Trail work day

Saturday 5.31 I completed my volunteer trail work.  A requirement of some Ultra marathons is an 8 hour day of volunteer trail work.  I am not sure exactly how or why this requirement came to be but,  the Wasatch 100 website states that "we should be stewards of the land that we use and love".  I imagine that trail service  was a deal made with the Forest Service.  The Vermont 100 requires 8 hours of volunteer work at an Ultra marathon (my Aid Station volunteer day will be the topic of another blog, probably around VT 100 time).  For Western States you can do either trail work or ultra event work.  Leadville doesn't have the requirement, it is set up differently.

So early Saturday morning I met Steve and the other volunteers/runners at the Orson Smith trailhead of the Bonneville Shoreline trail in Draper (~30 minutes south from my house on the east bench of the Salt Lake valley).   We would be working on the Trail of the Eagle, which is the best hiking route to Lone Peak.  Steve has been working on this trail for years..... which means that new work is pretty far up the trail.  This day would be Steve's first work day for the 

2008 season, which means that our crew got to tote the tools up the trail.  I carried a Pulaski and a McLeod (two classic and essential firefighting tools).   The Pulaski combines an axe and a mattock on one head.  The McLeod is a combination of a rake and a hoe.  I am quite proud that over the years of trailwork I have Pulaski and McLeod in my vocabulary.  

We headed up the trail nearly 3 hours with quite an elevation gain to the desired work area.  As a bonus, this steep climb with work pants and extra carrying weight could be counted as a heat training session! Our trail section to be fixed was a part of the trail that went straight up.  We essentially extended the trail and cut in a low angle switchback.  With all the rain, the soil 

was nice and loose (in years past I have done trail work on rock hard soil).  However,  nothing makes root removal easier.  A fun part of trail work is that you get to chit chat with your fellow 

laborers about your common thread.... Ultras! During trail work there is a ever present dialogue of past races, who's who in ultras, strategy, trail conditions, etc.  Here is a photo of Bob and I discussing Wasatch, impact of Ultras on family life, education, and a bit of local politics .  We met a few years ago during trail work.  There were a couple of guys who I met in past trail work days and that is fun to catch up.  Steve has a padlocked box up the trail where we could store the tools for future work days this season, nice because we didn't have to haul them downhill.

Victory!  Notice the sweet root-less trail I helped blaze

Over the years I have heard people grumble over this requirement.  I don't mind at all.  I am very glad to help maintain and improve the trails.  I look at it this way, I spend a lot of time out there and I appreciate the fact that the trails are there.  Wouldn't it be fun if there were more trails to play on?  I could think of a lot of places I would like to go or to link up with other trails... I am not so fond of bushwacking.  Forest Service funds are limited and the Wasatch 100 group barely makes a dent.  National Trail day is sometime in early June, last year it was on the same day as Squaw Peak.  Mountain bikers sure use the trails?  Hhhhmmmm

Squaw Peak 50 miler is on Saturday.  This will be my 6th year in a row.  I just checked the weather forecast.... mid 50's and chance of thunderstorms, expecting lots of snow on the trails.