Completed bridge over Little Carson Creek. For more pictures, see our Facebook album.
Over a three-week period in February, crews from MMWD’s Watershed Maintenance staff and Conservation Corps North Bay built a beautiful log footbridge over Little Carson Creek on the east side of Kent Lake. The new bridge, located at the foot of Little Carson Trail in an area called Big Trees Grove, was built to keep foot traffic out of the creek. It is part of a larger project designed to improve water quality and fisheries habitat while creating a safer and more sustainable hiking trail. Other future elements of the project include converting a 100-year-old logging road to a trail and removing two culverts to minimize road-related sediment delivery to Little Carson Creek and Kent Lake.
The base and footings of the footbridge were made from a large, 48-inch diameter, 50-foot long redwood tree that had fallen many years ago near the work site. Based on the tree’s rings, MMWD Watershed Maintenance Supervisor Carl Sanders estimated its age at over 300 years old when it fell. Using ropes and cables, the crews were able to drag the tree 200 feet upstream without damaging the stream and its banks.
The handrails, made from a smaller redwood tree, are attached to the log base by mortise and tenon joinery. The completed bridge enhances the natural beauty of the grove and allows hikers to cross the stream safely without damaging the stream and its banks.
Got a map? Love to go and check out the bridge. Link to a PDF?
To check out the bridge, hike the Little Carson Trail down past Carson Falls about one mile until you reach a grove of old growth redwoods and the bridge. See the watershed map on our website for directions to Little Carson Trail: http://www.marinwater.org/controller?action=menuclick&id=620
I have been hiking the Little Carson valley for 27 years since I first moved to Marin. What I can not understand is why this was done? The bridge where it was before was fine and looked so natural like it had been there for ages.
They have now cut it in half, dragged up stream through all the vegetation, and then added some very unnatural hand rails. Why was this project needed?
Hi Sandy,
The relocation of the Big Trees Log Bridge was the latest phase of a multi-year Little Carson Trail Improvement Project. The existing trail to the bridge had washed out from a large slide. A new sustainable trail alignment, avoiding the slide, required that the bridge be relocated. The log was carefully moved upstream on skids to avoid impacts to soils and vegetation. Rails, constructed of local redwood, were added for safety, as the new bridge was installed considerably higher off the channel to avoid flood waters. By re-using the existing log, we were able to maintain the rustic character of the structure that both provided access and complemented the incredible beauty of the Big Trees area.
In previous years, along the upper section of this same trail, we have re-routed and added another rustic redwood log bridge to reduce impacts to the breeding areas of the foothill yellow-legged frog at Carson Falls, as well as improve water quality and visitor safety.
This summer, we are planning to implement the final phase of this multi-year project, converting the road from Kent Pump to Big Trees to a sustainable trail. This work should also reduce erosion, improve visitor safety and water quality into Kent Lake.