4 FWW ascents easier at 50 deg & no smoke

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5 SCUM take a break after 4 ascents of the FWW alpine hill

With temperatures in the low 50s, drizzle, and a nice breeze, four ascents of the FWW alpine hill (750 m total climb) was easily done by the SCUM today. With the hill fully mowed and the air free of wildfire smoke, we could chat as we ski walked. Lola was the only one to do fartlek ball chases during her ascents:

Lola still has energy to attempt to get SCUM to toss her ball down the hill

We’re always looking for additional companions as SCUM leave town for fishing, hunting, and travel Outside. We meet at Birch Hill at 10 a.m. (maybe a little earlier when it’s wet or chilly) every Friday until snow closes the Birch Hill trails to foot traffic. Tom Helmers and Bill Husby have mowed all the Birch Hill trails, and the Army contractor has done the FWW alpine hill, so conditions are great. No mosquitoes today, either.

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.

Rain doesn’t slow SCUM

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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:

Eric goes topless while Lola still carries her stick
Dave flexes as he prepares to lead Lola up the hill

With the 93% humidity, it felt much hotter than the actual temperature, so we opted to do just two ascents today.

Soaked and muddy feet after our workout

So Dan, what chores did you do instead of joining us today?

SCUM ski walk 4 FWW ascents for the 4th of July

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4 SCUM ski walk 4 ascents of FWW ski hill--photo by Dermot Cole (who only did 2 ascents because of a medical appointment conflict)

Tim Woster had ski walked 4 ascents of the Fort Wainwright alpine hill on 9 June with Mom. Today we paced ourselves so that we kept our effort in level 2 for the most part going up the hill. The FWW contractor was hydroseeding the bottom and top of the alpine hill today so we couldn’t take our usual route at the very bottom. However, Dan and Bill still started next to the ski lift hut:

Dan and Bill at the start of their 4th ascent–photo by Bill Husby

So Bill Husby, Dan Johnson, Bernardo Hernandez, and Mom did 4 ascents today in honor of the 4th of July and the FWW frog:

Frog who was enjoying the extra ponds after our recent rains–photo by Bill Husby

We took the ascents leisurely today since some of us plan to do the Golden Heart Trail Run tomorrow. Before heading out to FWW, Dan and Bill had already moved all the newly refurbished and painted ski racks back to the Start Mesa area.

We ascended 740 m this morning, not a bad morning’s effort for a bunch of old geezers.

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.

SCUM ski walk 4 ascents of FWW alpine hill in June

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Bill leads Dan and Carl up FWW alpine hill on ascent #3
Robert smiling during ascent #3 on a day when he went for perfect technique not speed
My heartrate monitor data for our 4 ascents

Two SCUM did 4 ascents, one did 3.5 ascents, four did 3 ascents. Dermot did just one ascent and one truck load of firewood.

Dan (after 3 ascents) and Dermot (after 1 ascent and one truck load of birch logs loaded into his truck)

Dermot’s workout will generate the most heat in the long run. However, Tim and I ski walked 715 m of climb today in our 4 ascents of the FWW alpine hill. The hill averages a 19% grade over 0.84 km. I burned 864 kcal for my workout but looking at Dermot’s t-shirt, he may have burned significantly more.

Ski walking in June snow

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Snow on my fleece top after removing my gloves and poles so I could access my phone

Today we were grateful for car heaters after doing our three ascents of the Fort Wainwright alpine hill. Bernardo started an hour early so finished before the rain changed to snow. Likewise, Bob decided to do just one ascent. However, Tim, Robert, and I did three ascents (because Bernardo had already set the bar that high).

Here we are before our last ascent:

We wouldn’t have done this alone!

After our three ascents, when we were walking back down to the Birch Hill stadium and our cars, we noticed streams flowing down the trail. Seeing as our feet were already thoroughly soaked, we didn’t need to waste energy dodging the puddles.

One SCUM travels out of town to have cold and wet adventures:

https://notquiteoverthehillcorrineanderic.blogspot.com/2023/05/reframing-stupid-summer-ski-trip-in.html?

However, we were content to dodge the construction in the Birch Hill parking lots, and get our workout done. Some of our fellow SCUM were building fences, teaching paddling, waiting for furnace servicing to be done, or waiting for a flight into Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge. We missed them, but our dryland training will continue for 4 or 5 months yet.

Summer SCUM training on FWW alpine hill begins

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This spring, we skied on Friday, 5 May 2023 at Birch Hill on groomed corduroy and three weeks later, we ski walked up the Fort Wainwright alpine hill, which some of us felt was steeper this year due to isostatic rebound. FXC Masters workouts start next week, but the SCUM are older and slower so need to start sooner. We’ve been ski walking up Ester Dome for three weeks. This week the Birch Hill trails had dried out enough to resume ski walking up the Fort Wainwright alpine hill.

We welcome anyone to join us. For our Wednesday Ester Dome workouts, we meet at 10 a.m. at the Ester Dome Road bike trails parking lot. For the Friday FWW alpine hill workouts, we meet at Birch Hill at 10 a.m. The full Ester Dome route is 10 km with about 455 m of ascent and descent. Today’s workout involved only 2 repeats of the FWW hill in preparation for 4 repeats by the 4th of July. Depending upon how one attacks the hill, the ascent is 155 to 160 m in 0.84 km, so roughly a 19% grade. If you cannot train every day, these workouts will yield large benefits for a short investment of time. Bill Husby suggests that if one of the SCUM misses a workout, he must bring beer for the rest of the group in order to be reinstated.