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May 15th,
2005
Cox Hill |
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On Sunday, May 15th,
Roy Scarisbrick and Carol Guthrie organized a group of keen mountain bikers
to do some trail repair work for
Friends of Kananaskis on the Cox Hill trail. We arrived at the Dawson
parking lot at 9 am to meet Jeff Eamon, trial maintenance foreman, for
Alberta
Community Development, Parks and Protected Areas. Jeff and two others
from his crew were there to direct and help work on the trail. We arrived to
find a truck loaded with shovels, rakes, pulaskis (an axe type tool), saws
and wheel barrows. We each grabbed a couple of tools and set off up the
trail
Our main task was to rework the trail to reduce water erosion and to bring
the trail back to the original width. Over time trails becomes dipped in the
middle resulting in a channel for water to run down which leaves deep
runnels and over time washes away the trail. So with our pulaskis and
shovels we dug away the outside berm and sloped the trails to the outside so
the water would naturally run off the trail. This meant a fair amount of
soil, rock, and root removal and then raking the excess material down the
slope. We also put in several drainage ditches on the steeper sections to
ensure that water will not run down the trail. |
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Swinging Pulaskis - the following pictures shows the crew
leveling the trail, digging roots and rocks and sloping the outside of the
trail.
(Click images for larger view.) |
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Rob Beckett |
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Reid Snitka |
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Glenda
Misurelli |
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Roy Scarisbrick |
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Perry DeWit & Reid Snitka removing old logs
and sloping the outside edge of the trail |
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Chris Gilham, Kim Mustard, Glenda
Misurelli
re-defining the trail |
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Myrna Johnston, Barb Kuester, Ursula Wohlfarth
working on the outer edge of the trail |
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Barb Kuester raking the debris |
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Myrna listens as Jeff Eamon, our trail boss, gives
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directions |
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Ursula puts finishing touches on trail |
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Andrea Bell with the McLeod rake |
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Lucien Cerny pulling excess material off the trail |
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Another problem was
trail braiding. Because of the dips in the trail, big mud puddles would form
after each rain. Trail users tend to walk or ride around the mud puddles
forming new trails and new problems. So after cross - sloping the trails and
putting in drainage ditches to alleviate mud puddles, we spent time bringing
the trial back to its original tread width. |
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Chris Gilham |
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Kim Hooper working to bring the trail back to its
original width |
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George Ruck, Kim Hooper, Andrea Freeman |
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Andrea embeds rocks into the trail |
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Andrea, Roy & Reid take time out for lunch |
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George moving rocks into position |
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Big boulders were dug up
and moved into strategic places to confine trail users to a defined path. |
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Reid, Lucien and John King get serious
and use big boulders to narrow the trail. |
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Here's the gang removing the outer berm, cross sloping
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trail and making sure the water has a good grade to run
off the trail. |
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Finished trail section. |
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It was a
lot of hard work and we didn't seem to cover a lot of distance, but Jeff
told us that the work we accomplished will be self maintaining for a number
of years. It was very satisfying to know that one day of our time could make
so much difference.
Friends of Kananaskis holds regular
volunteer work parties on the second Saturday of every month. Job duties
range from litter pick up to pruning to trail surfacing so there's something
for every level of fitness. So whether you're a mountain biker, hiker or
skier and would like to maintain your trails, you can contact Erika Jensen
at 403-678-5500 ext. 279, or send an e-mail:
trails@kananaskis.org. Visit their web site at
www.kananaskis.org. |
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