, the U.S. Forest Service, Tahoe Institute for Natural Science, and the TRTA had put temporary signs in the area indicating whether or not the Peregrine Falcons are nesting. However, this temporary solution was not successful as hikers and climbers tended to ignore the signage. We have now installed 7 permanent Peregrine Falcon signs to better protect their habitat. Second, as users approach Castle Rock there were several social trails that splintered off into multiple directions which created confusion. To combat this confusion and prevent further damage to the area, we also installed 7 directional signs. Modified alignments for hiker and upper climber trails have been completed. The old trail and multiple user-created trails were closed, blocked, and rehabbed. TRTA volunteers are continuing to monitor these improvements and they seem to be working very well.
The TRTA constructed 0.5 miles of new trail and decommissioned and closed 0.8 miles of trail. 30 hazard trees were felled by the U.S. Forest Service, which were then used to block user trails so that the ecosystem can recover. TRTA volunteers cut up 29 trees to use for rehabilitation and to open the new sustainable route. Overall, more than 11,000 volunteer hours were spent this spring physically working on this multi-phase project and over 400 hours of volunteer and staff time were dedicated to planning and prepping for this project.
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