Trails Update: July 23-27, 2018
[heading]Trails Update: July 23-27, 2018[/heading]Taking out the “Trash”With the thermometer and fire rating getting extreme, we tried to beat the heat by working riverside. “Trash” had some sections that were slumping away. We replaced rotten wood supports with fresh cedar or rock. Lots of rock. Lucky for us, Lex the endurance runner helped all day! To re-cap the trail, we used refreshing river water to make sticky “putty”.Solitude“Trash” was a busy place! We’ve not worked through so much traffic all season. I needed some quiet time: It was time to return to Jane lakes to harvest some berries... OH YEAH! It’s a funny problem when berry bushes are overgrowing the trail. It wasn’t all gorging though: we managed to re-open a raw route around the north side of Jake lake (the upper lake). Like for most of the “Jane Lakes Trail”, creek crossings currently involve walking across a log. Getting to Jane Lake (and down to the Sea-to-Sky Trail) is still WAY OVERGROWN! We’ll hopefully get to that in September (because it’s VACATION TIME for the trail crew!)Troll bridge or Bridge Troll?Driving down from Jake Lake, the crew was excited about connecting the route (we did push past our normal quitting time to get it done... and/or being on vacation for 2 weeks). Renee will be hiking on the Olympic Peninsula, Benoit’s going riding in the Kootenays, Pat’s sticking to big rides near home and I’m hitting up Revelstoke for the first time. Tension was rising as I struggled to unlock the gate, …, for minutes. “Did someone change the lock on us?” No. I was trying to use the wrong key.Oops.We laughed back into our vacation excitement but just for a brief moment. Rounding a corner to see a really big excavator blocking the bridge. We were “trapped”.First thing to try: look for the keys... no luck (this machine looked brand new and had even had computers and fancy cup holders).Next: Call everyone that might know anything about why this machine was there. “Uh oh. I have no cell reception!” Thanks, Telus. The irony that this road leads to one of their cell towers is short, as, Benoit proclaims: “Rogers has reception!” (they also have a tower at the top of this particular FSR). It’s after normal business hours and predictably: no one answers.Last resort: Call Todd Hellinga. I caught him in the nick of time before he left for the Toonie Race. “I don’t know who else you could call to move that machine at this point, but I can pick you guys up”. Thanks Todd!So the vacation would not start until the next day. After recovering Renee’s truck... and inspecting/making a workplan for the riverside zone... and payroll... and typing this report.Time to hit “send”.See you in 2 weeks!Dan Raymond