The 2013 Trail Day will be held on Sat­ur­day, June 8, 2013. As always, we’ll be work­ing with the Dis­trict of North Van­cou­ver to improve a sec­tion of the Baden Powell Trail. More details will be announced in late May.

We didn’t have time to finish every­thing, but what we did finish will keep you from get­ting sucked into a bog next year. Yes, there are new bog bridges on Black Moun­tain, cour­tesy of the trail work party on Sep­tem­ber 15. To see what hap­pened on that won­der­fully sunny day, here are some photos by Enzo and Andrew. (And to answer the ques­tion: yes, you can walk on mud…as long as there’s a bridge over it!)

Enzo’s photos
Andrew’s photos

Trail elves: Enzo Fed­erico, Patri­cia Jensen, David Jensen, Hannah Jensen, Bruce McArthur (Friends of Cypress Provin­cial Park), Jan Snow, Rob Wilson (BC Parks), Andrew Wong, Jeff Young (BC Parks)

Six vol­un­teers. That’s all we need for the Saturday, September 15 trail day at Cypress Provin­cial Park, where we’ll work with BC Parks to build board­walks and make trail repairs in the Black Mt. area. The group will be split into two crews to cover the mul­ti­ple sites that BC Parks has iden­ti­fied for repairs and upgrades.

The work­day will be 9am-3pm (approx.) No spe­cial skills are needed for this event, just enthu­si­asm — no matter what the weather!

Please RSVP to Andrew by Friday, Sep­tem­ber 14.

[Sep­tem­ber 13 update: One spot has opened up for this Saturday’s work party!]

The Black Mt. board­walks we helped build last year do more than just keep your feet dry or reduce the odds of you being pho­tographed, half buried in a mud hole. Their main pur­pose, of course, is to pro­tect the bog from being tram­pled into sub­mis­sion by every­one look­ing for the driest route through the area. Yes­ter­day, BC Parks found drag­on­fly larvae crawl­ing around the peat right next to the board­walks. With­out those bridges, the drag­on­flies could have been stomped by way­ward feet.

With that little segue, we’re announc­ing that another trail day is planned for Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 15 to build more board­walks on Black Moun­tain. This is a con­tin­u­a­tion of last year’s efforts. We’ll be work­ing with BC Parks and the Friends of Cypress Park, and we hope to see a dozen Knee Knacker folks vol­un­teer for this great project. More details will be posted in early September.

We still need more vol­un­teers to help fix a sec­tion of the Baden Powell Trail on June 23. There will be coffee and treats from Delany’s. Better yet, you’ll get a sense of accom­plish­ment for a few hours effort. Com­bine that with the nice tingly feel­ing that comes from know­ing you helped to improve the trail and you’ve got major karma points towards race day! Please RSVP by June 21 to Andrew (Trail Day Coordinator) via the Con­tact form. For all the details, see the Trail Day post.

[June 4 update — Due to an email error, the Con­tact Form’s Trail Day Coor­di­na­tor link wasn’t work­ing before June 1. If you emailed the Trail Day Coor­di­na­tor before June 1, please resend your email as your orig­i­nal con­tact was lost in cyber­space. Our apolo­gies for this hiccup.]

[June 2 update — We have a chain­saw oper­a­tor! Thanks, Terry.]

Awe­some. In a word, that’s what Knee Knacker trail elves are. They con­sis­tently come out in large groups and do amaz­ing work. New­bies dis­cover that trail work is fun–and not that hard–and the old goats get to share a few nuggets of knowl­edge. Best of all, it’s a chance for us to give back to the com­mu­nity.  We’ll need about 30 people this year to do a “major project” on the Baden Powell Trail, east of Hyan­nis Drive. Here are the details:

• Date: Sat­ur­day, June 23
• Time: 8:45am-1pm (Delany’s muffins and coffee arrive by 8:30am.)
• Place: BP trail­head on Hyan­nis Drive at the top of Berkley Avenue
• Equip­ment to bring: Water, snacks, clothes you don’t mind get­ting muddy. Work gloves, tools, and con­struc­tion mate­ri­als will be sup­plied by the Dis­trict of North Vancouver.
• Spe­cial equip­ment: We need one chain­saw oper­a­tor, with appro­pri­ate safety gear.
• RSVP by Thurs­day, June 21 to the Trail Day Coor­di­na­tor (Andrew Wong) via the con­tact form.

Trail elves, get ready! This year’s Trail Day loca­tion is con­firmed; we’ll be work­ing on the BP trail east of Hyannis/Berkely. It’s the same start point as last year. All the details will be posted on June 1.

Time to start fill­ing up those vol­un­teer hours! Graham Knell, Trail and Habi­tat Co-ordinator (Dis­trict of North Van­cou­ver), needs twenty vol­un­teers on Sat­ur­day, March 17 to help carry lumber for a stair­case and board­walk con­struc­tion project. You’ll help move the mate­ri­als from the Indian River Road meet­ing place down to the Baden Powell Trail. (Another group will build the stairs and board­walks later in March.) Note that this is not the offi­cial Knee Knacker Trail Day — it’s just an oppor­tu­nity to help out.

Here are the details for the work day:

• Date: March 17
• Time: 9am-11am
• Meet­ing place: Indian River Drive (North Van­cou­ver), by the big water tanks. Lots of parking.
• Dri­ving direc­tions to meet­ing place:

East on Mt Sey­mour Park­way;
Left (north) at Mt Sey­mour Road;
Right at Indian River Drive;
Left at Indian River Cres­cent;
Right back onto Indian River Drive;
Con­tinue east on road about 2.5km until you see a gated road on left (north side) lead­ing to big water tanks. Look for Graham’s white Dis­trict of North Van truck. (The Baden Powell Trail crosses the road near here.)

• RSVP by March 16 to Graham Knell at KnellG@dnv.org