Written by Ryan Kunish, Wild Stew Field Crew Member.
For the third straight hitch we returned to what will become the Stone Cactus Loop, located in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Golder Ranch, to continue working on the many reroutes needed to adopt the longstanding user developed trails known as Cow Pies and Baby Jesus into the official trail system.
After working on the Cow Pies side of the trail for two hitches, we moved over to the Baby Jesus side this time. This saw us working in areas needing even more extensive rock work than our previous work sites, and we had less hands this time to accomplish it. Jen from the Forest Service came out to join us for a day, and the crew endured more wet weather mid hitch.
We ultimately were able to meet our project goals, constructing and connecting .25 miles of reroutes which included building 9 rock retaining walls, 2 of which were almost 20′ long each. Additionally we closed multiple sections of old trail and constructed media lunas to help catch sediment and restore those sections to a more natural state.
It was another wildlife filled hitch, this time including a small snake, tarantula, multiple lizards, and a jerusalem cricket.
