It was a beautiful night. Perch crew getting to work.
The Elephant’s Perch, adopters of Lane’s Trail in Adams Gulch, were out there Thursday evening. The day’s rain let up by late afternoon, so the group had great conditions for the work. Sections along the east end of the trail were becoming excessively outsloped (they were tipped a lot toward the outside edge, or downhill side of the trail). The Elephant’s Perch crew of 9 volunteers went to work re-cutting the trail in these areas. They worked to create an appropriate amount of tread outslope (+/- 5% or roughly 1 inch of drop across a 24 inch wide trail). They also brushed back portions of the trail and raked areas of loose rock. Helping a trail to be well-drained is always part of trail maintenance, so the volunteers worked on cleaning out drains and aiding the trail to shed water.
Perch diggin’ in.
We often include “outslope” in areas of the trails we build and maintain.
Outslope diagram.
In some soil types, or with a lot of use, trails can become excessively outsloped and difficult to use.
Excessive outslope diagram.
The above diagram illustrates what too much outslope looks like in cross-section. Correcting this problem takes a lot of digging, and the gang on Thursday night attacked it. Thanks Perch, you made it really fun!
Muffy and Krista hard at work.
For information about volunteer trail opportunities in the area please contact me, Chris Leman, BCRD Wood River Valley Trail Coordinator. Text or call: (2zero8) 72zero – 77one3. or email me at: cleman@bcrd.org. For trail information and trail updates visit the BCRD Summer TraiLink site at trails.bcrd.org. Another way to stay in the loop about our area dirt trails is to “Like” the BCRD Facebook page – I often post information there about recent trail openings and other singletrack news.