Recap of where we are for 09-10 season!

The board has had another meeting getting ready for the 2009-2010 season. Summary of all things trail and club from Tom Berg below:

Hi Members and Donors,
Well it's that time of year again, the snow is starting to fall andalmost all of the pre-season trail work is now done and the trailslook really good. The guys tell me that the machines are ready forsnow and grooming. The El Nino forecast looks great for this year soinvesting in the club by joining is a good idea!
We have some interesting things happening this season.
Dave W has reopened up an old narrow woodsy trail we used back in the'80s that will provide a non-skating alternative to going up thefront road ..... it does require lots of snowfall as it's southfacing, but given the hopeful el Nino forecast there is a pretty goodchance we may get to ski it this winter.
We are also looking at flagging out a snowshoe trail to the east ofthe main road trail (Guaje Canyon Trail #282, aka the "Multi UseTrail") which would lead to an overlook above Los AlamosCanyon .... this wd be a ungroomed trail, wide enough forsnowshoeing and would wind its way thru those woods east of the road(no tree cutting wd be done). There wd probably be some cuttingrequired of deadfall along with volunteer work involved in clearingthe deadfall away from the path. We are seeking some volunteersfrom our snowshowing members and the snowshoe community in general tohelp with this. If yr interested in helping give me a ring at455-2380, or reply thru this members email.
We hope to connect the hut to electricity this winter as the countyis doing power work up there in conjunction with their ongoing waterline project on Camp May Road. This will make servicing the machinesmuch easier, but will cost the club some money for a power hookup andmeter.
Paul, Clay and myself are putting the finishing touches on ourFederal 501c Tax Excemption application, and we hope to achieve taxexempt status later on this Winter.
So there is a lot going on this ski season and I hope you will wantto be a part of it.
This trail (and this club in various forms) has been going on sinceDave Platts, Tim Johnson and I first started work on it back in1983-84. That's a lot of volunteer hours by a lot of busy peopledoing trail work and x-c skiing over 25 years, and it's all happenedthanks to all you past members, plus a lot of help over those yearsfrom Pajarito Ski Area, and help in every way from the Forest Serviceand Miles Standish, our USFS Recreation Ranger.
And it has made a wonderful venue for x-c skiing for us all, as wellas good hiking and mountain biking in the Summer. However it isfunded entirely by donations and membership fees, there are no trailuser fees, so we do need you to join Southwest Nordic Ski Club eachyear to keep the whole thing going. It's only $30 for a familymembership and $20 for an individual membership. If you are notinterested in joining clubs, being a donor-user is always welcome,and if fact donors provide a significant portion of our annual budget.
I've attached a current membership form to this email you can use tojoin us. Or you can go to http://swnordicski.org/ and click on"Join SWNSC" and download a form there, write a check and mail it in.
Again we will be stocking the bins on the trailhead bulletin boardwith membership forms and envelopes to solicit members and donorsfrom the daily x-c and snowshoe trail users.
Thanks for your help,
Tom Berg

Work Day Photos

Most of the fence went up last saturday. Go us. Still lopping and point J fencing to go. Maybe more. Thanks to all that came out. Come on snow!


Decent snow coverage on the sown hill area and on the meadow trails.


Fence looks good as clay reappears on Kermit

Attn: SW Nordic Ski Members and Supporters

Trail Work Day, Saturday, 7 November at 10AM

There is a very nice weather forecast for this week (for trail work, not skiing!) so we're going to get some work done up on the ski trail. We'll be meeting at the trailhead bulletin board at 10AM, then proceeding a couple hundred yards up the front hill to begin work on the "Sun Fence", so if yr running late, we'll be easy to find.

We'll be putting up the "Sun Fence" on the Front Hill, and also at a couple points further on up the trail system. For this bring warm clothes (in spite of the forecast!), work gloves, a snack and drinks. Bring a jack knife or snips or a "Leatherman" tool wd be handy for cutting the zip ties we hang the fence with. A small pair of clippers wd be nice for trimming the many aspen shoots that popped up this summer all over the trail.

A second shift will be starting under the auspices of John Ullman at 1:30 PM, so if you have a morning conflict, there is still a slot for you to come up and help. Figure on putting in a couple hours if you can.

If you are more into the logging/chainsawing mode, there are still a couple trees down that need more cutting up and hauling off the trail and a group of our experienced groomer/sawyers will be there and will welcome your assistance.

Please consider coming up and helping out , a small group of our hardcore diehards have already been putting in a lot of hours (see notes below), and we owe it to them to follow up with this nice simple job.

Call me at 455-2380 or email for questions or more information

Thanks, tom