Second Sigma Tau Gamma crew

We want to post a few pictures from the second Sigma Tau Gamma crew dominating the brush in Churning Rapids as well.  It was a fun morning and lots of work was accomplished from fixing mud holes to lopping berry canes.  Thanks for the community gift of your volunteered labor!  All you skiers can thank Sigma Tau Gamma for clearing your way this ski season.

Doing a little lopping 

Keeping the blackberries at bay

Taking a break to explore the Beaver Bypass trail near Ruby Marsh

Brush report #25

Today we had a bunch of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity guys out helping to clear trail 8 to Churning Rapids. Not seen in these photos were the rest of the crew, helping out on Spring Creek Trail. Thanks to John D. for leading that work bee.

Colin and Arly were out in advance, dropping branches and leaners down.

Lotsa little brushy trees were removed, to be sure the corridor stays clear this winter.

Everyone got their exercise today.

Lookin' good.

Tall tales being told?

The boomerang got the small stuff cut.

 

Lotsa lopping was done too.

Plus the weed whacker.

In just 3 hours, trail 8 went from brushy to ready for grooming.

Quite a band of brothers! Thanks guys for all your help today.

Recent photos, Report #23

We've been working on the trails most days and here are a few taken over the past week.  We also had a "Make A Difference Day" on our trails which we have no photos of.  If you have some, please send them our way and we'll post them.

Skiers out!  Seems this snow was a tad shallow for doing that.

And weeds remain that we've been knocking down.

Taking trees off the trails as well

Taking care of some leaners.

On Sisu hill.

We'll take them down now...

...So they'll not come down this winter and disrupt grooming.

In the old sand pit above Superior Sand and Gravel.

Weeds coming out.

On St Urho's.

Done!

This past Tuesday

Everyone enjoys being in the gorge!

Report #22. River Trail extension cleared today.

The River Trail extension was roughly cleared this spring.  That means that a few remaining leaning trees needed to be removed, brush along the edge cut, then all the little stumps that would flatten tires, needed to be located and trimmed off.

In the previous post, you can see photos of a trench that we need to install a culvert in. Couldn't trailer that in, without prepping the trail as was done this weekend.

Sandy tackled the shoots with the boomerang and whacker.

Arly trimmed stumps and leaners with the chain saw. It's gettin' there!

Rain in the morning and "falling back" to standard time shortened the work day, but we got 'er done!

Report #21. Corduroy galore!

On Saturday morning we had the pleasure of having Blair O. and members of the MI Tech Nordic Ski Club out to add corduroy on the River Trail, on the upstream side of Tomasi pit road.   This is been the wettest spring, summer and fall, locals can recall and this section of trail has multiple stream crossings it that we'd never seen before in the fall.   Without adding this corduroy, I'm afraid this trail would have not been groom-able this winter.....   This is why we're raising funds for a tractor, so we can add ditching and culverts with a minimum of manual labor.

This is new corduroy being added by the 20ft boardwalk, right off Tomasi Rd.

This had been added years ago and subsequently rotted away.
Some new corduroy will save the trail during winter melts/high water days.

Lots and lots of corduroy was moved today, plus slash hauled away.

Not all the water crossings are pictured here.
Some problem rocks were also pulled out today.
BIG thanks to Eric, Conner and Ben for their help!

This is on the new River Trail extension.

We cut back brush and stumps that were left this spring when this trail was cut.

This is another wet crossing with water flowing in it today.
With any luck, we'll get a culvert added here soon. 

Report #20. More trail work getting done.

As you might suspect, more work gets done than reports given here.   These photos were taken over the past few days.

Cassie and Gromit came out to help on Monday afternoon and we cleared trail #4.

Colin got things looking neater with the power pruner.

This is again trail #4 near the gate into Churning Rapids.

We added corduroy here to help with low snow situations.

A tractor would help smooth this section out ASAP.
Yes, we're still raising money for this and other trail improvement tools.

Fresh bear scat found on trail #4 near the River Trail extension.  Who likes apples?

Lookin' good!

We added a tool rack to keep things more organized and efficient.

Report #19. City side trail crew rocked!

Today a wonderful trail crew worked on Trail #2, starting at Tomasi road and worked west. We made it to Hodges RD.

What a fabulous day to work on the trails!

Special thanks to Keith M. for help and these photos.

We plan to take this 8ft wide bridge out and install a culvert.
Until that happens, the corduroy was fixed today to widen it out sufficiency.

Lunch on the trail!

Special thanks goes to Josh, Lisa, and Dave N. for helping today.

Also helping was Mark R, Ken R, Jim B and Ulrich S. Thanks to all!

With help like this, trail clearing is a snap!