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IMBA TRAIL CREW VISIT & TRAIL BUILDING SCHOOL May 25-27, 2001 RENO, NV Day 1 @ Patagonia  Memorial Day Weekend—for many it was time to enjoy the Nevada outback. For those who elected to take advantage of the IMBA TCC visit and trail building school, it was a most worthwhile learning experience. The slide show on Friday at Patagonia was a real treat. The trail building school was headed by the IMBA/Subaru Trail Crew #2,of Joey Klein and Nicki Williams. They have been traveling the West Coast circuit since early spring. From Brent Thompson's contour trails in Boulder City, to British Columbia log ladders 12’ off the ground, snaking around and back through tree trunks, from trails in CA to Whales, we visited trails near and far. Hopefully after this slide show you’ll never look at the trails you ride in the same manner again. What's really exciting is the potential we have here in Northern Nevada and to how to learn from the trail systems we saw. Thanks so much to NATE HANSEN and PATAGONIA for allowing us to take advantage of their facilities. Approximately two dozen people were in attendance for Fridays mornings slide show, including land managers from the BLM, Washoe County, along with local IMBA and Reno Wheelmen members, a few Patagoniacs, employees from the Kirkwood Mountain Bike Park, Tahoe Rim Trail Crew leaders including Max Jones (VP of the TRT Trail Operations), and Modality Magazine reporter Del Williams (look for a TCC visit article in the next issue of Modality). The mornings topics covered basic trail building terms, construction techniques, water management, trail user ideas, management strategies, theories and trails and trail systems around the US and some abroad. After lunch we spent some time on the Tom Cook trail to reinforce many of the terms and techniques that were covered in the morning presentation. We learned how to read a clinometers and reinforced the general rules of thumb for minimum-maximum trail slopes, side slopes, climbing turns and switchback crib wall heights. Possibly the most important part was learning how to look your resource and to completely and thoroughly evaluate the area you have, and to utilize its to its fullest potential. DAYS 2-3  The remainder of the trail building school was spent with hands work on the Whites Creek Trail. This is a Washoe County regional trail built by and maintained by the Washoe County Parks Department. The section of trail worked on begins just west of Thomas Creek road, near the Galena market on the Mt Rose Hwy. This trail will eventually link up the Whites Creek trail further up in Galena Park. From the Thomas Creek Road the trail winds and meanders nicely along the creek. A mile or so up, the trail hits a property line where the trail was built following the fence line, directly up the slope. In trail terms, a classic example of a “fall line” section of trail. Only a few years old, the section of trail has become the hill sides drainage channel as well. The trail was quickly v-ditching with the water bars creating steeper steps with the waterfall effect. The cure, constant maintenance or a new route. In this case we were fortunate to have a wide easement and common space belonging to Washoe County in which we could re-route to the side, allowing some contouring of the slope and decreasing the overall grade. Just as it is important in knowing and implementing correct trail building techniques, is the actual laying out or “flagging” of the route. This can be the most important and most time consuming task of the trail work. Even after a preliminary flagging of the route with Washoe County Park Ranger COLLEEN WALLACE, Joey spent another three hours fine tuning the route. With the sun setting, the clino numbers pushing the envelope, we were impressed by Joeys patience and diligence to make the most of this section of trail. With the twenty people broken into three groups, great progress was made with the leadership of the IMBA trail care crew, as well as some welcome leadership by Phil Brisack, a Tahoe Rim Trail Crew Leader. Almost as important as the new reroute section, was the obliteration and camouflage of the old trail. A local supply of abundant rock and some recently turn up sage from nearby residential construction, greatly helped in obscuring the old route. Since the old trail had become hillsides drainage way, check and diversions dams were created. The old trail tread was thoroughly loosened and scored to help with revegetation. It was hard to tell there was another trail, and it certainly was not going to be used again, a essential element of trail rerouting. A big thanks to COLEEN WALLACE the WASHOE COUNTY PARKS RANGER who allowed and trusted us to work on their trail. Thanks to the local Port-a-Subs who donated a nice lunch for us on Saturday, to Del Williams for his photos and upcoming article in Modality magazine, and of course all the trail work volunteers. In the end we fixed a badly eroding section of county trail and learned from some of the best on how to fix, maintain and build top quality trails.
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THANKS FOR THE TRAIL WORK: |
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