The Pine Tree Project

Hi guys

Our next scheduled pine working hike will be on the 7th and 8th April at Garden Castle.

We know of some pines in the Sleeping Beauty and Cod's Eye valleys, so will treat these, and do an assessment/recce for more in the area, although the invasion there does not seem to be too heavy. There is also a lone pine on the slopes below Whyte's and White Horse cave (see RichardHunt's post above), and another on the east side of Sondonzima Ridge, which will also be treated, if manpower, will, and time allow.

The Mountain Club of SA KZN Section has purchased some equipment for us, so we have some good quality machetes and bowsaws available for use, if you don't have your own. Of course, if you have your personal equipment, and prefer to use it, you are welcome

I have arranged the use of Swiman hut for Friday and Saturday nights, so for those that are able, we will stay there from Friday evening, else meet earlyish Saturday morning for the work parties. Sunday leave at leisure.

We have some space available, but I need to let the OIC Garden Castle know as soon as possible how many there are for the booking, so if you are interested, please PM me.

Looking forward to another fun productive pine hike.

Cheers
PapaD

Papa Dragon wrote: Hi guys

Our next scheduled pine working hike will be on the 7th and 8th April at Garden Castle.

We know of some pines in the Sleeping Beauty and Cod's Eye valleys, so will treat these, and do an assessment/recce for more in the area, although the invasion there does not seem to be too heavy. There is also a lone pine on the slopes below Whyte's and White Horse cave (see RichardHunt's post above), and another on the east side of Sondonzima Ridge, which will also be treated, if manpower, will, and time allow.

The Mountain Club of SA KZN Section has purchased some equipment for us, so we have some good quality machetes and bowsaws available for use, if you don't have your own. Of course, if you have your personal equipment, and prefer to use it, you are welcome

I have arranged the use of Swiman hut for Friday and Saturday nights, so for those that are able, we will stay there from Friday evening, else meet earlyish Saturday morning for the work parties. Sunday leave at leisure.

We have some space available, but I need to let the OIC Garden Castle know as soon as possible how many there are for the booking, so if you are interested, please PM me.

Looking forward to another fun productive pine hike.

Cheers
PapaD

Hi all, I will be letting the OIC Garden Castle know toward the end of the week how many to book the hut for. We have 9 confirmed, so still space for a few more.

Please let me know if you are keen to join.

Thanks

Guys
Late notice, but we have the pine hike at garden castle this weekend, We will be camping at Hermit's Wood Campsite, and doing day trips on Saturday to the pines.

Let me know if you are keen to have a fun sociable time, and help to clear our berg of invasive pines, hich are becoming a problem..
Work is no pressure, and at your own pace and time...

After a promising start with 12 people meant to be on the Garden Castle pine hike, we were left with 4 by the Thursday afternoon. Fortunatelywe had 2 latecomers join, which boosted our numbers to 6. Macc, SingleSpeed, Smurfatefrog, 2 American students, Sam and Natalie, and myself. We camped at Hermit's Wood Campsite, which was quite pleasant, but as hikers, we found this hybrid camping/hiking different to what we were used to.

Anyway we had a very successful weekend, with SingleSpeed and I doing 13 tees on the Saturday, and Macc, Smurf, Sam and Natalie doing an epic to treat the 7 trees near Whyte's Cave. .SingleSpeed did a solo on Sunday morning, and bagged 2 more, hich brought our total for the weekend up to 22.

We are finding that the trees in the Southern Berg are more isolated and spread out than in Monk's Cowl, or Cathedral Peak areas. It seems that pines in the south are a generation behind the northern ones. This is more promising from an eradication point of view, but means that we don't find the clusters like further north, which means it is far easier to treat a large number of trees in th north.

There is at least 1 more working hike in the area, with SS and I only treating the valley immediately adjacent to the camp, and not even making it up Sleeping Beauty and Cod's Eye valleys.

Thanks to the team for a good effort, and their dedication. Another beautiful weekend in the Berg, with good company, and good results.

For some reason I can't get pics from my new phone onto here, but I'm sure some of the others will post pics.

Again, without sounding like a stuck LP, please let me know if you would like to get involved in this worthwhile work..

Hi all,

I spent some time at Monk's Cowl last week and noticed significant clusters on the slopes south of the area marked as "Hlatikulu South Slope" on the Pine Tree Project Map (basically the slopes leading into the gorge near Nandi Falls visibile in the first image); as well as in Wonder Valley, in the 2nd image.

I note that there seems to be no or slow progress made there by the EKZNW teams, although there is some progress to be seen in the Nandi Falls area image.

On a positive note, a large solitary pine (3rd image) on the slopes of Keartlands Pass is looking rather yellow!

Hi all

Our next scheduled pine hike is on the 6th to 8th of July.

We will be leavng Drak Sun car park on the Friday morning, and base ourselves in Stable Cave.
Working on the site at the top of Jacob's Ladder.

If you can't make Friday morning, it will be easy to find the rest of the group, either at the cave, or at the worksite.

Come and have some fun, spend some time in tour beautiful Berg, and do some very valuable alien eradication work.
As always, work is at own pace, no pressure.
Hacking equipment available for those who need.

Contact me if you're keen to join..

Stable Cave pine treetrip July 2018  A group of 10 did a pine treehike, basing ourselves at Stable Cave, Monks Cowl area from Friday 6 to Sunday
8 July.   Eight of us, including MarkRobertson, EKZNW OIC at Monks Cowl, got a lift with an EKZNW bakkie to end of
the road towards Jacobs Ladder on the Friday morning. We walked in up the
firebreak to meet the main path, and on to the top of Jacobs Ladder. Our work
area was just over the ridge from the top of Jacobs Ladder, so we got to work,
splitting into 2 groups. Knowing the terrain was steep, we had brought a rope
and some gear, and used this to good effect on pines on the edge of the cliffs.
By the time we called it quits that afternoon, we had cut, ring barked or
uprooted more than 280 pine trees, and cut 4 large wattle trees, and the other
group had done a similar amount. We settled in at Stable Cave, and were
thankful that Mark had kindly arranged for two of his staff to collect and
leave two 25 litre containers of water for us in the cave, as water was quite
scarce in the area. That evening, Jonathan (ghaznavid) and Dave joined us.   Saturday we returned to thesame work area, and finished off all the trees on the upper slope, except for a
few that were left for Hylton to monitor as part of ongoing research. There are
still numerous isolated pine trees (and quite a lot of wattle trees) in the
valley below, and these will be dealt with on another trip. We knocked off in
the early afternoon, and Dave and I took a walk to Vaalribokkop Cave.   On Sunday we walked out,following the lower path towards Makhulumane, and cutting and ring barking a
few isolated pine and wattle trees along the way. We then contoured across to
the top of Steilberg, and descended the steep path down Steilberg. Again we had
the benefit of a lift back on the bakkie.   We were a varied group, someVE members, some MCSA members, and some without any affiliation to either. The
Pine Busters concept is taking off.   Richard ring barking a largepine on the steep slope, made quite slippery with the thick layer of pine
needles on the ground

  Mark and Roger (Papa Dragon)sawing a medium pine. (Photo courtesy of ghaznavid)

  Dave at one of theVaalribokkop Cave sleeping areas.


  Packing up at Stable Cave onSunday morning. We carried the two empty water containers out.


  Richard treating a large ringbarked pine with Kaput.


  The group descendingSteilberg



  The group at the end of thehike. Back fltr Hylton, Robert, Inky, Papa D, tony, Mark, Ryan, ghaznavid and
Dave. Front Richard S.


  From my side, this was myfirst hike after the mild stroke I had at the end of April. I am feeling good,
although it was noticeable that my hiking fitness is not great, and by Saturday
evening I was quite tired. This was a bit unexpected for me on a very easy
hike, but admittedly the pine tree work, and clambering up and down steep
slopes, must have had an effect on this.   I am also running once aweek, and am up to 16 km, the same distance I was running before the mild
stroke, without any troubles. I am hoping to run the September Spring Mnweni
Marathon to make up for missing the May one.

Sorry, for some unknown reason I'm not succeeding to edit the above post, or insert all the photos.

I will try again later.