Ethan Edwards of Wildomar Troop 2011 completes his eagle project

Ethan Edwards, on his way to being an Eagle Scout in Wildomar Troop 2011, completed his eagle project on April 26th 2013. He made improvements on the San Juan Loop Trail located across the street from the candy store on Ortega Highway.

He worked with Debra Clarke of the Cleveland National forest Service making plans to build a roof for the map kiosk at the San Juan Loop trailhead, installing a bench at the overlook of the waterfall ½ mile in on the trail, and adding sign posts to mark the trail while cutting off shortcuts to help people stay on the trail. Reyes Construction based out of Pomona donated the lumber for the roof and $200.00 to help with the project. Zack Norwood from Capistrano Hardwoods helped with the plans and cut all the lumber for the roof. Lowe’s in Murrieta donated joist hangers, nails, and shingles for the roof. The forest service also had supplies and tools for Ethan and the volunteers to use, they had the paint, bench, sign posts, concrete, and power tools for installing the bench and trail markers. EVMWD donated cases of water for the volunteers.

Ethan had been working for a few months gathering signatures and getting the green light for the project through the forest service and the BSA. Then he had to refine the plans and gather supplies, luckily he got the very generous donations so he did not have to fund raise for this project at all. Ethan’s older brother Jakob Edwards also worked with Debra Clarke when he did his eagle project and we knew that the forest service would be able to help Ethan find the right project and have a lot of tools and supplies necessary for the project.

The first big volunteer work day was April 19th at our house where Ethan had all the lumber painted and assembled most of the roof structure. The next work day was April 26th at the location of the trail. Volunteers gathered at 8 a.m. where Debra Clarke held a safety meeting. There were 2 teams, one team hauled tools and materials down the trail to install the bench and sign posts and one team stayed up at the kiosk in the parking lot finishing the roof and attaching it to the kiosk. Everyone gathered near the end of the day to help with the roofing paper and shingles and doing touch up painting. Anyone not working on the roof was in the parking lot collecting trash. The project is now complete and he is looking forward to his Eagle Board of review, the last step to becoming an Eagle Scout.