... I slept well that night, exhausted from my early rise and running the race. The next day, I joined 5 other people up in Tiger Mountain for some trail work. The weather up there was horrific. The winds were sustained 30mph with gusts in the 50s.That’s scary when you are surrounded by trees. There was hail and rain. Plus, we did not just clear the trail of twigs and brush but were actually making a section of the trail more runnable. This entailed using a McLeod, which is a serious tool. It’s like a hoe but with an end piece that had an aggressive jagged edge on one side and a flat blade on the other side. We were cutting the trail closer to the slope, as the trail that was there was mostly eroded away, leaving a thin, slopy single track to run on. I had only eaten a small breakfast that morning and had planned on snacking and eating while we worked. But my gloves were covered in mud and my hands frozen. Stopping to eat would have put me into hypothermia. We plugged away. Each person was responsible for about a 15-foot section of the trail. It took hard work for each person to finish his or her section in the time of three hours. All told, with the driving to get to the trailhead, hauling heavy tools from one end of the trail to the next, doing the actual trail work, and driving back out, we ate up over 5 hours. Scott Jurek asked me if I had fun. I told him that it was probably the least fun I have had on a trail. I mean, it was as miserable conditions as possible to do trail work. But on my ride home, I thought about what I had accomplished. Scott said just imagine how much more trail we could have covered if there had been 15 volunteers. He’s right. I have done trail work before, but not to this magnitude. Usually it was just clearing the trail of little things or filling low spots. What we did was back breaking work. We had to pull roots, collect rocks, dig out ferns, and re-plant them. The trail needed to be wide enough not only to run on but also to anticipate future erosion. The slope that came down to the trail needed to be a certain angle for water run-off. There was much more to it than I realized. And I know that it is always the same people that go out there and do the trail work. So please, if you have some free time, and I know we all do because of the amount of running and racing that we do, join a trail work party in your area. Hopefully, you’ll be doing it in better conditions than I had. It won’t deter me from helping again. ---Van Phan
As of 12.30.06, the FA loop is all clear.
*** Click images to enlarge or click slideshow ***
And your before and after images put Extreme Makeover to shame.
Kendra
05-Jan-2007 18:35
Thanks to you (Glenn), Pigtails, Scott and whoever else was out there freezing & working their collective buns off. You are right, the usual suspects do all the work. I'm glad Van wrote a description of it, too, so we can *truly* feel guilty about how awful it was for you and *truly* feel grateful. T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U!
Max Weker
27-Dec-2006 03:31
The damage is pretty much as it looks in the pictures, but there is nothing that creates a problem. Most of the downed trees can easily be climbed over or gone around. I did one loop on the 22nd. The trail work on the TMT is terrificic - thanks guys.