There are now a total of 5 volunteer trail work events scheduled in May. They are on Wednesday evenings. This is a great time of year to be working on the trails, as we have good moisture for digging and compacting soils, and people are often a little more available to volunteer now.

As the BCRD Wood River Valley Trail Coordinator, I help to organize volunteer trail efforts on our local Federally managed lands. In that capacity, I’m helping to lead and coordinate the upcoming May work sessions. The Wood River Bicycle Coalition reached out to the BLM, FS, and myself early this year, to see if they couldn’t sponsor several early season volunteer trail work nights. That morphed into more interest from other local trail adopters, merchants, and groups, and pretty soon we had a pretty good line-up of work nights scheduled. Partners include the BLM, USFS, BCRD, Wood River Bicycle Coalition, Sawtooth Backcountry Horsemen, The Elephant’s Perch, Sawtooth Brewery, and Sturtevants of Sun Valley. Other groups, businesses, and individuals are also actively involved as trail adopters, and they will be scheduling more work events in the days to come, so stay tuned if you’d like to help. Adopters agree to maintain a trail, or section of trail. They bring the manpower. I bring the work plan, tools, instruction, and I lead the work in the field. Everyone is welcome, so please come lend a hand. Food and beverages to follow each work session.

Volunteers should wear eye-protection, work gloves, and sturdy closed-toed shoes or boots. Long pants and long sleeves are recommended for keeping soil out of one’s boots, and to reduce the potential for scratches. Bring a snack and some water for trailside consumption. All volunteers will need to sign a release form before joining in on the work. Those under the age of 18 will need to provide a release that is signed by a parent or guardian. You can have your parent or guardian sign the form at the start of an event, or, if you want a release form emailed to you ahead of time contact me, Chris Leman at cleman@bcrd.org. No pets please.

Here is a run-down of the upcoming fun:

May 3, Wednesday, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. (We had a great night doing maintenance on the Bullion Connector Trail. Thanks WRBC for the hard work, bevs, and pizza!)

May 10, Wednesday. 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Note: Meeting location changed!

Please meet at Croy Creek Traihead. Please meet at the Rotarun Ski Hill parking lot. (The Rotarun parking lot is off of Rodeo Drive, which is about 2.5 miles west of Hailey out Croy Creek Road. Look for Rodeo Drive on the north side of the Croy drainage.) We will haul in parts for two footbridges. One on Punchline and one on Centerline. Additional work will include trail brushing (cutting back encroaching vegetation), cleaning and improving drains, and raking accumulations of rock off of the trails. Hosts: Wood River Bicycle Coalition and Sawtooth Backcountry Horsemen.

May 17, Wednesday. 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Please meet at the Adams Gulch Trailhead, north of Ketchum. Work will be on the Sunnyside portion on the #316 Trail. The trail is adopted by the Sawtooth Brewery, so this will be a group effort with the brewery, bike coalition, KRD, and BCRD all pulling together to bring volunteers to the effort. The work will include tread work to repair damage caused by flowing water, drainage improvements, and brushing back encroaching vegetation.

May 24, Wednesday.  !———-> 6:15 – 8:15 p.m. <———-! 

(Note later start time for this event)

Please meet at the Adams Gulch Trailhead at 6:15 p.m. We will be working on the Lane’s portion of the Sunnyside-Lane’s Trail #316. The trail adopter is The Elephants Perch, which closes shop at 6:00 p.m. Thus, the later start time for this 2-hour work event.  Work will include reshaping some areas of the trail-tread surface to reduce excessively outsloped conditions, cleaning and improvements to drainage structures, and brushing back encroaching vegetation.

May 31, Wednesday.  !———-> 6:15 – 8:15 p.m. <———-! 

(Note later start time for this event)

Please meet at the Adams Gulch Trailhead at 6:15 p.m. We will be working on the Shadyside Trail with adopter Sturtevants of Sun Valley. The Sturtevants crew has been the long time adopter of this trail, and they have done it proud. Work will concentrate on cleaning out and improving the trail’s existing drains, brushing back encroaching vegetation, and raking some large accumulations of loose rock off of the trail.

 

Volunteer work events take place throughout the season.

Note that other volunteer work sessions are sure to be scheduled as we move further into the season. Local businesses, groups and individuals have adopted local trails, and we will be working together to schedule work events that suit our particular schedules. Adopters and prospective adopters are encouraged to get in touch with me to discuss scheduling or to ask any questions you may have.

For additional information you can contact me, Chris Leman at cleman@bcrd.org or text/call me at (208)720-7713.

Hope to see you at one or more of these fun dirt-slinging sessions!