While 100+ brave souls came together to celebrate the dedication of Litton Trail - Phase 1, many others continue working on Phase 2 of the trail.

The extension — which will continue across Sierra College Drive and make about a one-mile loop around the college campus and back down to Sierra College Drive — is being created as we speak, thanks to the efforts of volunteers like Pete Siegfried, Wally Hieronimus, Larry MacMillen and Bill Nickerl. Pete Siegfried is an equipment operator for the U.S. Forest Service who routinely applies his skills to maintain and improve the recreational and multi-use trails and roads of the Tahoe National Forest.

Wally Hieronimus does similar work on the Tahoe National Forest in the Foresthill area. Lately, Wally has been working with Pete on a variety of forest projects.

Bill Nickerl, a charter board member and regular Land Trust volunteer who contributes dozens of hours each week, helped with the construction project, pointing out the approved route, swamping brush, and making sure that the work conformed to the representations that the Land Trust made to the college.

This isn’t Pete’s first donation. Two years ago, Pete worked with local contractor C. K. Beaver who donated a bulldozer tractor for the first Litton Trail project. The Land Trust only paid for the fuel on that effort. Pete transported the tractor, unloading and loading it after a very long day of work. Unfortunately, the tractor broke a hydraulic line on the job, and Pete and C.K. spent the entire next day under the cat fixing it at no cost to the Land Trust.

Pete lives on Greenhorn Road with his wife Cindy, who volunteered her time for the project, too. Pete is active in an outstanding bluegrass band, Mountain Laurel. Somehow, he again found the time to volunteer his incredible talent to the Land Trust and talked his colleague Wally into giving us a hand too.

Pete and Wally’s work, together with the outstanding efforts of project manager Larry MacMillen, of Bill Nickerl, and of the many volunteers that helped clear brush by hand on the route, will help the Land Trust stay on track with their 1998 schedule. The schedule expects to include the use of a Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District grant for gravel surfacing, before winter arrives.