Update on the summer trailwork – On June 6th, a line of strong thunderstorms moved through the region. Thousands of trees were felled on the Grand Mesa with possibly 200 or more trees across the GMNC ski trails. GMNC did not want to organize a work party yet, saving that for the fall when we may have more downed trees and vegetation growth to remove.
But in August, Lynea Schultz-Ela, Vice President of the Nordic council put out an enewsletter asking for interested volunteers to help out with cutting downed trees on the trails. The response was fantastic. The first work-day there were around 20 people. They cleared Dog Loop and County Line, one group worked on Winslow and Sunset. They were able to split into work groups and go to 2 separate trails and get alot done each time. GMNC’s UTV came in handy for lugging the saws and brush cutters to the appropriate trail sections that needed work.
On August 26th GMNC had a terrific crew again and split into 3 teams. Eric Jansen cut brush on Vista Valley with a new volunteer Karla. There were two other teams that started at either end of Summit, with one larger team breaking into two so that they could cut some of the big stumps at Sunset and the end of Summit.
And now SUMMIT IS CLEAR!!! It’s a whole other project to make it wide enough for the snow cat – for another time. But for this winter it is ready. Lynea had hiked it before but this year but saw lots of changes from the downfallen trees and it’s very rough terrain.
So – next Wednesday we will have a smaller crew to finish up some trees on Dog Loop, one of the numbered intersections off tower, and trees on Scales Lake Road that were not cut back adequately.
After that a crew will be working on signage, and hoping to get some trail markers up on Outer Limits so we can attempt to clear that trail before the snow flies. It is currently marked inadequately for a trail crew.
Great trail bosses yesterday: Joe, Winslow, Eric, and the split off team led by Tim.
You all are welcome to join in the fun – just let Lynea know.