Trail Repairs 2016

[MADKAWI]

While on the trail maintenance frame of mind , we came across a lot of mud holes filled with short cut logs this year. Some people get the ( wrong ) idea that throwing in 3' or 4' round logs into the hole is actually going to help them across it ....lol
While in reality, it just impedes your progress and helps to clog up the mud hole from draining properly .

Secondly these items float and quite often become tangled in your a arms / axles /skid plates/ tires etc etc ... Not only are they hard on CV boots , but if the hole dries up the sticks could poke right through the floor boards / wheel wells and seriously injure some one ...
If you are in dought go around a deep hole or winch through it , please do not make it worse by throwing more sticks / branches and roots / rocks or whatever in there ....,

Also be safe and cut the trail wide enough( 7 ') , so no one wrecks themselves or their machine ....
Cheers , ride on ....

Yes throwing sticks logs etc in a mud hole just makes it worse but what I was doing is filling holes that are dry but washed out. What I'm doing works.

As for wet holes the best thing u can put in there is bigger rocks as long as it's relatively flat in the end u don't want big rocks poking out.
I know a thing or two about what works and what doesn't from working at the mine. When you have to support a truck that weighs 300 tons and the load it's carrying is another 280 tons you see the only thing that holds them up is big rock period.

Usually though when out riding there's not enough rock around to fill a hole and it would take forever by hand.

I always cut the trail wide too but if I'm exploring and low on fuel for the saw or chain dull etc and the logs are big like in the pic. I cut what ever size I feel I can move by hand. The one in the pics needed to be cut twice and I didn't have the fuel to play around so it got cut smaller than usual.

 

[MADKAWI]

Here's another trail almost gone! hadn't been ridden for at least 4 or 5 years. I cut about 50 trees down and finished of a bridge I had built on this trail about 8 years ago. I cut it nice and wide so hopefully the sxs's will use it more now and knock the willows down. Cool old trails in a beautifull area but nobody rides them much.

 

[Joholio]

Clearing windfall west of the house. Nice grouse over there if I go get a license and the Ruger

 

[TylerG]

Clearing windfall west of the house. Nice grouse over there if I go get a license and the Ruger

can get license online..... no need to "go" anywhere!

 

[kawasakikx250]

I don't understand how people can pack food and drinks into the trails but cant pack there garbage back out with them.

 

[arff]

I don't understand how people can pack food and drinks into the trails but cant pack there garbage back out with them.

Same as sleds. Spring comes and all the trash pushed in the snow shows up.

 

[Kaz Dog]

The next Calgary Snowmobile Club Trail Maintenance Weekend and Saturday night BBQ will be held in conjunction with the Backcountry Trails Flood Rehabilitation program from Alberta Environment & Parks Ministry, on September 24 & 25, at Cataract Creek Snow Vehicle P.L.U.Z.

We will meet each morning in the Etherington Day Use Parking Lot, which is between the main campground and the Group/Equestrian Campgrounds, at the "end of the road" in from the Forestry Trunk Road/Hwy 940, in the Etherington P.R.A. You are welcome to bring your A.T.V.'s and S.xS.'s, but you must have your unit insured and registered to operate on public land. This is the last year we will be asking you to bring your own equipment, as we are planning to have our own for the 2017 trail repair season. Equipment may include: bear spray, blaze orange safety vest, good gloves, pick-axe, spade, long crowbar, chainsaw and fuel/oil, hatchet, hand saw, and bush pruners. We will have water, but pleas bring your own lunch for Saturday, and Sunday.

We would like everyone out of the parking lot and at a work site by 10 AM. We will be sending out people to locations starting at 9 AM, if you are ready to go. Depending on the work, we will finish each day between 4 - 5 PM.

Work being done is varied. More information on that by the end of the week.

If you are a Calgary Snowmobile Club member, would like to become one, or just an interested snowmobiler who loves Cataract Creek, you are welcome to come join us and "pitch in". Please e-mail me at "trails@calgarysnowmobileclub.net" so that I may have an accurate count of participants for the BBQ on Saturday night.

We, in the club, are excited this year about some new undertakings this winter at the Cataract Creek Snowmobile Trails, starting with our Poker Run being designated for Sunday, January 15, this year - so that our dealer sponsors may be able to take part. There is also a club ride on Saturday, January 14, taking place, and other "Rides at Cataract" being scheduled during this winter as one-day events. More to come on this.

Thanks for your assistance and interest in the snowmobile trails in the Cataract Creek Snow Vehicle Public Land Use Zone!

 

[arff]

Please cut logs and branches all the way back.

Not so you can just fit your quad down the trail.

Thanks

 

[WarrenG]

That's a scary situation! Always try to move logs a few feet off the sides of the trail even after they're cut if possible.

 

[arff]

Has anyone been out lately?

Cleaning sled trails or any ohv trails.

I will get out in the next week or so clean up our walking paths to tree stands


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[the_real_wild1]

Not since Edson. Maybe this weekend if I have time. Got lots to do.

 

[arff]

Not since Edson. Maybe this weekend if I have time. Got lots to do.

I hope for a few mid week day trips in October.


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[Kaz Dog]

So, how is this for trail work?

 

[rzrgade]

Terrible , the ground has taken years to settle and to disturb it like that is brutal .. Run off and erosion will be about 20 X worse now ....
As it will take a long time for water to cut new paths .

These trail guys need to keep the heavy equipment on the lease roads , unless absolutely necessary. That is a waste of time and $$....
Unpacked it will simply just wash away ... First heavy rain . I appreciate the effort , but you really need to talk to some people who blade roads in for a living ...


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[TylerG]

Terrible , the ground has taken years to settle and to disturb it like that is brutal .. Run off and erosion will be about 20 X worse now ....
As it will take a long time for water to cut new paths .

These trail guys need to keep the heavy equipment on the lease roads , unless absolutely necessary. That is a waste of time and $$....
Unpacked it will simply just wash away ... First heavy rain . I appreciate the effort , but you really need to talk to some people who blade roads in for a living ...


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This is a sled only area no ATV or utv permitted. Will last longer than if they were allowed. They are still fixing the erosion ditches from the high River floods. The area was impassable on snowmobiles prior to this work being done.

 

[rzrgade]

I see , but disturbing the ground like this is not the way to make a long lasting trail ... For any machine ... That soft stuff will just wash away and create more erosion .
When it freezes it should be great for sleds , when it thaws you will have massive muddy erosion that will run off untill the ground water table is set Again .
I don't understand creating more erosion and damage to sensitive areas ?
That is all ...


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[Ronaha]

This is how the government makes atv/sled trails in Caroline and puts up a Bigfoot sign....so lame.

 

[Kaz Dog]

RZR, all I can say is I am glad you are not incharge of creating quality trails. I, myself, will leave it up to the professionals that know what they are doing. Seems you are sure quick to comment on assumptions you are making. Good luck on any trail you ever attempt to produce in a sustainable way.

I see , but disturbing the ground like this is not the way to make a long lasting trail ... For any machine ... That soft stuff will just wash away and create more erosion .
When it freezes it should be great for sleds , when it thaws you will have massive muddy erosion that will run off untill the ground water table is set Again .
I don't understand creating more erosion and damage to sensitive areas ?
That is all ...


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[zal]

So far from what i can see, the May snow wrecked havoc on our trails. Not enough money or man power to open all three. Possibly just the two. Lots of downfall!

 

[rzrgade]

RZR, all I can say is I am glad you are not incharge of creating quality trails. I, myself, will leave it up to the professionals that know what they are doing. Seems you are sure quick to comment on assumptions you are making. Good luck on any trail you ever attempt to produce in a sustainable way.

I guess that's your opinion , just like mine I suppose ....
If you think levelling ruts with out proper drainage is okay , and mixing the top soil with the clay underneath will stand up... I have a sled ride in Saudi Arabia for you too ...

However , if you think that is the best way to spend gov resources ( over and over) have at it.... Listen to the experts ...lol
I would extend an invitation to you to come ride with us on the " sustainable trails " in central Alberta that that have worked on , and see in the real world how they are holding up ?

Particularly in a year as wet as this ....




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