Groomers report 1/15/2019

Trails have been rolled and packed as of today.  A big thanks to Chris Michel (CM Arbor Care) for taking on that whole task after the big storm.  It's quite an endeavor to break trail, then roll, then pack/groom.  He had a bit of an issue at the end of his session yesterday - he started in the early morning with the roller (which is made of black polyethylene) as the morning turned into a sunny day.  The lower part of the system is sun-exposed and the roller gets warmed up, creating ice that makes the new snow stick to it.  It "balled-up" and began to drag the snow in the trail, not roll over it.  He had to park it for the day, but he heroically went back up last night to finish the job! 

Logan Ott got out on Friday to groom things for the clinics and the weekend.  A huge thanks to him as well!  It's a hard ask to get folks to give up a Friday night, be out in the cold and dark and hard work environment, to get things in shape.  But, these are great volunteers with big hearts. 

We'll go up tonight to get things fully groomed, probably just in time for another round of snow, but at least it'll be more firm under there. 

We took a good group of SWNSC kids (about 10 kids!) to the Durango season series race #2 (Coke race series).  They were all so awesome and had a great time and experience.  We'll be taking them to the big JNQ (Junior National Qualifier) there in mid-February, so they got a good recon of the courses they'll be racing on for the big event.  It was a lot of driving on wintry roads, but we'll take it!

Post-Mortem Recap of Winter 2017-18

Just for "keeping up the records," I'm posting a very brief description of the Winter of Discontent 2017-18.  In short, it sucked.  It was a record that was so far away from anything ever observed in over 125 years of weather data collection.  It didn't even amount to 10% of normal snowfall, and was incredibly warm.

We did manage to eek out about 2 weeks of skiing, with about one week of grooming...all in the last part of February.  I skied on the trails a total of 4 times, myself, and I would say that last time was pushing it and resulted in making my pair of rock skis even rockier.

It was too bad, as we had gotten the trails in pretty good shape and would have had a good season.

As I write this in November 2018, it looks like the winter of 2018-19 will be better...we'll keep our fingers crossed.  We have a new (to us) Polaris UTV that we're putting "snow tracks" on so that we don't have to suffer trying to drive Kermit, and will hopefully not have so many problems getting stuck while using the snowmobile (the Viking) out in the meadows after a windy storm. 

Thanks to all of the club volunteers!  Keep up with things via the Facebook site, but we will post more text here.  Think SNOW!!!

Trails "Pre" Grooming Report... 2/23/2016

I think we have received a short "stay" of execution on our ski season.  That was a better storm than was predicted for us, so I'll go up and see what can be done with the grooming.  I'll report back tomorrow.

In the meantime, skiing was still possible, albeit sloppy and slow, over the weekend.  It was crusty and bumpy before the thaw, then slow and slushy afterward.  There were actually some truly "bad" spots, although they were very short and could be "tip-toed" through.  One more week of that kind of tropical weather, and it would have been over.

We'll see now how things look.  It's supposed to warm up again over the weekend, then sort of flip flop.  I think the season is going to be week to week, day to day from here on out.  We just lost too much of the base to really rely on anything.  We'll keep it going as long as it's viable.

Lots of trees came down too, unfortunately.  I was going to groom, but ended up cutting out trees instead.

High winds last week brought down a number of trees.  Getting those removed was a chore and kept me from doing any grooming.

New Grooming (SWEEET classic track set) 12/29/2015

I went up last night and cleaned up more of the blow-down tree cutting mess and fix fences.  A huge thanks to Dave Wykoff for get out there and clearing that stuff up.

I also set a very nice classic track (most places) with the new grooming implement (our Tidd Tech G2).  It is far superior to anything else we have.

Go enjoy some classic skiing before the new snow fills in the track!

See More Frequent Updates on the SWNSC Facebook Page (you don't have to have an account!)

As the title suggests, "See More Frequent Updates on the SWNSC Facebook Page (you don't have to have an account!)"

https://www.facebook.com/swnordicskiclub/

We've had our hands full of things like this (see below).  It has snowed every single day, and the wind keeps blowing and drifting the meadow.  For the last few days, we've had one or two hands working on things, so it's not getting fully groomed very quickly (the couple of hands have day jobs too!).

Ugh, getting tired of this! 

Anyway, hopefully we're through the worst of it.  When you go ski, PLEASE take some time to pick up as much debris and branches as you can. 

New equipment coming!! Want to help us groom?

OK, so we've been busy getting grants, donations, selling junk, etc., etc., so that we could pay off our debts and build up an account to cover the cost of some better stuff and more sustainable grooming equipment.

That being said, we just spent a ton this fall on the groomer (~ $7,500), some auxiliary stuff like a trail utility trailer,  a couple of lightweight grooming implements for certain conditions and situations, and assorted maintenance items that had to be purchased to get things back in order.  The chainsaws have also taken a lot of abuse and suck up some money to keep running!  Even without the grooming expenses, we've had to make a bunch of runs around the trails to keep things clear.

It has taken several years of miserly spending and a lot of effort and to build up the account to something we were comfortable with, but now it is going to be a little bit fragile until we get some more grants, donations, sell some more junk, etc., etc.  We got off to a pretty good start this year with everyone's generous donations and memberships.  Hopefully, El Nino will kick in and we'll see a bunch of great snow, which will be groomed to perfection with our new high-tech groomer.

We don't have a lot of grooming help, so we'll see how the schedule works out.  There may be some gaps in the grooming if no one is available.  If you're able and willing, we could use some help here and there.  Even if you can't groom, go out after snowstorms and ski pack (or snowshoe pack) the trails.  That really helps, actually!

Hope for some snow!!

Trail Report 11/21/2015

We're still working hard on getting everything cleared out just to get around the system.  Last night, John Bernardin went out and finished clearing the rest of the tree downage and get a packing pass with the roller.  There was still a lot down, so he only got around once.

Today, Dave Wykoff is up there and there is already some new trees down.  What a mess!  This sort of happens this time of the year with the ground really freezing up and shifting the weak trees around.  That heavy snow and wind made a real mess too, so this will probably continue for a couple more weeks, unfortunately.

So, there's skiing, but you'll have to tiptoe around the tree messes.

PLEASE -- take some time to pick up the branches and debris if you go out.  It is a huge help and really makes things better for the next round of storms.

Thanks!

New trees down just this morning!  Please help clean up the debris left over after clearing the trees.

Snow Fence Hanging Party THIS Sun Oct 25th, 9:30am!

 

 

We just now found out that our faithful snow-fencing-party organizer from previous years, Paul Graham, has chosen personal life over the our trail's snow fencing needs ;) He is available at end of Nov but we are hoping to be burried in a good amount of snow by then!

 

SO! we are going to try to round up some volunteers to hang as much as we can THIS Sunday Oct 25th.

That's you (and anyone you can wrangle into it on our behalf :) !!!!

 

Let's meet at 9:30am at the ski club shed (across from Canada Bonita trailhead).

If you come up later, just walk on up the trail and join a group.

Dress appropriately, bring gloves if you would like them, water, snacks, and wear layers. We will have Clay distribute the fencing rolls and bring up zipties. Something to hold your share of zipties for easy one-hand access will make things much better (regular pants pocket are NOT great as when you have to bend/squat and the ties will poke you and fall out).

 

Those of you who have participated before - you know it's a lot of work, but also quite a bit of fun with a good group of folks and is totally doable with kids helping or playing around, so come on up and bring out the whole family!!

We'll see how far we get this Sunday and then plan next weekend accordingly.

Hope to see you up there!

PS Mila says she (we?) will make really good cookies for those who come up! :)

More blood, sweat...and money: TrailWork, Fees/Donations, NEW WEB DOMAIN!!!

from our club prez, Clay:

Photo courtesy of Lynn Bjorklund

OK, I'll admit that the club is loosely a charitable organization that continually asks for blood, sweat and tears...and your money, but it is great to be able to xc ski when there's good snow, right? There would be no possible way to have any of the skiing if we didn't have all of the above from all of you, so please help in any way you can by volunteering and/or renewing your memberships.

 

Just so you know, the club does function beyond just local XC skiing by maintaining the trails up at Canada Bonita and beyond. Club equipment is used by and donated to other local trail organizations, as well as club volunteerism, and the list goes on. We're all connected, so it is a good cooperative organization.

Club membership is mostly a charitable donation, but it also adds a bit of "political" clout to our cause and helps us to be in the running for grants and so forth. So please renew!

 

Here is the link to the renewal registration (don't forget, we are 501c3 organization and your donations and club fees are both tax deductible!! - you can request a reciept for your records when paying via link below):

http://www.newmexicosportsonline.com/events/details.aspx?id=29230
 

Also, we have a new website domain (still hosting our old website for now):
www.swnskiclub.org   ...as you may have noticed, the old one got hijacked by an unsavory group who has held it ransom. Shame on them!

We'll be producing a new website over the next few weeks with more up-to-date information and etc. Thanks for your support and patience.

 

Lots of trail work has been completed by a few hardy volunteers, but there is more to be done. We'll be cutting brush and fixing fencing some this coming Sunday (Pajarito Trail Festival is on Saturday). Come November, we'll be doing the "all hands" trail weekend to hang the fencing, so please set aside some time on the second weekend in November to help out with that if you possibly can. Info will be coming...

 

Thanks to all of you!

Trail Report for Friday Evening, January 30, 2015

Some really good snow out there today.  Lots of moisture in it and there's between 8" to 10"!  That really saved the situation after last week's tropical temperatures.  Thankfully, we did a good job with the last storm, so it preserved a decent base under there, with the exception of a few little spots.

Anyway, thanks to John and Hans for getting up there and packing and blading things down.  We'll go back up tomorrow to finish the job during the day, probably once early, then later to get it all done and get whatever snow falls during the day.  Hopefully, it'll all be done by Sunday morning for skate and classic.

Should be good touring skiing in the morning, with no classic track (and certainly some new snow), but there will be a track set in the evening.  It will be packed under the new snow, so it shouldn't be such a trudge around the system.

We'll update things as we get more done.

Thanks to those of you who did send in your memberships.  We needed it!!!

Hope we just keep getting snow tonight!!!

12/29 Trail Update and possible "Annual Resolution Race" on Jan 10th or 11th!

from Clay:
Hi all,

Since there is some activity on the trails with the new snow, mega-bad wind and subsequent tree-fall, I thought I'd send an update.

So yeah, the wind did a number on all the weak trees around the trails.  I estimate that close to 50 trees fell, many in clusters of 5 to 10 trees.  That has made for a big mess to clean up, and with only a couple of us, it's been slow progress.  But the good news is that it's getting close to being done.

To get out there, we did pull a groomer through the trails, so there is a little bit of "groomed" trail open for skiing.  I hope to finish that up this evening, pending getting the tree cutting job all done.  The last big snags have to be cleared off of Dave's Dogleg, but the rest of the system should be clear now.

Please take some time, if you go out to ski, to pick up some of the debris (branches, sticks, etc.) in those bad spots where we cleared out the deadfall.  That stuff is a mess and although we did clear a lot of it out when we cleared the big trees, we couldn't get it all.

Coverage is still thin and you'll certainly hit a thing or two here and there, but some spots look great.

After this first round of work, we'll take a break and probably won't get around to grooming until next week.  Dave is gone, and I will likely be doing stuff with my family over the holiday weekend.

Please consider renewing your membership if you haven't already this year. We can't operate without it (we're spending a fortune on chainsaw maintenance this year!).  Thanks to those who have. You can renew/join/donate online here: http://www.newmexicosportsonline.com/events/details.aspx?id=10386

One last thing:  if things look good after this round of storms, we may hold the "Annual Resolution Race" on either the 10th or 11th of January.  I'll update on that as we know for sure (via email, on our facebook page and here on the blog).  It's FREE and hopefully we can also do a fun event for the kiddos too.  

Trailwork update from 11/9 anf for 11/15-16

We had a small, but effective group on Sunday.  There were various nagging items that had to be checked off the "to-do" list, most of which got done.  We also managed to string up one row of shade fence from Point A, down to the end of the fencing.  

All of the fencing rolls are out and distributed along the front hill, with the rest at Point A.  Lots of trees had fallen on the "hard" field fence, requiring some awkward sawing and then repair of the field fence.  I really hope this wind didn't result in more.  That is not a quick and easy job!

Anyway, there are more zip ties on order (we ran out), and I think Paul Graham will be picking more up locally for this coming weekend's fencing hanging work group.  

Paul and Kristina Brown will be heading up the fencing project.  I'll get more information from them on times, etc. on the work groups.  It should go quickly if we can get a few (as many as possible!) hands working on it.

Looks like the weather will me more like winter by the weekend, so keep an eye on that.  

Overall, the trail is looking pretty good, actually.  Like I said, I hope todays high winds didn't result in a whole bunch more fallen trees.  It's getting tiring cutting those things out.  

--Clay

Fencing and Trail Work this weekend Nov 8,9

Hi all,

It's that time of the year.  The snow is already starting to make and appearance, so we need to get a start on the fencing.  

Unfortunately, we still have some trees falling down, so that is going to take some more time to sort out, plus some some of the "hard" field fence repairs from all of the damage suffered from fallen trees. 

But, we can still get moving on hanging the shade fence.  I have only briefly spoken to Paul Graham, who normally heads this project up every year, so I'll get with him again to see if he's going to manage this process...he's been gone a bit lately.

I am not going to be up there on Saturday due to work commitments, but I'll be up there with a couple of high school kids who have to do some community service work.  We'll start getting the fencing laid out and I'll get them started hanging it.  In the meantime, we'll also try to clear more trees and repair the field fence (posts and wire fence).

Please come up and help if you can this weekend, and most certainly next weekend too.  It's going to take some time and effort, as it always does, but with a lot of hands, it is not so bad.  If you want to work on Saturday, the fencing is already laid out on the upper side of the old "Rambo" shed at the trailhead.  I'll try to get some more zip ties.

So far, we've cleared out many, many trees and tree snags, cut thousands of aspen and locust shoots, and Dave has been running the brush cutter on those areas that are more accessible for that.  Lots of volunteer hours have already been put in to get the trails ready for what is, hopefully, going to be a great season!

See you out there.

Clay

Post Season Work Stuff - March/April 2014

Hi all,

Well, that was NOT the best season, but there were about six weeks in there that were more or less skiable.  I managed to eek out a few more days here and there, and even groomed that one storm in February that allowed for a bonus four extra days of skiing, the first two of which were actually pretty good.

The worst thing was all of the tree downfall.  It was a total mess and almost impossible to keep up with.  Even as we speak, there is another (live) fir tree down on the front hill that just fell this past week.  Ugh.

Spring is here (and pretty much has been since late January), and that means the spring cleanup of the trails.  But, since the season died off early, some of us have had a chance to get out and get a lot of the work done already; about four weeks ahead of schedule!

I got up and took down a few rolls after Dina, Tarik, Mila, Aida and Quanah had already taken several down.  This is on Saturday, March 22.

Still some good snow on Pajarito.  I did attempt a circumnavigation of the mountain, some of which was very good, and some that was bad.  It really could have been open much more than it was this year.  I did get in some good skiing on the west side.

This past Saturday, March 29.  Not a lot changed on Pajarito Mountain.  Still some good skiing on the west side.

This time, the work party consisted of Sanna, Lynn, Dina, Mila, Quanah, and me.  We got a lot done.

Quanah's and Mila's work ethics are questionable.  

Here, Quanah is complaining and mumbling something about Union Rules...?

So, now there are a lot of rolls all waiting to be put away, and a few more needing to be taken down.  We need to get a few more hands out one day to get the rest done.  This coming Saturday, April 5th, we'll have one last Spring Cleanup work day.  Please try to make it out.  I'll post a notice on the email lists as well.

Paul Graham will be heading up the work.  Here is his email notice to everyone:

We are at the end of another winter of fun and frolic (what you say I don't remember any snow on the trails) .. but yes we have to acknowledge that we gave it our best when we erected the fence in November but now as per our agreement it must be brought down and stored until next winter (fingers crossed that it is a massive snow year for a change).

Please try to help with this mighty effort Saturday (April 5th) .. So far one person has volunteered and we are planning to meet at 9:00 AM. 

I cannot underscore enough how much easier and faster this will go with as many hands helping out as possible. Simply an hour of your time will mean so much to putting this project behind us. (Otherwise it involves extended work efforts for one or two persons over several weekends when there is little help) .. bring a cutting tool if possible to help with cutting the pesky zip ties we use for attaching the fencing (or, there is plenty of work to help with rolling up fencing as well).

Questions? Call me at 505-660-1406

Thanks, Paul

Hope to see LOTS of you there!!!

Some further news:

Lots of USFS trail projects going on this year.  Lynn has a crew poised to do a rebuild of the lower part of the Guaje Ridge Trail, plus all of their other volunteer trail work projects.  

At some point, I, along with any willing volunteers from our club will likely be heading out to the Canada Bonita to start clearing all of the HUGE trees that have fallen between our trail system, and Pipeline Rd.  Lots and lots of big trees are down, so it'll take a lot of work.  The Jemez Mtn. Trail Run uses this trail system, and have been big supporters of our club, so I figured it is most logical that we take care of this mess if possible.  I'll try to coordinate some equipment, etc.

A few last parting shots of snow on the mountain:

Trail work & SNOW(!) update 11-22-2013

I had to go up to pull down the Ditch Witch last night, but unfortunately found a number of new trees down (again!).  One pretty big one fell onto the fencing on the front hill and sort of crushed it.  It was blocking the path for the Ditch Witch, so I attempted to move it, but it being dark and all, ran into a little problem with the slick (lack of) traction.  I twisted a track off the side and it did another slow topple with the tree still in the bucket.

I'm learning my lesson with how that thing can do this with an uneven load pushing up high.  I don't think this would have happened in the day time, but am not so sure.  I shouldn't have pushed it out so far, but the main problem was the lack of traction.

Also, there was quite a bit of new snow, all very heavy and wet.  That was before it really began to snow, which was about when I left around 7:30pm.  Lots of the trails were already skiable!  I'm sure they're quite skiable now, but some sections will still be very thin with the big rocks.

Here are some pics of what it looked like last night before the storm hit:

Good snow near the trailhead.  Several people still trying to ride bikes up there, plus some skiers

Fencing is working well already

Lots of the trails were quite well covered

Trees down on Dave's

Tree down on Dave's up near the steep hill and the big "rock" section

A live spruce down on TJ's

From the other angle

That infamous root ball

I still had a section of tree to remove on the trails that I had forgotten about, so I got to it before it was too late

The big tree down on the fence.  It was awkward

A little better shot

The aftermath of my struggle to get it over the fence.  Bad move!

The underside of the poor Ditch Witch.  Gotta head up today to pull back up and get it off the hill. 

TRAIL WORK REPORT & PHOTOS 11-9-2013

Here is a quick report on some trail work I got to on Saturday, November 9, 2013.  It was a nice day and there were quite a number of little "punchlist" items that hadn't been hit yet, so I just made a plan to go up with Kermit and hit a number of them all at once.  One thing I wasn't sure of was whether I'd be able to take the Ditch Witch up to one of the other sections of trail that needs a bit of a rebuild, as that type of work takes a lot of time and sort of consumes the entire work session.

So, I decided against starting with that, and just going out to cut the remaining areas that I know have bad aspen shoots.  I found some parts of the lower road still with a few, but then made up to the meadow, and that is where the fun really began.  We always seem to work just on the tree trails and skip working in the meadow, which is always not good because as soon as the snow flies, it is very hard to work on that stuff.

As you can see from the pics, there were still some trees down in the meadow sections, plus LOADS of aspen shoots.  Our new trail cutter blew out a bearing before we were able to hit it with that thing, so I had to do it "by hand."  By that, I mean that I used the clubs new motorized brush cutter (a Poulan trimmer thing).  It worked well, but is hard to start.  It did the job.

I also got the trees out of the meadow trail envelope.  When we did the tree cutting for the trailfest running races, we didn't get them cut the full width, so now was the time to do that.

Finally, I ran the tree trails and found a number of new trees down.  Some were large and I needed to wait for some help from Dave the next day.  Unfortunately, I also found a new HUGE tree down on TJ's that had just toppled over from the root ball.  It was large.  Luckily, it was right where the Ditch Witch was parked, so I didn't have to go far to move the carnage.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of overload for the Ditch Witch.  Once I got the root ball free from the ground (late in the day), it toppled out of the bucket and took the Ditch Witch down with it.  It is a "ride behind" version, so I just hopped off and had to watch it fall over.  It is too heavy to pull back up with Kermit, so Dave had to come with an arsenal of winches, chains and his tractor the next day.  It was a pretty big battle to get it back up on its tracks, but we were successful.  Here are some pics:

Already good snow in the meadow.  You can see the large number of large diameter aspen shoots!

A closer look at those aspen shoots

chopped down!

Still a lot of trees in the meadow trails

A few of these on the tree trails where the fire came through.  I have found these every time I've gone up there.

The big tree that came down on TJ's.  It consumed the big saw.

A closer look at the base near the root ball

This section of TJ's will look and ski completely differently now

Looking up the trail as we would ski toward the meadow

Luckily, I was able to use the Ditch Witch to move the big sections

Working on the root ball.

Back breaking work made a lot easier!

That was a big root ball

Root ball came out, Ditch Witch went down.  It was like pulling a very tough weed when the roots finally break free and sends you back on your butt!  Dave had to come up and help me get it back up.  It took some serious redneck engineering to get it back up.

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!!!

"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!