This
year’s trails weekend was a great success with a number of projects that had
been identified at the 2007 weekend successfully completed.
JC
Trail—Drag Lake section -
The trail has been impassable
for several years because of the combined effect of a logging and severe
weather. The greatest obstacle was the great number of trees that had been blown
down and covered the bottom of the valley between the road and the campsite.
Over the weekend, a new trail route was flagged, cleared and marked.
The
new trail route goes around the valley, although slightly longer, provides and
easier grade up and down the height of land bordering the valley.
The JC Trail from the road
north east to Mislaid Lake was also cleared and re-marked.
GT—High
Falls section -
Volunteers restored the bridging that supported the trail sections over Bartley
Beaver dam. Trail markings were improved.
Pikes
Peak Trail - Trail
improvements were made at both the gorge and the Minnie Lake ends of the Pikes
Peak trail. Retired rappelling cliff ropes were used to establish hand holds for
climbing or descending the gorge and the Minnie Lake end of the trail. This will
not only improve the ease and safety of the two ends of the Pikes Peal
ascent/descent but should slow down the erosion of the soil at these points and
provide a better alternative hand hold to the trees beside the trail,
particularly at the gorge end.
The weekend’s work crew
consisted of 2008 staff members Rob Owens, Jamie Simmons, Steve Coyle, Ana Maria
Jaimes, Anna Walas, Andrew Mecke, J.T. Pickering, Emily Simmons, Catherine
Hough, Sal Alberti, Alumni members Grant Lafontaine (Trails Chiar) Dean
Janowski, Katherin Green, Jeff Lake, Barbara Hough, Mark Purcell and Warner
Clarke, plus guest volunteers, Beth Hoen, Monica Nelson, Bill Mansfield and
Graham Mansfield.
Mark and Jeff kept us all
well fed during the weekend. Rob organized an extreme monopoly tournament and
Bill, Graham, Beth and Warner provided some evening tunes.
