Category Archives: RTP trail grant

Hot SCUM smooth Blackhawk trail for RTP grant

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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 volunteer 18 hours of trail work

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SCUM may not be in the lead pack in Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks ski races, but they do volunteer their time and efforts to improve skiing for all of us. Today 9 SCUM fed hungry mosquitoes while removing roots and other debris from the Relay, Medevac, and Roller Coaster trails that have been widened and reshaped to minimize erosion.

Before the trails are seeded, roots and other debris needs to be removed. Trail work has also been done on White Cub and White Bear so volunteer efforts are needed there, too. Work has begun on Blue and Black Loops, too, so volunteer effort is needed as part of the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks match for the RTP grant funding these trail improvements.

Volunteer work is fairly straightforward. All roots on the trails and trail banks need to be removed if they are larger than the diameter of one’s pinky. Sharp loppers are the most useful tools although we used saws and pulaskis, too.

Contact Tom Helmers at trails@nscfairbanks.org and he’ll direct you to the appropriate trails. After you’ve finished, let Ann Jamieson know what trails you worked on and how much time you spent. She can be contacted at: treasurer@nscfairbanks.org .

After our work party, we examined the ski racks that Dermot and Dan had repaired. These SCUM demonstrated that their versatility extends to carpentry as well as root removal.