If these logs could talk, they’d have an unusual story to tell. The old-growth redwood logs were recently used to renovate a switchback trail connecting the bottom of Muir Woods with the Dipsea Trail in Mount Tamalpais State Park. The timber was fashioned into stairs, retaining walls and a bridge to refurbish the Ben Johnson Trail, a short but challenging climb originally constructed decades ago.
Historically, some of the trees thrived for hundreds of years along what is now Kent Lake on the western end of the Mount Tamalpais Watershed. After the dam was raised in 1982, the lake’s capacity doubled, upending some of the old-growth redwoods along the lakeshore.
Adriane Mertens, spokesperson for Marin Water, told SFGATE how some logs were used as a “boom,” or a floating barrier in the reservoir that protects the dam and spillway from floating debris. Others were stockpiled and reserved for future projects.
Decades after falling, the redwood logs are now finding a second life several miles away in one of the Bay Area’s most popular national monuments…