Lower Snake & Upper Cut Trail Day September 12, 2009.

Submitted by bmba on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 21:26

Date:

Monday, 14 September 2009

The third and final trail day for 2009 dawned sunny and clear on Saturday September 12. The plan was to improve some muddy sections on Lower Snake, as well as replace one or two wooden structures and reopen a section of the trail to offer two options - an xc section with a short climb or a fast and flowy straight through version. As well a section of Upper Cut was going to be reworked.

A total of 40 people showed up to volunteer their services (and earn karma points) and members of NS Ride were on hand to offer homemade granola bars, muffins and water/Gatorade to start the day.

As usual several City of Burnaby employees were on hand to offer assistance, as well as Henry DeJong who oversees all of the trail days. Materials had already been dropped off by the City (but hey guys some of those rocks were a little large!!) so the first order of business, after sign up, was to start hauling the rocks and lumber up the trail for use. Luckily we have two very cleverly designed rock-haulers (a sling for rocks to be carried by two people) so the rock transport was cut down a little, however, for the most part people were resigned to carrying the rocks up the trail one at a time. I am pretty certain that I didn’t hear any complaining, which is highly commendable given the size of some of the rocks.

Sections of Lower Snake had already been scouted out by several of the BMBA directors prior to the trail day, and the areas to be worked on were clearly marked. Groups of volunteers were formed and people quickly got to work - digging, nailing, placing rocks, etc.

We added a new ladder bridge over an extremely muddy section, removed an out of place wood structure and replaced it with a new longer ladder bridge that fits the flow of the trail better and re-opened a section of trail.

As well, a number of “braid buster” fenceposts were inserted to reduce the amount of braiding that is unfortunately appearing on many of the trails on Burnaby Mountain. We ask that riders and hikers respect these blockers and stay on the trail. Trees and ferns were also planted to help the forest reclaim areas damaged by braiding and help minimize our impact.

The group broke around 12:30 for an excellent lunch sponsored by NS Ride - pizza, salads, pop and dessert were eagerly consumed by all of the hungry and hard working volunteers.

At the end of the day Henry directed a number of volunteers with removing holly trees at the start of the trail. Holly is not indigenous to Burnaby Mountain and is slowly choking out the natural bushes and trees so at each trail day we try to remove as much as we can.

We got an incredible amount of work accomplished - HUGE THANKS to all of those that showed up to volunteer their time on this incredibly warm and sunny day.

Big thanks as well to:

- NS Ride for bringing out many of their members and ride leaders, offering an amazing spread of food for both breakfast and lunch, and having schwag on hand for the volunteers

- The City of Burnaby for once again supplying all of the materials and a few employees (as well as their little Toro)

- The volunteer that walked up and down with donuts and coffee from Tim Hortons, as well as water.

This is it for 2009, thanks to all that came out this year, your efforts are greatly appreciated. The trails on Burnaby Mountain are ridden (and hiked) an incredible amount but hopefully this work will last for awhile.

Keep an eye out on our website for the 2010 trail days. These will be decided in early 2010 and will be posted up as soon as we get approval from the City.

Feel free to comment on the work we have done in our forum - any and all feedback is appreciated.

Check out the photos.