Mark your cal­en­dars — the Black Mt. Trail Day is sched­uled for Sunday, Sep­tem­ber 25. We’ll need a small group of vol­un­teers to help BC Parks install board­walks over­top some of the marshy/muddy bits of the Baden Powell trail. More details will be announced in the next day or two.

Now that the 2012 race reg­is­tra­tion has opened up, here’s your chance to ful­fill your vol­un­teer hours months in advance. The snow on Black Mt. is (mostly) gone now, so the Black Mt. Trail Day is planned for the end of August. The exact date is still TBA but we’ll post it as soon as we know. If you’re inter­ested in the Black Mt. Trail Day, con­tact Andrew (Trail Day Coor­di­na­tor) through the Con­tact Form.  Also, BC Parks has vol­un­teer trail main­te­nance days planned for the Stawa­mus Chief trail in Squamish at the end of Sep­tem­ber. If you’re inter­ested in the BC Parks Stawa­mus Chief trail days, email Katy.Chambers@gov.bc.ca to add your name to their vol­un­teer list.

The snow in higher sec­tions of the course has lin­gered longer than usual. Several creek cross­ings along the Holly­burn sec­tion of the course has had many of us concerned.

On Sat­ur­day morn­ing, a Glenn, Michel, & Andrew headed out to tackle the trail with shov­els & ice axes. They man­aged to tackle the 8′ walls of snow, uncover many of the post-hole traps, & made the creek cross­ing far more man­age­able. (Photos posted here.)

In the last week, much of the snow has receded & we expect that much more will dis­ap­pear before race day.

It was sun­shine and smiles all around as twenty-one mem­bers of the Knee Knacker com­mu­nity worked under the guid­ance of the Dis­trict of North Van­cou­ver to improve a sec­tion of the Baden Powell Trail. Many thanks to every­one who came and helped, and a shout out to race spon­sor Delany’s Coffee for sup­ply­ing much appre­ci­ated coffee and treats. Trail Day photos have been posted here.

It looks like we have sun­shine for Saturday’s Trail Day! Our goal, accord­ing to Graham Knell, is to lift a sec­tion of the BP trail “out of the mud”. This should be inter­est­ing. Details for Trail Day are here. Hope to see you on Saturday!

Andrew Wong, Trail Day Coordinator

Hi, every­one!

This year’s Knee Knacker Trail Day, on Sat­ur­day, June 4 , will be on the Baden Powell trail near Hyan­nis Drive in the Blueridge area (see map below). We’ll be work­ing under the guid­ance of Graham Knell, North Van­cou­ver Dis­trict Trail and Habi­tat Coor­di­na­tor. You don’t need any spe­cial skills to help on Trail Day, just a will­ing­ness to improve the trails that we all enjoy!

Meet­ing Place and Time

• We’ll meet at the BP trail­head at Hyan­nis Drive and Berkley Avenue in North Van­cou­ver. From Mt. Sey­mour Park­way, turn north onto Berkley Road. Con­tinue to the end of the road and turn left at Hyan­nis Drive. (See the map below.)
• Arrive between 8:30am-9am to sign in, get a brief ori­en­ta­tion and enjoy some treats. Con­tinue read­ing →

This year’s first Trail Day will be on Sat­ur­day, June 4. For that ses­sion, we’ll be work­ing on a sec­tion of the Baden Powell Trail under the guid­ance of the Dis­trict of North Van­cou­ver. It’s a great chance for you to give back to the com­mu­nity. More details for the June 4 work party will be announced in a few weeks. But wait, there’s more! We’re also work­ing with BC Parks to orga­nize addi­tional Trail Days for this year. One is ten­ta­tively sched­uled for late July in the Black Moun­tain area and the other in September/October for the Mount Sey­mour area. Details for the BC Parks Trail Days will be announced as soon as they’re available.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a big job for you guys.”

Prophetic words from Graham Knell, North Van­cou­ver District’s Trail and Habi­tat Coor­di­na­tor. But not to worry, thirty-five Knee Knacker par­tic­i­pants were more than up to the chal­lenge of tack­ling one of our most ambi­tious Trail Day projects to date. The job? Build a new sec­tion of the BP trail in the Hyannis/Blueridge area. The exist­ing sec­tion had eroded into the nearby creek. This caused a double whammy: the trail was flood­ing during rains and in return, silt and debris was wash­ing into the water­way. Fixing this prob­lem had been on Graham’s radar for a few years. This day, it would be so.

So how do you build forty meters of new trail?

First, add lumber. Not enough to build a house, just a few stairs and a retain­ing wall. Second, add a large assort­ment of hand tools. Include one chain­saw. Orga­nize three teams to work on the lead-in stairs, the back-end wall and stairs, and the cen­tral path­way. Finally, drop in 35 caf­feinated, muffin stuffed, eager vol­un­teers for four hours.

Now with all the ingre­di­ents in place, start dig­ging. Make noise as needed. Create a bucket brigade to deal with a seem­ingly bot­tom­less pile of gravel. Use up steel rebar like it was free (well it was, kinda). Replant ferns to create that per­fect coastal rain­for­est set­ting. Add more border effects. Talk and chat about your injuries and var­i­ous runs, and every five min­utes, ask, “Does anyone have a <insert name of tool here>?”. Finally, when all is said and done, dis­man­tle and decom­mis­sion the old section.

After a test run, we all stood back to admire our hand­i­work. It was very impres­sive for a day’s work, but noth­ing that isn’t always expected and given with the Knee Knacker. Well done!

Andrew Wong

(Trail Day photos by Karen Chow are here.)

Hi, every­one!

This year’s Knee Knacker Trail Work Party on Sat­ur­day, June 5 will take place on the Baden Powell trail near Hyan­nis Drive in the Blueridge area (see map below). We’ll be work­ing under the guid­ance of Graham Knell, North Van­cou­ver Dis­trict Trail and Habi­tat Coor­di­na­tor. You don’t need any spe­cial skills to help on Trail Day, just a will­ing­ness to improve the trails that we all enjoy!

Meet­ing Place and Time

• We’ll meet near the BP trail at Hyan­nis Drive and Berkley Avenue in North Van­cou­ver. (From Mt. Sey­mour Park­way, turn north onto Berkley Road. Con­tinue to the end of the road and turn left at Hyan­nis Drive. See also the map below.)
• Arrive between 8:30am-9am to sign in, get a brief ori­en­ta­tion, and enjoy some muffins and coffee cour­tesy of spon­sor Delany’s Coffee House.
• If you arrive late and we’re already gone, follow the pink flag­ging tape that will direct you to the worksite.

Things to Bring/What to Wear

• Wear clothes that you don’t mind get­ting (poten­tially) mucky!
• Work gloves and tools will be pro­vided by the Dis­trict, although you’re wel­come to bring your own.
• Water and a light lunch/ snacks are a good idea to keep you going.

RSVP

Please RSVP via the <feed­back form/contact trail day co-ordinator email> by noon, Friday, June 4.  Although you’re very wel­come to come and help at the last minute, a RSVP will help me plan the good­ies and orga­nize the amount of work we can do on the trail.

Spe­cial Note to Chain­saw Operators

Do you have a chain­saw? If so, let me know as we could use your help. (Graham said it would be useful to have one chain­saw oper­a­tor onsite.) For safety and lia­bil­ity rea­sons, you must have wear proper safety gear (face shield, etc).

Hope to see you there, and thank you for volunteering!

Andrew Wong,

Knee Knacker 2010 Trail Work Party Co-ordinator