“Porcupine help” – Not!
We found out that we have a porcupine on the mountain. One day while hiking the trails for pleasure in early Aug I noticed that 3 of our directional “You Are Here” signs at the trail junctions had the plywood backing chewed. They must like the glue in the plywood as they climbed the post and chewed the plywood around the edges of the aluminium sign. Well, we don’t want our signs looking ratty so we decided to purchase some ¼” hardware cloth, enough to cover all of our “You Are Here” signs (11), and I spent 3 days in mid Aug (15 hrs total) hiking to each sign, removing the aluminium sign, covering the plywood backing with the mesh and reassembling the aluminium. One of the plywood backings was beyond repair and had to be totally replaced. So far that seems to have done the trick!
By Glenn Gytenbeek
Jackpine Walkway upgrade
Aside from clearing windfall on the trails after a windstorm and trail brushing – regular maintenance, our next major project was our Jackpine trail raised walkway. On a last winter fun day cross-country snowshoe we came out at this walkway. Wow! The accumulation of snow on the deck of the walkway made the width very narrow and high, making the one railing about knee height. A safety issue as 1 misstep could send you in a hole and perhaps twist an ankle. On Oct 27th 5 of us hiked in carrying all of the tools necessary to fix this. Our plan was to increase the width of the deck by 2 stringers and add a second railing on the other side that was 10 inches higher than the 1st railing. Voila! Now we have a summer handrail and a winter handrail and the walkway is much wider and safer. Much better! We spent a total of 25 hrs on this project.
By Glenn Gytenbeek
Spiffy Biffy #2
On June 17th, we wanted to concentrate on this facility on Mt RS. Five of us carried heavy, awkward materials and tools up the mountain. Our task was to replace the roof and paint the inside. Not only that, the ASTS provided a brand new plastic seat, proudly displayed by 1 member before it was actually installed (the paint was allowed to dry first)! The work party spent a total of 17 1/2 hrs on this project.
By Suzie
Waterbars
Our last project of the year happened on Oct 31st. As the Centennial Trail can often have a lot of water running down it in spring due to snowmelt, causing erosion, we decided to construct some water bars. Four of us started from the parking lot and worked our way up the trail. Wherever we saw a ditch on the uphill side we knew that water would accumulate and eventually run down the trail. We constructed ~18 small trenches on an angle across the trail to move future water to the downhill side of the trail. Using a pick, pulaskis, shovels, a McLeod and a bar the digging wasn’t that bad at all. After a total of 16 hrs we were done for the day and back home in time for Halloween!
By Glenn Gytenbeek
Gripes & Complaints
We were extremely displeased to see yard waste still being dumped in the RS parking lot. Also a new one to us, gallons of used cooking oil. Come on people, give your head a shake!!