Portola Trail Crew

The Portola Trail Crew is organized by the Portola and Castle Rock Foundation and meets monthly (generally on the second Saturday but sometimes varies) to do trail work at Portola Redwoods State Park. We work in conjunction with State Parks management and to their standards (see their handbook here) to supplement their team in maintaining trails. If you would like to be on our mailing list please email [email protected]. You can sign up here to be a volunteer at a work day. Click here to sign up as a State Parks volunteer (not required).

We meet at 9:00 am at the Ramada or Madrone parking area (check the event details) at Portola Redwoods State Park. Here is a park map showing locations. Please arrive before 9 so we can start on time. We work until 3:00 pm but it’s fine if you need to leave earlier – just let your crew leader know.

Please bring gloves, lunch (carry with you to eat on trail), and plenty of water (at least 2 liters). We recommend long sleeves and pants to protect from poison oak and insects. State Parks requires all volunteers to be fully vaccinated, new volunteers will need to email us your vaccination card. Volunteers under 18 are welcome but must be accompanied by an adult.

After the workday, please check for ticks and if you find one here is information about how to get it checked. Also you should assume you have been in contact with poison oak. Shower with detergent soap (dish soap is commonly used) or a product like Tecnu. I put all my outer cloths in the washer right away and wash them separately.

If you are curious to learn more about the tools we use, this is a nice article that shows the most commonly used tools.

We don’t typically use power tools but are specifically prohibited from April to September because it’s the mating season for the endangered Marbled Murrelet, here’s an interesting recent article about this unique bird.