A Beautiful Spring Day for a Work Party
April 27th, 2025
Today 6 of us met at the Thomas Hayes parking lot at 10 am with a mission to get rid of some scotch thistle, an invasive plant along the trails. We had been told by a person in the know that if we went out to tackle this plant early in the spring by cutting it off just below ground level and turning it over it and leaving it, it wouldn’t regrow.
One of our Board members and his wife went out a few weeks ago to get an idea of where these plants were, flag the spots and locate them on a map. We didn’t want to go out when the trails were muddy but now that everything is dry, today was the day.
We divided into 2 groups. The group of 2 did most of the circumference on Coyote Loop to cut the occasional plant here and there while the rest of us headed to Chickadee Way to take care of quite a concentration there. Also on Chickadee Way one person got to use his silky gomboy saw to make quick work of a cedar tree across the trail. That made his day 
!
We all met up again on Whitetail Wander, compared notes and headed to the picnic table where we had a quick snack before climbing the gentle grade on Coyote Loop and out to the parking lot. On the way out we cut off the young burdock plants just below the ground – a 2 for 1 day!
We met a few people throughout our time and joked that we always carry shovels when we hike, and of course appreciated the thanks we received for our efforts!
We saw an eagle, heard lots of song birds, saw lots of game trails and marveled at the vast amount of beautiful clematis along quite a long section of Coyote Loop. We remarked that none of us had ever seen this amount of clematis before and all in full bluey/purple bloom. Amazing! The spring conditions this year must be just perfect for this plant. We also saw 3 chocolate lilies in bud. It won’t be long.
As always the laughing, joking and swapping interesting tidbits of info made the work fun. Get out and enjoy the trails!! They are in great shape right now and there’s lots to see.
Building and stabilising the viewpoint bench area
With the heavy snowfall we had last winter, of the 2 areas we look after, Thomas Hayes and Mt Rose Swanson, Thomas Hayes is the first to become snow and ice free. On Apr 21st and 28th we conducted 2 work parties with a total of 12 people who contributed 60 hrs of love to the Park. Tasks included adding more stairs to the Otter Lookout Trail near the bench, levelling the landing in front of the bench to prevent erosion, improving the cross fall of the same trail in various locations and tightening up the post of 1 sign. There was a lot of laughter around the last task as one person was doing the work while we were all watching, leaning on our tools. Remind you of anything? Our next work party was on June 28th when 6 Board members used 4 different tools; extended reach hedge trimmers and weed eaters, to hack back encroaching vegetation on all of the trails. Now we are good for summer! A total of 27 hrs was contributed that day.
By Glenn Gytenbeek
New trail reroute
We noticed that Poison ivy was growing near the fence along the western portion of the Coyote Loop Trail in the meadow in July. Poison ivy is a native plant and we didn’t want to eradicate it but we didn’t want people to brush up against it and get a reaction. An alternate trail just to the east was scouted out in late July. On Aug 2nd 4 of us spent about 16 hrs brushing out 150 m of new trail. It’s a beautiful
By Ron Neden
meandering trail through openings and light brush and we didn’t cut down any trees. Signs notifying people of the alternative trail avoiding the Poison ivy were placed at each end of the new trail.
Spiffy Biffy # 1
Five of us spent a total of 25 1/2 hrs on Sept 31th cleaning and painting the inside of the Thomas Hayes outhouse – aka “Spiffy Biffy # 1”. See us holding the tools of our trade! This was to finish off what was begun in Nov 2020 (raising the outhouse up about 6″ so the door would open in the winter and installing a new roof with an overhang).
By Suzie
