Trails Update: October 20th, 2023
What rock?
This week, the trail crew continued down Far Out 3, widening the tread to meet Adaptive-MTB blue standard. Pulling stumps and generally digging out the trail’s existing edge is pretty straightforward but a particularly large rock refused to budge… so we got to play with the big drill! Using equipment and techniques introduced to us by a local stonemason (Ken Melamed) we made short work of the (un)cooperative rock: it broke exactly where we nudged it.
I knew heavy weather was coming, and so did the bugs! We experienced an unexpected resurgence of black flies. I thought we were done dealing with pesky pests flying into our eyes and throat. They were so bad that bug nets came back into style. I eventually “threw in the towel” and moved the team to a different worksite (sheltering in the trucks). Insect conditions were better down at Flashback 5 where we tried to armour and cap all the work that volunteers had started at the last trail night of the season. I thanked a sleepy salamander for eating many flies before heading into hibernation.
Is It Edible?
There is no doubt that our summer drought is over after this week’s soaking! Toads and fungi fans rejoice at rising streams and wet socks. While we sipped tea, Michal spent his lunch breaks harvesting for winter. I’ll survive off all of the candy Ben and Garbo delivered to the crew…
The fresh tread we laid down really got put to the test by the sudden saturation. I went out to check up on our work when the atmospheric river let up (Thursday afternoon) and found deep tire ruts in the gooey mineral soil. Time to dry is what the trail now needs to “cement”. This serves as a reminder to please stay off our smooth dirt trails during heavy weather events this Fall. I’m emphasizing this message specifically for this summer’s freshest work: Far Out 3, Flashback 1 and Flashback 5.
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
