Thursday, October 31, 2013

Trail/Snow Fence Hanging and Nordic Ski Swap Nov 2-3!!

from Clay:

Hey everybody,

I am trying to reach out to as many folks as I can for the annual "hanging of the fence" up at the cross country ski trails, this weekend (November 2-3), and possibly another November 16-17.  Since the fire, we have a lot more area to cover and with a few more hands, the project goes exponentially faster.

All of the volunteer hours spent doing the work goes into our local volunteer cost-share challenge agreement with the Forest Service, which in turn helps us to qualify for trail construction/rehabilitation funds (hiking, mountain biking, etc.), not just for the Nordic trails...actually mostly NOT for the Nordic trails!

This is a relatively easy and accessible trail volunteer project, so we get those volunteer hours racked up nicely for stuff like this.

We will have a couple of folks leading/directing the work from the end of the Ski Pajarito parking lot.  The plan is to meet at 10:00 AM, pick up some zip ties and go up that first little hill to where the fencing is to be hung.

Some folks have also mentioned that we could host an impromptu Nordic Ski Swap.  I for one, have a lot of used xc ski gear that could be sold for cheap as a donation to the Southwest Nordic Ski Club.  So, bring some old gear to sell, or come look for some gear to purchase. The ski swap will be on SAT 1-3pm in a sunny spot on the parking lot part closest to Canada Bonita trailhead.

Why do we hang so much fencing you ask?  Well, the first kilometer or so of the trails are southeast facing, and without all those big trees shading it now, the snow melts even when it's below freezing.  With just a little bit of shade, it stays around and builds up a base.  This helps with the skiing of course, but also with the storage of water for an actual spring melt when flora and fauna need it, versus the premature winter meltdown.  

Why ask for more volunteers outside of the xc ski club?  Well, it's a strange thing.  We get more volunteers from outside the club, than from within it.  There are a few (very few, actually) folks who live here who are at the core of the volunteer group, but most of the xc ski club memberships are actually from folks who do not live here.  Plus, more people use the trails for activities other than xc skiing than for it.

Bring a variety of work/outside clothing, food and water.  It'll be fun and a beautiful day!  Hope to see you all there!!!

Monday, October 28, 2013

"Big ticket" items to help us with (or to lead!) in the next few weeks!!

From Clay:
You can see from the previous post below, a lot has been done and hopefully will make things nicer both in winter and summer.  There are still some "big ticket" items that we need help with.  Below is the list in order of priority:

1. Hange the fence!  
2. Cut aspen/locust shoots
3. Chainsaw out the remnants of old stumps still sitting in the trail (contact me about this)
4. Finish the inside walls of the equipment garage (we have a bad rodent problem =P  )

We hauled a lot of fencing up to Point A so that folks can start hanging it at their convenience.  I also dropped some off at the lower edge of the fencing that was never taken down last spring so that the project can begin there.  We have LOTs of ties in the shed.

We'll get the rest of the fencing hauled out into position as it goes up.  PLEASE help with this project if you can.  It might be best to have an organized day with a leader/organizer.  I am pretty swamped with a lot of things going on, so I'm hoping someone might take this project on.

Fencing at Point A ready and waiting to be hung up!

Trail Work Report and Pics for October 26-27, 2013

Well, the turnout has been light for the SWNSC trail work thus far, but things are still moving forward.  The club did get a new "trail cutter" brush cutting machine that has done a fine job in clearing out the incredible amount of aspen/locust/wild maple/rosehips, etc.  The thing took some assembly, but once put together and configured, Dave and I got it fired up.  He set it up to work on his tractor, which worked very well, but he did break a bolt in the main hitch, so he had to go to plan-B on connecting it.  He got most of the trail system cut, including cutting out the 2-dozen downed trees that were still blocking the lower road and the Point-O to M bypass.  He didn't make it up through that section of lower meadow, which still has a lot of aspen shoots to cut out.  We may have to hit that by hand.  See the new trail cutter in action below.  Click on the photos to make them larger.  Most of the trail system now looks like this!  Compare that to my post back in August of what the trails looked like then.  It's a HUGE difference!




Other areas of the trail still need some mop-up work with the hand brush-cutter where the big trail cutter didn't get (mainly the extreme edges in place, plus around big rocks).  The club also has a new Poulan hand brush-cutter, which we also got fired up and running yesterday.  I hit the zone from the trail head, out to where I was working on the burned ground grading problems on TJ's.

There were almost 50 trees down blocking the trails in various areas where the fire really burned hot and actually burned all the organic material in the ground, especially around the roots of the burned trees.  This has made the situation unstable for the bigger, top-heavy trees.  One problem is that when one comes down, they peel up the ground and the roots of the other trees around them, causing several to fall at once (see my last trail work blog post for some pics).

Another problem we had was where the ground burned at the lower edge of the trail.  There is an obvious strip along that north-facing hillside where the trail traverses several times where the fire burned the ground.  One of the worst areas affected was TJ's trail.  The edge of the trail was either burned away altogether, or had big craters or burned out ditch lines where a root burned, or had slumped away from the lack of vegetation keeping the ground from "oozing" after big precip events.  At any rate, the trail was not in great shape and needed some work.

As part of an agreement and assessment with the Forest Service, the SWNSC is able to go in and fix these areas using mechanized equipment.  This must be done after the temperatures are consistently below freezing, so that the Jemez Salamander has had time to burrow in for the winter.  We started the process of fixing the trail shape and improving the grading last year, focusing primarily on those areas of the front hill and from Point A out to the end of the severe burn (near Point C).  Now, we're going in and fixing these stretches on the upper trails that suffered this ground burn.  We worked on TJ's this past weekend, and I think it was a success.  Below are some pics of the work and a little bit of how it looked afterward.  I wish I had taken some "before" pics to compare, but it would be hard to tell unless you were able to see it in person.  If you get a chance, go see the "new" trail.  It is quite a bit different now!  There are so many grass roots, that in a year or two, we won't be able to tell that anything was done.  I will also do some reseeding work later.  Here are some random pictures.  It's best to go see it for yourself:



The Espanola Ranger District Ditch Witch just starting the work on TJ's Saturday morning

A lower section from a distance, mainly we just built the lower berm here with the trees that had fallen

After hanging it up on Saturday evening

Trees all cleared out on TJ's and with a few "cut-and-fill" sections

A closer look at the cleared areas with the smaller sections of grading

Dave had to cut the brush in here pretty heavily, then we regraded a short section right in there as well
This is the upper leg of TJ's where the damage was worst.  The cut-and-fill work is more evident here and the trail was rebuilt on the lower side.  The edge of the grass strip in the middle was where the damaged lower edge had been before the work.

Looking the other direction, again the lower edge of the grass strip in the middle was where the lower edge had burned away.

This little machine does a nice job without causing too much incidental damage.



This area needed a lot of work.

You can see that a lot has been done and hopefully will make things nicer both in winter and summer.  There are still some "big ticket" items that we need help with.  Below is the list in order of priority:

1. Hange the fence!  
2. Cut aspen/locust shoots
3. Chainsaw out the remnants of old stumps still sitting in the trail (contact me about this)
4. Finish the inside walls of the equipment garage (we have a bad rodent problem =P  )

We hauled a lot of fencing up to Point A so that folks can start hanging it at their convenience.  I also dropped some off at the lower edge of the fencing that was never taken down last spring so that the project can begin there.  We have LOTs of ties in the shed.

We'll get the rest of the fencing hauled out into position as it goes up.  PLEASE help with this project if you can.  It might be best to have an organized day with a leader/organizer.  I am pretty swamped with a lot of things going on, so I'm hoping someone might take this project on.

Fencing at Point A ready and waiting to be hung up!






Monday, October 14, 2013

Fall 2013 Trail work photos (Part 1)

 Lots of work needed on the trails this year...same ol' story.  But, the good news is that the progress we've made in the past few years, despite the fire, is really starting to take shape.  The trails have remained in good shape and have skied well in the winter and recovered well during the spring/summer/fall months.  The difficult thing is that the trees that did get burnt, even in some of the "low intensity" areas, are becoming unstable and falling down with more frequency.  There were a lot of trees down, with multiple "cluster" snags coming down.  It was especially bad from the last switchback up to Point L.  Every few feet there were big clusters down that had some quite large trees.  These photos just don't do it justice!

We'll have more trail work days.  Mainly, we'll need a lot of help with the fencing.  We'll see how the aspen/brush cutting work can be handled as well.  The club had to purchase a new brush cutter/trail cutting mower thing that will hopefully handle the work much more quickly.  It just wasn't possible to do it "by hand" anymore.

Big cluster down just below Pt. L (near the meadow)



After we got one of the big clusters cut out and cleared off the trail

Another "after" picture.  What a mess there was!






TJ's had a lot of trees down, including this large spruce that was actually still alive.  It covered the main trail on TJ's, plus the E-P cutoff.

Saturday evening just after the sun had set.  Some snow could still be seen on the runs.  The trails look quite a bit different than last year at time, thanks to the rainy spell.

I don't know why these next pictures loaded sideways.  I had edited them before uploading them, but they remained sideways anyway...
Lots of limbing work to do before we could clear the big downfall


Lots of aspens have died and are now falling all over the place

Typical "snag" that blocked many sections of the upper trails

Each one took at least an hour or more to clear out


Thursday, October 10, 2013

Snow is here and RMYC trail work thanks to SWNSC and USFS!

 From Lynn B:
Yes, the Rocky Mountain Youth Corp experienced it [snow today, Oct 10th] first hand - blizzard conditions with lightening.  We finally had to call it a day around 2:00 PM. - but they plan to be back at it tomorrow.  The crew is rebuilding the trail from the top of Pajarito Mountain to the connection in Pajarito Canyon.  What a spectacular trail with incredible views - colorful aspens all white with snow.  If they can finish, it will be used for the Jemez 50 run next year.  This is all possible thanks to Clay for getting the contract established with RMYC and all the volunteer hours from the club and community that met the 50% match for the required funding. And a special thanks to Craig Martin who thrashed his way up and down the mountain designing and laying out the trail in advance.  The project went forward despite the government shut down, because it is administered through the SWNS Club.  
So thanks everyone for making this possible!
Think warm thoughts for the RMYC youth club who are camping at Camp May this week.