Petalumans of Yesteryear, Friday, April 25th, Petaluma CA
And it garners the Mia Monroe Seal of Approval
By Sam Whiting, Reporter April 26, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
Near the top of a newly constructed switchback trail in Muir Woods is an enormous log bench carved from a salvaged ancient redwood trunk. It’s there so hikers in the primeval Marin County forest can take a break from the hilly trek amid trees as old as 1,500 years.
It’s also there for contemplation as to how a bench weighing nearly a ton found its way onto a steep, slippery mountainside.
The answer: It came down a 700-foot long zip line from a staging area — one of the many low-tech engineering miracles performed by a National Park Service crew on the 1.5-mile Ben Johnson Trail in Muir Woods National Monument.
“Muir Woods is a place for walkers and a place for hikers, and the Ben Johnson Trail is critical to the hiking experience,’’ said Mia Monroe, who retired after 50 years as a park ranger there. “It offers a link from Muir Woods to Mount Tamalpais. It is way out there. It is quiet and it is isolated, a place where people can have a redwood experience all to themselves.”
Muir Woods hiking trail reopens after $1.8 million ‘historic style’ restoration
Greg