July | 2023 | Sonot Kkaazoot

HOT SCUM return to Sonot Connector after raking and lopping Black Hawk and part of Chinook trails.–*photo by Bill Husby*

The Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks has a Recreational Trails Program (RTP) Trails Maintenance Project grant to improve many of the trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area and on Fort Wainwright. The Happy Trails crew had completed grading and smoothing work with their mini dozer, but additional hand raking and root and brush lopping was needed. Because the contract billing deadline is 31 July 2023, the SCUM work party set off early today on the hottest weekend of the summer to provide some of the required volunteer match work.

Dermot and Pat hand rake to smooth widened sections of Blackhawk Trail

We decided to attack the Blackhawk trail first with Dermot, Pat, and me starting from the end of the trail, and Bill, Bob, Robert, and Mike from the start of the trail. Each group had a couple of rakers and a root and brush lopper, and Bill had a portable hand saw.

Bob, Robert, and Mike do hot, buggy work–*photo by Bill Husby*

When the two groups joined up again, we hiked out Little Bird trail and together worked on the inbound Chinook Trail until we got to the Sonot Connector:

All of us agreed that the trail improvements would make the trails easier to groom this winter and would offer places to scrub speed on the narrow, winding downhill sections. It was very apparent that Happy Trails is uniquely qualified to do this trail improvement work as all the grading and smoothing work will make the trails easier to groom and safer to ski this winter. Thank you, Jon and Vance Underwood.

We will be organizing a second raking and lopping work party next Saturday morning. Please contact me at contact@sonotkkaazoot.org if you would like to help us out. We will meet at 9:30 a.m. in the south Birch Hill parking lot and walk out White Cub and White Bear to the Sonot Connector to the Chinook Trail. Plan on spending about 3 hours between working and walking to and from the Chinook Trail.

SCUM ready to head to FWW in rain without Dan Johnson

When the SCUM workout schedule calls for ski walking on the Fort Wainwright alpine hill, we don’t let a little rain deter us. (Note to Dan Johnson, we’ve got to give the National Weather Service a little slack on when the showers will end.)

By the time we had hiked to the top of the alpine hill, the rains stopped and the blue skies returned:

Eric takes selfie of SCUM before first ascent (note that we’re all still dermotized from the rain)

We shed our jackets and bug dope on the bench at the top of the hill before heading down:

Robert who had missed last week’s 4 ascents because he was driving through 110 deg heat moving his daughter from New Mexico to Oakland, CA, was prepared to carry the medium rock as the large rock had disappeared over the winter.

Robert and his soggy pack ready to carry the rock down and up the FWW chair lift trail

So we did our first ascent, wishing for a breeze or less clothing. For the second ascent, most of us shed additional layers except for Lola whose fur coat wasn’t removable: