Rocking on Cabin

This morning I arrived around 7am at The Woodlot and was met with two piles of garden waste dumped in one of my usual parking spots. The Woodlot is a somewhat remote area and has seen it's fair share of waste dumped here. Most of the time it get discarded on the side of the road but this time the ass hat decided to dump in the middle of the road. Luckily today I had a shovel and bucket with me in my car that I was going to use on the trails. The clean-up didn't take all that long, but it's things like this that just make me shake my head at people's stupidity.

With the clean-up complete, I boarded my bike (Rune) and pedaled up the mountain. It was raining today but not so heavy that I was getting soaked, just a little wet.

When I made it to the powerlines I was literally in the clouds and hardly see in front of me. I'm normally met with a view of Mission to the east, but all I could see was white mist. Seeing as I had a shovel with me and my goal today was to get some trail work done, whenever I rode up to a big puddle on the road to Cabin Trail, I went work draining it. I was able to drain three large puddles that should remain dry until the snows come in December.

Last week I decided during my ride that I would begin doing some much needed rock work on Cabin Trail / Goldmine trail. A couple years ago a pair of quads went down this trail, got stuck and had to winch their way out of the trail. (Here is a link to some mountain bikers meeting the quads - WARNING- Explicit Language used) In doing so, several sections of trail that had previously been armored with rock were left in very bad shape and have since significantly eroded. I have made it a goal of mine to 1.)repair the vandalized cabin just off the trail and 2.)fix up eroded sections on Cabin Trail to make it safer and more sustainable by the end of the summer. Below are pictures of 3 sections that I repaired this morning.

When I finished the rock work, I stashed the tools I brought up to the trail and then began my ride down. I made a pit-stop at the cabin to see what kind of condition it was in. Structurally it is in okay condition but the roof needs a brace replaced and a few roof slats need to be installed. Also a few walls have been kicked out so they need fixing and the door needs to be re-installed. It may turn out to be a lot of work and I might need some help from friends, but I feel it is worth the effort to fix this old mining cabin rather than watching it disintegrate and rot in the forest.

After passing a couple younger riders on their way down Cabin Trail, I zipped down Snakes and Ladders, the over to and down Bloggy and then down Shotgun. It was a very productive day of building and a great ride even in the May spring rain.