Thursday, December 16, 2010

Time to Build - Giant Killer Pt.1

It's been a while since I've been able to commit any time to building, but I have a few weeks to relax.........and get to work on the trails. Giant Killer is a classic trail at the Woodlot that has been around since the 90's. In fact it is one of the first trails I ever rode at the Woodlot. However in parts, the trail has seen better days.

Recently Ryan has started to do a little dirt work on the trail and is putting in some time fixing up the trail. However he has never done trail work before and woodwork on trails is something totally new to him that he needs to be shown. I have been meaning to fix a particular ladder section on Giant Killer for quite some time now so with Ryan's help, we can get the section completely rebuilt and he can learn a few things about working with the cedar. I can remember when I was shown how to split rung and construct a sturdy ladder bridge by Tim and now it is my turn to pay the knowledge forward.

So the day started early at 8:30am at the parking area and we headed up to Giant Killer with me on all things...........a Giant Trance. I had my chainsaw in my pack and a few tools for splitting rung. The goal today was to get the cedar poles necessary for the stringers and also to begin getting rung for the ladders.

We managed to get all the poles we needed from fallen trees in the area and we also managed to get a few rung, but we weren't able to find the big haul of cedar we will need for all the rung.

Once our time was up, we rode down the trails to our cars: Giant Killer, Bloggy Style and Shotgun. One thing is for sure, when you have a chainsaw in your pack, riding smoothly is a difficult thing to do at times.

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