Trail work updates, Aug 8-12, 2016

[heading]Trail work updates, Aug 8-12, 2016[/heading]

Alpine Sproatt Trail

Moving our camp to higher elevation was a great idea mostly because of the commute (the views were supposed to be better too.) Unfortunately this week felt like we moved the camp to the bottom of a lake: 1600m is where the clouds are. It turns out that the inside of a cloud is somewhat "damp".  There was no escaping it. Every surface was wet. Under the tarps, inside our tents, under our skin: wet.I suppose there are also some positives to that moisture: the dirt is tacky, the berries are juicy, flowers are blooming and the scenery changes every 5 minutes. Did I mention the dirt? It's fabulous.We got a lot done working (blindly) in the cloud this week: roughly 400 metres of new trail in three days!#howmuchdoyoubench?[huge_it_gallery id="4"]

Trail Maintenance in Whistler Valley

This week on the maintenance program we finally gained access to Jane Lakes and wow was it ever worth the wait.  We got started by making a plan for all of the work we are going to do which will be a substantial upgrade to the existing line but will maintain the original feel of the trail.  We then brought up a bunch of red cedar slats as there is none at the elevation we are working then shot them across the river on a zip line.  A big thanks goes out to Lorne Russel at the RMOW who lent us one of their brush saws as the WORCA one is up on the Sproatt trail.  Andrew slayed it on the brush saw, he got the first segment of the trail to the first lake and all of the new lines cut back in two days.  I (Zander) got some of the bridging framed and slatted and did some clearing of the corridor. The area here is incredible and we are very excited to make it accessible to a much broader base of users in the near future.  There is quite a bit of work to be done on this trail so if you're on the trail in the next few weeks expect to see work in progress.