Trails Update: Oct 8, 2021
Winter is coming!
I’m getting daily taunts to stock up on socks, gore-tex and the latest powder shapes… that can only mean one thing: it’s time to winterize LOTS. The long term forecast looks good if you’re praying for snow, not so good for clearing drains in the alpine. On the last day of double digit temperature (in the valley), we set off on a cold mission.
The alpine network trails are still closed (by order of the Conservation Officer) due to grizzly bears behaving “bearly”, however, the snow depth alone would have also ended the season for Squirrels laps by now. A “double closure” if you will…
Drains were cleared, tread was out-sloped and we widened the climb section at the treeline.
It’ll be in great shape for next summer!
Getting zapped!!!
With Temperatures dropping, we stayed in the valley for the rest of the week. I’d been saving projects on Hot Dog Alley for this time of the year. The cold rain has made dirt work possible again and we moved a lot of it! We’re wrangling the crux moves back down to the intended blue rating of the trail (intermediate) and smoothing out chunky sections.
Working under the constant buzz of the high tension wires reminded me that I had misunderstood the trail name story: I thought it was related to gas station hot dogs cooking for hours under heat lamps. I was close: It turns out Tim Haggerty’s dog “buddy” kept getting zapped while they built the trail. Also, Tim grew up near Crystal Beach which had an area called HOT DOG ALLEY (All caps. really.).
While making work plans for the week, Renee and I discovered a broken bridge on Danimal North… this immediately jumped to the top of the priority list. Luckily, we had enough decking leftover from Delineator to replace the bridge in a snap. The cold weather is really testing the batteries on the electric saw...
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
