Birkie Trail Work
We finished a solid training camp in Hayward , WI this past Thursday. With a few easy training days, for recovery, scheduled after the camp we hit the Birkie Trail and got to work. Yesterday we worked on clearing a new corner on the classic course. The original corner had proved a little too tight and the pitch was making erosion a problem. A new path through the trees was cut and we started hauling away the down trees.
A lot of the clearing was done by hand but Bill Pierce was also with us in a Bobcat to do some of the heavy lifting.
Today we drove east on a maze of gravel roads and started cutting trees that were encroaching on the trail.
Trees that are too close to the trail end up leaning over the trail when weighted with snow and get in the way of both the groomer and skiers. Every few years a bit of cutting is required to keep the trail looking good.
A little preemptive action on some large dead or leaning trees was also need to avoid unpredicted falls in the winter.
This part was definitely a little fun!
