Trails Update: June 7, 2024
Flashback update
Don’t hold your breath just yet… there is still about 300 meters of trail missing, but as promised the pro crew has dropped everything (else) to focus on Flashback’s bridges, bells and whistles. We’ve also started on the new (safer) connection between Flashback 2 and 3. The recent wet weather has made everything slippery and uncomfortable, plus it also exposed the extent of the wetness we need to bridge… almost every bridge will end up longer than our original designs.
I’m thankful to find out sooner than later!
We held our last spring Tuesday night dig session which was sponsored by the Cheakamus Community Forest (We are switching to Sunday mornings as of June 16th!). As I laid out a hefty amount of flagging tape in preparation for the ravenous diggers, I was distracted by a familiar “Tchok! Tchok! Tchok!” sound: A distressed Dark Eyed Junco. These cute ground nesting birds make that sound to lure predators away from their brood and I quickly located the nest: the bird’s home and 4 chicks were right in the planned trail line. Some quick research told me that the family leaves the nest 9-13 days after the chicks hatch so the plan is to leave them alone until they leave on their own… We’ll save building that piece of the trail for last! We prevented the volunteers from pushing through that area and focused on finishing touches to last week’s work (bermy!). Join us for Pancakes and dirt on June 16th by signing up here!
WAS and Rob!
Week 2 of the Whistler Adventure School - Sustainable Trail Building class covered carpentry and trail maintenance. My students prepared all the parts and we built a bridge for the new Flashback 2-3 connection. We installed a sign post that can withstand the heftiest of leans and got familiar with using some specialty tools: Pulling stumps with the Tirfor (Cable puller) and breaking boulders into usable rocks with the hammer drill. I knew those rocks would be put to good use soon… Rob was in town again for his spring shift on the trail crew. The “big rock aficionado” placed the freshly split Basalt chunks in the newest bridge’s ramps. Rob joined us for more carpentry than usual on the big Flashback bridges too. He also got to use his “rock savvy” to set up some solid bases that will keep the wooden parts high and dry. Thanks Rob, Joaquim, Flo and Filipo!
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
