Benefield: Cross country runners leave trail of good works at Annadel

Sometimes nature can use a helping hand.

Cross country runners from a handful of area high schools are pitching in their time and sweat to give Trione-Annadel State Park - the unofficial training ground for scores of prep runners in Sonoma County - a consistent helping hand and boost against steady trail erosion.

Spearheaded by Maria Carrillo High School cross country coach Greg Fogg, the Annadel Trail Project aims to inspire athletes to give back, repair, rebuild and rededicate themselves to the trails we all share.

“I think it shows our dedication,” said Maria Carrillo sophomore runner Austin Rogers.

And cross country is unique in that the playing field is out there, in a public park.

“With other sports, you have the school board maintain it for you,” she said. “With cross country, it’s really cool because we can make a difference. We run the trails, that’s our course. The fact that we can help the place where we train, it seems kind of cool, to be honest.”

For months, athletes have converged on their focus area - the Canyon Trail to Spring Creek Trail loop. Under the direction of the Sonoma County Trails Council, athletes are clearing ditches to allow water to flow not down the middle of the trail but in a channel down the side.

“You walk in in the morning and it doesn’t even look like a ditch, it looks like a bunch of weeds,” said Ken Wells, executive director of the nonprofit Sonoma County Trails Council. “Within three hours we are seeing the results of their efforts ... We probably clear 500 feet of trail in a morning.”

What is that saying - “Many hands make light work”? That’s the hope here.

And the many hands being marshaled belong to area athletes who are being asked to think again about the land beneath their feet.

“Greg has been amazing. Greg has been the driving force, getting the kids lined up, the teams,” said Christy Hirsch, a volunteer who is helping coordinate the athletes and coaches with trails council mentors. “Ken is coming in, providing the skills, ability, tools, know-how.”

Each work session is prefaced with an instruction session and quick tutorial.

What is remarkable, Wells said, is the consistency of this effort.

“This isn’t the first time that it’s happened, but it’s rare. I have had a couple of different groups, it’s one day and that’s it. In this particular case, this is unique,” Wells said. “We’ve taken (Annadel Trails Project) under our wing. We’ll give you the guidance and the leadership and support to make this happen and you provide the energetic bodies.”

Crews from Sonoma Academy, Santa Rosa, Montgomery and Roseland University Prep have already chipped in. Members of Empire Runners are also on board, according to Fogg.

The idea is to meet at 9 a.m. the second Sunday of every month at the Vietnam Veterans Trail Head off of Carrissa Avenue in Bennett Valley. Sometimes it’s runners from one school, sometimes it’s a mixed bag of athletes.

Last Sunday, the Santa Rosa Junior College cross country team got in on the action.

“The quality of the trails is really important to us,” said David Wellman, head coach of the Bear Cubs squad. “We thought it would be good to give back to the park that gives us so much.”

Wellman assumed he’d have to twist some arms to get 13 runners to show up.

“I was actually really surprised,” he said. “I thought that I would have a struggle. We train and race six days a week and sometimes Sunday is the only day they get to rest. I didn’t have to ask them twice; they were happy to get out there. It was a team bonding experience, too. They were working together on something that they feel is important.”

Rogers, too, said the work day gave her a chance to see teammates in a different light.

“It was getting to talk to them in a setting that is not just running. I got to know them,” she said.

Still, I had to wonder - are crews of folks wielding tools doing nature a service or getting in the way?

The idea, Hirsch said, is to simply help nature do its thing.

“We are in a nature preserve,” she said. “Clippings? We have to make them disappear. We have to be sensitive that we don’t make new water runoffs. Ken is teaching us along the way.”

Wells said the area where runners are focusing their attention first - Canyon Trail - is a former road. Helping recraft drainage makes sense because the road is not native to the landscape.

“The trail isn’t natural. It was imposed on the land by people,” Wells said.

Mix steep trails, weed-choked channels and a little bit of rain and you have the beginnings of ruts.

“Now (water) is getting trapped on that trail and the trail is taking it somewhere else. (It gets) deeper and deeper and you don’t have a trail anymore, you have a rut,” he said.

And the ruts grab ankles, mountain bike tires and horse hooves.

“It matters because if you start to wash away the middle of the trail, it’s uneven,” said Maria Carrillo junior Ben Lawson.

Go down and “that could be the end of your season as a runner. As a biker, you hit that, you fall and ‘Bam,’ it’s a big crash.”

Lawson wasn’t the first to say it feels good to hear people say thanks as they pass.

“It’s hard work but I enjoy hard work. I like doing it,” he said. “It means something to people. It’s always nice to hear thanks when people go by.”

What would be better? If people joined in. If those who enjoy Annadel’s awesomeness gave a little bit of time and sweat back to the park.

“Let’s bring dedicated users of the park and let’s reinvest,” Hirsch said. “Let’s plant the seed to grow in a bigger scale.”

Wells says he’s hopeful. The trails council will celebrate 50 years of volunteerism and stewardship next year. The next wave of young volunteers is just the boost it needs.

“So that is exciting,” he said. “They see a difference afterwards, creating this idea of volunteerism as something you do as part of being in the community.”

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”