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.

Sandia peak skiing

As of Thursday (yesterday) there as about 4 to 6 inches of snow on the service road.  Did not hit a rock the entire length.  Must be significantly more than that today after the precip event last nite.
Fredrik plans to groom sometime soon after Dec 1.
Ron

Sandia peak skiing

Probably can ski classic on the service road tomorrow. I did today with about 2" (with slow accumulation continuing) using some rock nowax  skis  and enjoyed myself.  It continued to snow likely until the rain stopped in Albuquerque (to between 7 & 8 pm).

Ron

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!

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

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. 

Sandia Peak

Need people to volunteer to help to level some of the trails that Fredrik grooms in the Sandias.  The usfs doesn't allow earth moving up there so leveling means moving fallen timber to lower side of trails (most of the trails in the Sandias have a east-west slant due to the topography). Please send an email to me if interested (ronmccurley@comcast,net)

Ron

Nordic Trail Hike & Mushroom Hunt 8/25/2013

Happy August to everyone.  After posting something about the pending trail work this fall, but not having much of an idea of what the trails actually looked like, we decided to head up today for a family outing to look at the trails and see if we couldn't find any more mushrooms (edible) that have not yet been scavenged by the other European families living in town =)  Dang Russian and German families picking our American-grown mushrooms!

As it turns out, there were still a few to be found.

Anyway, there are a LOTTTT of aspens and locust to cut out.  We need to devise a strategy.  Also, a number of big(ish) trees down on TJ's, as well as a smattering of others along the rest of the trail system.

One cool thing is that we found that a good percentage of the trees we planted last spring have survived.  Some areas have fared better than others.

Here are some pictures of our outing.

Looking ahead to trail work items for this coming season.

Hi all,

Anybody seen the trails lately?  I haven't been up there as much this summer, but I'm sure that with this rain we've had, they're pretty badly "overgrown."  There are also several trees down and logs to be cut and moved.

The soft plants are not a problem, but the aspen shoots are going to be bad.  Further, we still have a few areas where the fire actually burned the ground (consisting of organic materials) and subsequent erosion resulted in a pretty significant loss of trail.

I plan on going over a maintenance/rehab plan with the Espanola Ranger District.  Hopefully, we will be able to do a little more mechanized trail reconstruction, but that is not for sure at this point.

At any rate, we will need to plan on doing some tree cutting and aspen shoot/brush clearing to get the trails in shape this fall.  Personally, I won't be planning on doing any "heavy" work until October, but might find some opportunities to go cut some aspen shoots.

We now have an "official" club-owned brush cutter that works like a weed-eater, but has a pretty serious blade on it that can cut up to about a 2" tree stalk.  If anyone is handy with that and wants to get a jump on things, we can meet to get it up and running.  I've used my own personal one for a few years now, and it can clear those aspen/locust shoots about 100 times faster than the hand loppers that we've all killed our backs while using over the years.

Over the next several weeks, I'll try to get some things organized for our annual fall work parties.  I'll also try to get a list of things we will need to do to get prepared for the season.

For sure, we have:

1. cut & clear the aspen/locusts

2. string up the ~1,500 meters of shade fencing

3. clear the downed trees from the trails

Those are the three primary things that we must get done.  Cutting the downed trees is not so much of a problem for the club, but the aspen shoots and fence hanging always take a lot more time and effort than we all realize.  We don't have to get it all accomplished all at once.  The fencing can be the last thing we do, sometime in November.

Hope you've all had fun, healthy and active summers.  Looks like we might be in for a somewhat improved winter.  Usually, if there is more active rains in the summer, then the winters are better...we'll see!

-Clay

Tree Planting Project is a GO for tomorrow and Saturday (April 12, 13)

From Clay:

I just spoke to Lynn Bjorklund of the Espanola Ranger District (SFNF), and she said that the big tree planting project up at Canada Bonita is definitely a "GO" for tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday.  They are planning on getting started at 9:00 AM both days.  

However, because of the snow, there are some issues with scheduling with one of the contractors working on forest rehab projects, so next week's scheduled days have to be postponed until the following weekend (Apr. 27, 28).

As a side:  we still have all of the shade fencing hanging, so it needs to be removed, rolled up, and stored away for the summer.  We can work on it a bit this weekend and throughout next week, or whenever we can get to it.  Last year, we had a good crew and lots of hands sure made it a lot quicker work.  The 3 or 4 years prior to that were rough with only a couple of folks out plus whatever kids I could wrangle into helping me on week nights.  

The fencing is probably our biggest job task all year, and is crucial to the whole operation.  Please consider setting aside some time to help us take it down and store it away. 

If you do make it out to the planting project, please wear sturdy clothes, footwear, gloves, sunglasses, etc.  Also bring water and snacks.  Same goes for the fence take-down work.  Since the fencing is strung up with plastic zip ties, I bring up little wire snips and or needle-nose pliers to snap them off and then I put them into a plastic shopping bag for disposal.  A Leatherman works well too.

Hope to see you all out for some spring projects!

Ski Season is Over =( Trail Report for 3/14/2013

Dave went up to attempt one last grooming, but the last couple of days (and the ubiquitous lack of deep base) were just too much for our poor trails.  Here is Dave's very detailed and descriptive report:

Ski season is over, burned out patches everywhere

So, that is a wrap for the grooming.  There may be some late snowstorms (...wishful thinking, especially this year!), but we won't groom anymore.  Thanks for all the support, and we hope you got out on some of the good days we did have this year.  There were quite a few good days, but it just didn't stay that way this year.  This is the third (relatively) bad ski year in a row!  I'm starting to notice a pattern, unfortunately.

The good thing is that we did a lot of great trail work that kept things in good shape for much longer than they would have otherwise.  With a bit more work to the trails, especially in the burn area, we can improve on these low-snow years by quite a bit.

Don't forget about the tree planting coming up in April.  That will help immensely!!!

New Snow, Trails Groomed 3/9/13 & 3/10/13

Whew...  Just in time!  We were saved by 8" to 9" of new snow.  Last week's meltdown was stopped and we got one of the best storms (I know, that's sad...) of the year Friday and Saturday.

Groomers were having trouble motivating and wondering what to do, but the snow was substantial and had a lot of water in it, with cold temps, so it turned out to be a good weekend for skiing.

Trails were rolled Saturday, then groomed on Sunday morning.  It was cold on Saturday, but the sun came out on Sunday, making the burn area a bit mushy.  Above that, it was like mid-winter.  It didn't get all that warm, but the loss of base in the burn area sure makes the ground warm up this time of the year if the sun comes out.

We just never built up a good base down low this season, so it dies a quick death when the sun comes out in March.  Too bad -- the snow up above the burn area is still good.

Maybe one more re-groom this week, then it'll be time to fold up the equipment and call it.  It's a bit early, but that has been our fate this year.  Overall, we had some terrific skiing at times this season, especially early on with the long cold snap we had.  Too bad it had to end early.

Still great skiing up at Enchanted Forest.  Check their website and go ski there these last couple of weeks that they're open.

We'll need some help with post-season trail cleanup, sometime in early April.  Mainly, we'll need to remove all the shade fencing, roll it up, and then store it away.

Here are some pictures of Mila and me out skiing yesterday:

At the big curve on TJ's - with the very large Douglas Fir in the background

At Point C - it was a tough day to ski the loop with the state of the trails through the burn area, but she was happy once we got onto TJ's loop.  

Looking up the big "Doug" - so glad it didn't burn all  the way!

Near the "new" coat tree at Point C - it's current arrangement reminds me of the season we've had this year...

Tree Planting on our trails April 12-13th, 19-20th.

From Lynn B:

Tree planting is coming in April for 56 acres of severe burn around the Nordic Ski trails near Pajarito Mountain.  We have set dates for tree planting, so feel free to sign up for one or more.  The dates are April 12-13 and April 19-20.  Both are Friday, Saturday dates.  Hours are 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.  Meeting place is the far west end of the Pajarito Ski Hill parking lot. 

I actually had Jennifer's email incorrect in the first message.  You can sign up with her at jasublett@fs.fed.us.  You can also reply directly to this email and sign up that way.  We need to get an email list of all who are interested in case of changes to the schedule due to unexpected weather.  

I think we have about a 50-50 chance of actually getting all 10,000 trees planted on those days without weather cancelling at least one day.  The little Douglas fir trees are very particular.  It has to be above 40 degrees with no snow on the ground, some moisture in the soil, but not too much, and it can't be windy.  Does that sound like a typical April day?  If there are one or more days cancelled due to weather, we will then open up reservations for the next weekend which will be April 26-27, again a Friday, Saturday.

Everyone who signs up will be volunteering for the Southwest Nordic Ski Club.  This will enable us to bank more hours in order to meet the match for continuing contract work to repair trails taken out by the Las Conchas fire.  This season we are targeting Guaje Canyon trail from Guaje Reservoir to Pipeline Road and the Caballo Mountain trails. 

If you have additional questions or wish to sign up by phone, please call the Espanola Ranger District at 505 753-7331 and ask for Jennifer or Lynn.

Sign up soon to reserve your spot with the planting teams.