Trails Update: May 16, 2025
movin’up
We’ve been pushing a tool filled wheelbarrow up the westside for a few (short) weeks now. After buffing Piece of Cake and A La Mode, we traversed to Industrial Waste. First, the connection to Butterflies and Rainbows was redesigned to the riders' Desire path. The trail was getting unreasonably wide as everyone tried to avoid the mess of slippery off-camber Fir roots.
As we moved the wheelbarrow into Industrial Waste, one grateful rider asked: ”Why didn’t you also fix the super nasty section of Danimal…?” We’re “saving” that for a trail night in June! Michal and Reilly built a retaining wall to widen the final turn as Brayden and I armoured holes and pulled stumps at the Pura Vida Merge point. We’re abandoning the wheelbarrow there for now…
waldorf week
Spring volunteer efforts are in full swing as we once again welcome the Whistler Waldorf students for a full week of digging. The class of 2027 jumped in to continue a connection project started 3 years ago: Cut Yer Roots. As the name spelling implies, the short trail is located in the Cut Yer Bars zone, at the Roll Yer Bones end of Nester’s hill where Robin Yer Eggs ends (or starts?). It’s the missing link to avoid pushing straight over the Myrtle Philip Feeder. Josh led the group this year and guided the students through safely swinging tools and problem solving: Which roots could indeed be cut and which roots would be armoured? Together, they made amazing progress through the trails namesake mess of tree snakes. They made a trench and filled it with mineral soil to get that fast rolling experience. There’s still 30 meters left to bench and cap before the “ribbon cutting”. I’ll be bringing another batch of students there next week to finally call this project done.
trail factory
I was more prepared than ever for Tuesday Dig Night. Last week showcased that the community is frothing to help out with trail work, so, I resorted to my experience as a shift manager in a major clown based fast-“food” restaurant. With a figurative clip-on tie, I put extra effort into project layout, tool-use optimization and workflow. Pink flagging drew the eager diggers to several dirt mines outfitted with all the tools and buckets they would need. The crew guided the flow of materials “more rocks here, dirt goes there…” while I fielded complaints about “this rock doesn’t taste right”, “there is a hair in my bucket!” and “why doesn’t A Rockwork Orange have nice dirt like this?” The new AM/PM exit came together beautifully, and the Employee of the Month is… OK enough with the fast food manager narrative. Lisa, Zack, Cesar and Jackson shaped jumps while Dwayne and Ken assembled the merge berm. Tim capped the roots, Eitan and Seb raked and packed the tread. I may have forgotten to mention about 35 others... Everyone gets a gold star on their nametag!
“Someone needs to test it!”
Victoria, who moved dirt and rocks all night got first tracks as her fellow volunteers gave her a proper “heckler’s rock” reception. So fun! Thanks to EVO and Coast Mountain Brewing for sponsoring the event. Let’s do it again on May 27th in the wedge zone!
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
