Trail/grooming report, January 29, 2013

The good news is that we got a pretty good dose of new snow after the meltdown and then the warm rain.  

The bad news is that the wind has kept it from being groomed out all the way, and it's still blowing. 

But, Dave did give it his best shot this evening and got a single pass with the classic track set.  That means that classic and touring skiing will be good... 

NO SKATING tomorrow!

He ran into problems with our ancient 6' hand-me-down roller.  Looks like a bearing is seized on it.  The ancient 4' hand-me-down roller has a broken hitch.  We need to do more summer/fall equipment maintenance.  It's always something, but that keeps it interesting.

If things work out, Dave said he'll try to get back up there tomorrow evening and groom the entire system, more or less again.  We'll try to keep you posted.

Anyway, it's nice to be back in business.  Looks like a possibility of more active weather next week too. 

NM Cup - Low O2 Challenge 2013 Report

NM Cup was great skiing, but a low turnout; even lower than its usual turnout.  I think we had about 20 skiers each day, and only about 28 snowshoers for the two distances.  We did have a very  cool kids' race, though.  That was fun.  Looks like we'll have to start emphasizing that more than the "grown up" race.

It was really nice conditions on Saturday with some firm, moist snow that Geoff groomed out to perfection.  We were able to V-2 many sections where it's not normally possible.  The course was also probably the best course layout, with more sections of recovery and good cruising, rather than nothing but a series of slogging hills one-after-the-other.  The course was pretty simple and configured like a "butterfly," with the middle part (Powder Puff) being the only repeat on each lap.  The first "lobe," or A-Loop, is simply out Powder Puff to Little John, Abracadabra, back on NW Passage to intersect with PP, where we turned right, and repeated PP.  For the second lobe, or B-Loop, we turned left at Sherwood Forest and went up to March Hare.  We skied March Hare all the way back into the base, which was awesome skiing.  The hardest parts of the course were the hills on NW Passage, and the big Sherwood Forest hill to the high point on March Hare.  The recovery on March Hare was critical because that is all fast V-2 skiing. 

This course had everything.  The other courses in the past were a bit too "slow."

It was below freezing all night and snowed a tiny bit on Saturday morning, but warmed up and got moist as the weather moved in during the race.  I felt the moisture rising in the snow during the race, but it was just beautiful skiing the entire time.

The weather moved in all through the day on Saturday, and it actually rained!  It rained a very cold, steady drizzly rain all afternoon, then it turned to snow late and by night-fall, it was all snow and blowing.  It was really snowing hard for a while, but it was heavy and wet and didn't seem to amount to much.  Pajarito actually received more.

Sunday morning dawned warm and wet, but the precip fell as wet snow.  That made for interesting wax conditions.  The main problem was that it didn't snow enough and there was a wet, icy layer just under the new sticky, wet stuff.

I thought my special "Zero" skis (special kick zone that is simply roughed up into "hairies" and no kick wax) would be the right call because kick waxes and klisters are always difficult in these conditions.  I scraped and brushed them, went out to test them and they were great, but only in the un-tracked areas.  In the track, they were worthless.  The new snow was mashed into the ice, so it was more an icy track than anything.  So, with only 20 minutes to go, I ran back to get my regular ol' classic skis, but I had to scrape and brush them too, AND apply whatever klister/hardwax concoction would be necessary.  

I was very concerned with icing up in the new sticky snow, so I was conservative and used a special "new wet snow" klister and went out to try it out.  It worked well where there was predominately new snow, but again worthless on the icy track.  I was almost out of time, so I got a little crazy and put on a KR-40 klister in hopes that it would split the difference between getting kick on ice, and not icing in the new sticky snow.  I tried it, and it was still WAY to slick on the icy track, but was now a little too sticky on the new snow.  That was a dilemma.

I have been in this situation before and have done a lot of research and have acquired a lot of waxes for these very difficult conditions.  I just happened to have a special hard wax from Rex that is for wet conditions on ice.  Although they were calling us to the line, I had to do something, so I pulled out my wax kit one more time (while I had a crowd of people asking me every little detail of what I doing and why....), and got to applying.  The problem was that my waxes had been sitting outside and were all cold.  This new wax was not going on without a fight and I only managed to glop on about 3 or 4 "wads" and did my best to smooth it out.  It was not very pretty, but I did have about a 4" long messy application that I hoped would work.  I had to just deal with it.

The race started and I got out in front right away to avoid any messes.  The wax worked just enough on most of the hills, but I had to be very careful about my technique and not over-kick or be sloppy about my foot placement or down-pressuring, or else I paid the price by slipping.  Slipping is not good because it shoots your heart rate up instantly, and usually causes a whole bunch more slipping before you can get your feet back under you. 

Anyway, the race was fun, with that interesting new snow that Geoff Goins did a good job grooming, and the new course layout.  I did see that a couple of folks missed the crucial turn at the three-way, Sven Wiik-Sherwood Forest-Little John intersection.  That is a bummer and we'll do what we can to make sure that everyone understands that layout next year.

Sanna Sevanto skied well both days to win the overalls for the women, and was a top contender for the overall as well.  Kudos to her.  John Bernardin skied a great freestyle race to take second on Saturday.

It was a fun weekend of racing!  We'll get some photos up on the SWNSC Picasa site soon.

Heading out Powder Puff during the classic race.  Note the new wet, warm snow

Sandia Peak

Fredrik packed the service road and set tracks for classic this morning.

Ron

New Mexico Cup Nordic and Snowshoe Updates, Chama photos

The 40th annual Chama Chile Classic is a wrap.  It was fantastic, as usual, but the weather made it even more amazing. 

Some great pictures and some videos of the event - click here

Coming up this weekend is the NM Cup - Low O2 Challenge (NM state championship) events at Enchanted Forest.  There will be both classic and skate ski races, plus the USSSA national championship-qualifier snowshoe race.

Based on some feedback from prior years, we're going to alter the skate ski races a bit to suit a wider range of abilities. In the past, we've climbed all of the long hills at EF, but we'll take a lot of that out this year, and offer some more moderate "cruiser terrain" for all distances, including the long race. The 5km and 10km events will certainly be more do-able for anyone. For those of you who are familiar with EF, we'll utilize "Powder Puff" and "March Hare" more, and less of "Northwest Passage" and "Long John."  It'll still be a challenge, though.

The classic-style events will offer the same great "UNM" course that is used for the NCAA invitational (later in February). That one will be 1 lap for the 5km course, or 2 laps for the 10km course. It's challenging, but not too hard and a lot of fun.

See details at www.efxc.com

Check out those pictures. Snow has been great, so don't miss out on winter. It'll be hot and time to pile on the bike miles soon enough...

Trails Groomed 1/7/2013...still good conditions!

Master groomer Dave Wykoff regroomed everything last night.  It is warmer today, but with the cold nights and consistent grooming, the conditions are staying very good in most places with minimal melting.  Even the front hill is staying in relatively good shape.

The classic track was reset and is in great shape for now, but there are still some very thin areas, so it runs over an odd stump or rock here and there.  Keep a wary eye out for those spots.  A few folks have sure helped out with the aspen shoot cutting, which has been a huge ordeal this year.  Some of those thickets are now clear and also some of the cut-offs.

If you haven't gotten your memberships and/or donations in, please do so soon.  This is the time of the year when our expenses go up very quickly.  Gas sure ain't cheap!  We also have liability insurance, maintenance items and yearly equipment replacements to consider.

Click HERE to go to our online registration site.

A HUUUGE thanks to those of you who have donated and renewed!!!

Resolution Race 2013 - Fun Stuff!

Well, that commemorates another start of the year.  And, it hurt!  Conditions were good and temperatures have been cold, so we were able to run the race from the parking lot, all through the trails, and back to the parking lot.  To accommodate a mass start (a first for a race on our trails), we ran the race up to the Mother lift, then did a quick turn-around, then headed out onto the trail system.  I liked that format and it felt a lot more varied; lots more terrain to ski and coming back was a blast.

Great job to all the participants.  That is a tough course at altitude.  It takes a lot to get through it.  I was happy that Hans did the event in the classical style so that I could keep my "winning streak" alive =)  I no doubt would have suffered a loss if he would have skated.  But, I did notice that in many spots, I was faster just double-poling in the track rather than trying to skate and get all winded.  I don't know if that's a remark on my skate technique, or that the track was faster...hmm...

Everyone get ready for the Chama Chile Classic in a couple of weeks, then the Low O2 Challenge at Enchanted Forest the weekend after that.  It's the season for New Mexico Nordic!

Here are the results, and a couple of pictures near the start/finish/registration/place where I got a citation for parking in the bus turn-around (I got out of it by talking to the LA Transit Supervisor =).

Clay Moseley                    40:48

Hans Hanson                     41:04 - classic

Sanna Sevanto (f)               44:22

Ken Kisiel                      45:55

Max Schultz                     51:28

Susan Hanson (f)                54:24 - classic

Paul Graham                     55:28

Dave Wykoff                     59:36

Chuck Calef                   1:02:49 - classic, wooden skis

Kristina Brown (f)            1:02:16

Jeri Sullivan (f)             1:13:04 

Mariann Johnston (f)          1:18:56 

Max Light                     1:50:29

I heard that Jeri and Mariann did some other version (more or less, I am not sure) of the course.  I admit that the markings were pretty much minimal.  It was just for fun and training, and I think everyone was OK with that.

Thanks for coming out and making it a fun day!

Everyone getting ready for the start - great conditions

Signing up

Sandia peak snow and ski conditions

Finally a post for 2013 for Sandia Peak.  I was hoping a couple days ago that I would be reporting that grooming had taken place but that didn't happen.  However Sandia Peak has about a foot of snow on the trails surrounding the tram service road (including the road).  Classic skiing can be found and is quite good except for the occasional rock that can be found.  So I recommend that you use your rock skis unless you stick to the service road.  I don't recommend trying to skate yet as snow is unpacked except where snowboarders have been across it (either with their boots or boards).

Online club membership and donations

Hi all,

After some ado, we finally have very nice online club membership registration and donations capabilities thanks to New Mexico Sports Online.

To register, renew and/or donate to the club, simply go to:

http://www.newmexicosportsonline.com/events/details.aspx?id=497

That is our club's registration site.  I'll have to get this link up onto the website, along with many other updates, but this link should work.

Clay

SWNSC Resolution Race Club Fun Event this Saturday

This Saturday morning, the Southwest Nordic Ski Club will be holding its "sort-of" annual club training "fun" race on the SWNSC Nordic ski trails at Pajarito.  Start time will be 9:30 AM, sharp, so plan on being there early to sign up and get a liability waiver signed.  There is no charge for the event; it is just for fun and to see how well you can ski around the trail system.

The conditions are pretty good, with solidly cold temperatures, so we'll plan on doing the entire "main loop" of the system, starting right on Camp May Road, just beyond the parking lot.  Since we have so much starting space, we'll do this year's version as a mass start -- everyone starts together.

Refer to the map for the course description below...
For those of you who would like to do the "long course," it'll basically be a ~15km run from the very beginning, up through the "letters," (blue trails on the map) to the top of the meadow, then down the inner meadow trail to Point M (none of the outer meadow trails that are purple on the map), then take the cut-off from M to J, make a sharp right turn and repeat the trip back up to the top of the meadow.  The rest of the course is "all downhill" back to the start/finish and described below.

The "short course" will simply be one grand trip around the main loop, up through the letters to the top of the meadow, then down the inner meadow trail to Point M and straight down the lower meadow to the lower road past Points O, P, Q, R and back to A, then on down the front hill to finish on Camp May Rd near the parking lot!

Remember, be there early to sign a waiver and get your name on the start list.  I do not have a timer lined up, so you may want to bring a watch to "backup" time yourself.  I'll be doing the timing myself, but I'm also skiing, so something may be missed...

There is LA Transit bus service, so keep in mind that you won't be able to park right at the trail-head as before.  Click here for the map and schedule:

Great conditions and a great day of skiing on tap.  Go ski at Pajarito Mountain in the afternoon!

Happy New Year - Conditions and recent photos for 1/2/2013

Conditions are fantastic after this last round of snow.  There are still a few (but getting fewer and fewer) obstacles out on the trail, especially in those zones with the really BIG rocks.  Keep you eyes out and remember where those zones are, because they're now lurking just below, whereas before we could still see them...

Dave has been doing a great job with the grooming, with a little help from the other volunteers.  There are just so many little things that have to be done weekly, or really daily, to keep an operation like this going!

Get your memberships and/or club donations in (they'll count for your 2013 taxes now...) when you can.  I'm still working on getting it all set up through www.newmexicosportsonline.com so we should see that process streamlined very soon -- hopefully within a couple of days.

We will be having our club "Fun Trial" this weekend.  We'll go with a single course that will be run from the very beginning at the parking lot, up to the top of the meadow, back in again from Point M to Point J, back up to the top of the meadow, and then all the way back to the finish before the parking lot.  The conditions are good enough and we should ski it up while we got it!  Let's plan on having the first skier off by 9:30 AM.  Most likely, that will be me and I will likely be doing the timing as well.

Here are some photos I've taken the last few days while out on my ski.  A few were before the storm (just before it came in), then after the storm.  Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Before the storm - looking down Canada Bonita at the Baca fenceline

I keep finding remnants of deer and elk all over the trails!

Before the storm - looking south below Pt. A toward Ski Pajarito

Before the storm - looking north through the burn zone on the Canada Bonita road

Before the last storm - looking SE toward Santa Fe over the Los Alamos Canyon drainage

After the storm - hoarfrost in the upper meadow

My phone shadow and the nice tracks in the upper meadow

More hoarfrost - I was trying to capture something cool, but just got a flat picture of a frosty blade of grass

This one turned out better - it was cold up there, for sure

Looking up the trail at the "4km" mark

Looking down the trail at the "4km" mark

NM Cup Winter Sport Series

From our club prez, Clay M.:
Happy Holidays to everyone.  I wanted to get the news and information out to everyone on the New Mexico Cup Winter Sport Series.  It is a combination point series that comprises both cross-country skiing and snowshoe competitions. Essentially, there are three major events that are participating this year (but will likely be expanded in the future).  The events are listed below in order of their respective date.  A big thanks to the folks at Enchanted Forest for hosting so many events this year (currently GREAT ski conditions, BTW), including the Low O2 Mountain bike race.  More to come in the future!

New Mexico Cup Series general information:
http://www.enchantedforestxc.com/events/races-coming/new-mexico-cup-low-o2-challenge-ski-race-february-13th

Santa Fe Striders Snowshoe Classic (Jan. 12):
http://www.santafestriders.org/race_info/event_info.aspx?eventname=SnowShoe2013

Chama Chili Ski Classic (Jan. 19-21):
http://www.chamaski.com/

Enchanted Forest Low O2 Challenge (Jan 26-27):
http://www.enchantedforestxc.com/events/events-calendar/view/16

Additionally, there are other local winter events that you might consider:

* Southwest Nordic Ski Club training time trial (5km or 10km freestyle, no entry fee) at the Pajarito/Canada Bonita Nordic trails, Jan. 5;
www.swnordicski.org

* The Alley Loop, Crested Butte, CO, Feb. 2, 2013 (www.cbnordic.org)

* Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon (www.mttaylorquad.org)

* Pagosa Springs Nordic Events (list below, details can be found on www.PagosaNordic.com):

FREE Learn to Cross Country Ski Clinics
Saturdays, 9-11am, Dec. 15th / Jan 12th  / Feb. 2nd

Free Dog Harness Demo Day, Clinic and Fun Race
Saturday and Sunday, January 5-6, 2013

Pagosa Winter Fest Nordic Ski Races
February 9-10, 2013/ Saturday-Sunday

'PAGOSA PAW' Dog Sled, Canine Skijoring and Cani-Cross Races
February 23-24, 2013 / Saturday and Sunday
(Location: Kuhn Ranch)

Pagosa Springs Quad Challenge
March 03, 2013 ~  Sunday

membership info and news

from our club prez Clay M:
Hi all,

I hope your holidays have been active and merry and you've had a chance to get out and ski.  Dave has been laying down some very nice tracks, and there is good snowshoeing in the woods and Canada Bonita trail.  Hopefully, we'll be able to expand the "snowshoe network" again next year, but there's still plenty of options.

Anyway, I am writing to alert you to a change in how we'll be offering membership registration.  Right now, it's the same old way on the website. The form on the website needs to be updated for this season, I know that...just too many things to do.  Club admin housekeeping has not been my strong suit, and Dina has been busy taking care of all these kids we keep having =)  Anyone want to help us with keeping up with website content?

Anyway, coming up very soon, you'll have the option to register online at: www.newmexicosportsonline.com

It is not quite ready yet and I'm working with them to get it set up.  There is a small processing fee in addition to the club "fees."  I put "fees" in quotations, because we all know it is just a donation and a charge to ask everyone to come work for your skiing =).  I'll be the first to admit that.  It is tax deductible, however.

I'll send out the notice that it is ready as soon as we get it up and running.

We are now a USA Triathlon affiliated club, which means the club has membership liability insurance.  Additionally, we had to add the club's board as an "additionally insured" entity.  Blame it on our litigious world, but it does indemnify the club and the Forest Service for club events.  Everyone needs to sign a waiver for any club activity, including the club membership form.

Your donations and club membership dues help to defray the considerable costs associated with keeping the Nordic trails maintained (year round) for all activities, not least of which is the winter grooming.  Grooming is VERY EXPENSIVE!!!  Trail upkeep and material expenses add up quickly too.  A special thanks goes out to those who have been generous donors over the years.  It has really helped us become a much more viable operation.

Again, thanks to all of you for your support and volunteerism, and here's to a long and great ski season.

Happy New Year

Buy Dave a Beer! Trail Report 12/28/2012

Professional and very timely grooming is brought to us by 'Pro' groomer, Dave Wykoff.  A big thanks goes out to him for the hard work he's been putting in.  It has been great skiing thanks to the little rounds of "freshies" and the awesome grooming.

Still lots of little obstacles (still big obstacles in the meadows) and aspen shoots to watch out for.  Please cut a few shoots when you head out.  Every little bit helps.

Hopefully, we'll be getting a real storm in just a few days.  For the time being, enjoy the skiing we have!

Sanna heading out to enjoy the freshly groomed snow on Christmas Day.   Dave groomed this section of Camp May Rd last, so it hadn't been groomed yet.

Weekend Trail Update 12-22 through 12-24

We had a good weekend of skiing for our first "full" groomed weekend.  Things were a little lumpy and bumpy, with lots of aspen shoots still poking through, and some grass here and there.  But amazingly, things were quite well covered with only those really big rocky sections being an issue.  Otherwise, I didn't even hit anything with my rock skis.

I was pleased with the trail on the early sections, including the front hill, where we completed the regrading/erosion control work.  It groomed and skied nicely, and seems to hold the snow much better.  We did get the usual elk stampede and a couple of errant runners who must have trouble reading, otherwise, the trails looked pretty good all weekend.  Please keep a wary eye out for things until we pick up a lot more snow.  Use caution and ski lightly!

A HUUUGGGEEE  thanks goes out to Paul Graham for his complete dedication to going out and cutting aspen shoots for 4 hrs on Friday, then again Saturday and Sunday.  Sanna got in the action too on Saturday and just skied sans poles and cut shoots.  They were really bad and now there are very few sections left with any in them.

Hopefully, we continue to pick up a few inches here and there to cover all those little obstacles and fill in the holes and trenches.  It'll improve steadily if so.

Thanks also goes out to John B., Chuck C. and Dave W. for all the trail prep work, grooming, blading, sawing, etc.

I'm going to set up our club registration on www.nmsportsonline.com this week to renew club memberships. We also need to update the release form.

Thanks everyone and hope to see you out during the holidays!

Clay

First "grooming" of the 2012-13 ski season

After a busy fall with trail work projects and many, many other things...it was finally time to get up and pack the snow that has finally arrived.  This droughty fall was making us sweat it out, so it was nice to see some good snow that actually had some moisture in it.  

We're very short-handed this year with groomers.  We've lost one groomer (Denny moved to Utah), and Dina and I had another kid a few months ago, so it's going to be lean with the grooming if we get on the pattern of the recent years past.  If you know of anyone who might be willing to spend some cold, tough nights working out on the trails (and can operate machinery and lift some heavy objects... =), please have them get in touch with us.  It's actually pretty cool when you get the hang of it.

All that said, things are looking OK.  There was quite a bit of snow and it was setting up nicely with the cold nights.  It packed out well, but it's still thin for skiing.  Lots of people had already been skiing, but there are still lots of early-season obstacles, so be very careful.  No classic track yet.  Use your rockiest of rock skis if you do go up to ski.  

I packed the lower road out to Point O (still trees down above that point to Point M and to Point F).  The upper trails all got a couple of passes out to the end of the meadow (or, more like to the Valles Caldera fence), but there are some narrow spots due to some deadfall that needs to be removed.  I cleared what I could with a hand saw and just brute force, but we need to get up with chainsaws and even a pry bar to move the rest.  

It'll be lumpy and bumpy, plus there's lots of very tall grass and weeds, no doubt stimulated from last year's fire.  I'd never seen the weeds get that tall - several stretches with weeds higher than the machine.  Also, there are lots of aspen shoots that didn't get snipped.  Consider bringing a little set of hand snippers out with you if you'd like to spend some time helping get the trail cleaned up.  It would be a huge help.

Looks like more snow on Wednesday, but with wind =(.  Hopefully the storm scheduled for Christmas will get us up and running at 100%.  Again, we REALLY need some grooming help.  If we don't get someone new, it won't be groomed quite as well this year.

The SWNSC "garage"

Getting "Kermit" hooked up to the roller

First bit of trail from Camp May

On the lower road looking toward Pajarito

Looking north through the burn damage near the old Point R

Looking up to the upper trail where we had to extend the fencing and do some considerable trail repairs this fall

Over the big hill on the lower road headed to Point P; just out of the burn zone

Looking back up toward the burn zone.  The FS let us move those rocks out to the original Canada Bonita road width

One of the numerous trees that had fallen since the fall cleanup projects

Another broken tree (upper part of the picture to the right of center)

Farther up the trail; snow gets deeper and looks pretty good for skiing

The roller smoothing things out

Lots of grass and weeds had to be rolled and knocked down 

Entering the Canada Bonita meadow near Point L;  pretty deep snow here

Out in the meadow -- it is hard to see where to go with no previous grooming, or our bamboo markers placed for guidance

Trail Work at Canada Bonita

From Clay, our club prez (see note from Lynn B at bottom regarding keeping track of your volunteer hours):

It's that time of year again to get some trail maintenance work done up at Canada Bonita (FS Trail #282 & SWNSC ski trails).  The aspens and locusts are finally not rooting in so much, so it's time to cut them all out.  Also, we have some good news from the Forest Service:  we'll be able to repair a few spots where the fire actually physically burned the trail away where there was a lot of organic material.

The aspens and locusts would best be dealt with using those big "grub" hoes, Pulaskis, and McCleod tools to cut out their roots, but we may not have enough time this season.  We will have to do our best to clear much more of the trail system due to their growth than ever before.  So, a combination of "chopping" them out, in addition to "whacking" them out (which will just see them grow back next year) will have to do.  They have proliferated on the entire trail system this year, no doubt stimulated by the fire.  If you ever want to go do some work on your own, just hike up and start chopping or whacking away; just be sure to get them cut down low so that they don't poke out above the groomed snow line.  Also try to toss them off to the side of the trail, as hikers and bikers will still be using the trail until ski season.

The trail repair areas will require placing our low-side log structures (from dead/down material), then cutting a small section of the high-side portion of the trail to fill in the gaps on the low side.  We also have some drainage bars to create with some grading cleanups.  We'll try to borrow and rent some machinery with low-impact tread.  Hopefully we can find a mini-excavator, and it looks like Sam Gardner will be helping us with his backhoe.

I'm trying to schedule what weekends this work can be done.  It looks like perhaps next weekend (Oct. [12],13-14) will be one of the weekends, and perhaps the weekend of Oct. 27-28.  We may have another couple of chances in November as well.

At any rate, there is a lot that can be done individually with the cutting of all that brush.  I will try to be up there this weekend to do some work and staking for the "excavation."  I'll post the time as soon as I know.  This year will be interesting since we just had a new baby.

Also in the works is a trail day with REI volunteers, and perhaps even some National Guard members helping out.  We'll see on those things.  We could even plan on a group camp out to get even more work done over a weekend.

More to come.  Please try to get up and help when/if you can.

Important note from Lynn regarding keeping track of your volunteer hours:
Please be sure to track and record all your hours of work on the Nordic Ski
Trails.  To do that just send Clay and/or me an email (or email SWNSKIboard@gmail.com) with:
Date of work
Location and what you did
Number of hours

We just completed Phase I of the contract that is part of the SWNS Club Cost
Share Agreement.  This contract so far has paid Reineke Trail Construction Crew
to restore the upper half of Guaje Ridge Trail, North Mitchell Trail, and Guaje
Canyon Trail.  The first bill was for $20,000.  Under the agreement, we have to
match that $20,000 with $10,000 worth of volunteer labor.  That came out to
about 460 hours.  We have $73,000 left in the contract, and to spend it on trail
rehab, we must match it with about 1600 hours of volunteer work.  So you can see
that tracking every hour of volunteer work we do is essential.  It is your work
that is enabling the restoration of all of our trail system. If we were ever  to
get audited for responsible use of Federal funds, someone would take the emails,
or trail sign-in sheets, and call you up to verify that you did that work. They
do that more and more with fire rehab money to assure correct spending.

Thanks so much for your assistance with this!

Lynn

Guaje Ridge trail work completed

Update from Lynn Bjorklund of USFS and Southwest Nordic Ski Club:

Trail work on the upper half of Guaje Ridge trail from Mitchell Trail to Pipeline Road has been completed (for now).  It certainly isn’t perfect, but we are trying to get the most accomplished with the funding.  All those awful locusts have been cleared, the trail widened in spots, a minor reroute constructed, and drainage features added or improved.  Check it out and let me know (comment here) what you think.  This is OUR [due to cost share agreement between USFS and SWNSC] contract with volunteers making it possible, so feedback on how we are spending the money is solicited.  Reineke, our contractor, will be off on another job this next week.  Then the week of Sept 24, they will be back and starting reconstruction of north Mitchell Trail to what used to be Guaje Reservoir.  Next on the agenda in October will be work on the Pajarito Nordic Ski Trails.  We have to wait until after the first frost to protect the Jemez Mtn Salamanders, and we will need a cultural survey clearance that is scheduled for the first week in October.  So, if all goes on schedule, perhaps the second or third week of October we will get the work done up there that will be directed by Clay. Depending on weather and soil conditions, work on reconstruction of the trail up Guaje Canyon may get started.  Once the soils freeze up, then trail work will be over for the year, but the Nordic Ski Club will then be picking up on volunteer hours that will help fund work starting next Spring.

Trail Contract starting on Guaje Ridge/Mitchell Trails

Note regarding upcoming trail work from Lynn Bjorklund of USFS: 

Thanks to SWNS Club, Volunteers, and Clay Moseley!

A contract trail crew will be starting work down Guaje Ridge Trail and north Mitchell trail this next week. There will be daily ATV traffic up and down Pipeline Road that is authorized as approved administrative access so that the contractor (Reineke trail construction) can get chain saws and trail equipment to the start of the trail off Pipeline road. There will be hand crews only on the actual trail, with no motorized equipment except a chain saw to clear downed trees and hazard trees. The Guaje Ridge/Mitchell Trails will be greatly improved soon, and all those locusts and aspen shoots removed off the trail.

Thanks to all the volunteers who made this possible, and especially the Southwest Nordic Ski Club who has partnered with the Forest Service to assist in the rehabilitation of all the fire affected trails in Los Alamos County. Under this agreement, there must be a 50% match of volunteer hours to utilize the federal funding for these contract crews. Clay Moseley waded through the maze of forms, RFPs, and contracting process to make this a reality amidst his own impossibly busy schedule.

 

The contractor will be working the trails that are more remote, such as Guaje Canyon and Caballo, for the next several years while Craig Martin leads local volunteers on the closer access trails.  The sign-in sheet for all these volunteer efforts explains that they are actually volunteering for the Southwest Nordic Ski Club to help meet the match to obtain the federal funding.  Over the next few years we will need something like 1300 volunteer hours to fully utilize these funds. All the upcoming fall work parties and winter grooming hours will count towards this goal.  

 

We are also planning to have Reieke do some additional work on the nordic ski course later in the fall to get the trails in better shape for this upcoming season. 

Pics from the 4/21 work party

The shade fence was taken down, Clay went off into the yonder to cut trees down with Kermit. Sanna, Clay and John avoided being photographed. A good time was had by all.

Thanks to all the volunteers, groomers, members and skiers for the great season, see you when the sunfencing goes back up this fall.

Trail Work Session Tomorrow Morning

We'll have an easy, 3 hour trail work day on Saturday, 10AM at the trail....  this will be April 21st.

We'll be taking down all the plastic sunfencing that kept the snow shaded this past winter.

Because of the fire last Summer we had to put up more fencing than normal ($2500.00 worth!) and so we have more to take down, so we'd love to have a big turnout for this one.

Please join us!

Thanks,

Tom Berg