We had a great group of 17 folks who attended our 3rd Fall Trail Building Academy.  Most of the attendees were from our TAP program, but we had a few that were just there to learn more about proper trail design and maintenance.

Day 1 was a classroom style setting where we had discussions around proper trail design and maintenance.  Many thanks to Mark Wood from the NSMBA who led the discussion again and provided a ton of passion and insight into the challenges we face in the PNW desiging and maintaining trails in our wet climate.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy  -Mark Wood leading the day.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – EB giving some “color commentary”.

Day 2 was focused on taking those fundamentals learned in the classroom and applying them in the real world.  While we had a foggy and damp day on Galbraith, it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits as we worked on a reroute on Upper Scorpion.  We did some drainage and maintenance and then were able to build new trail:  Items like removing all organic materials, building a proper bench cut and considering drainage at every step along the way.  The trail academy students were joined by a few experienced builders (Jeff Jaap, Andrew Trimakas and James Waltman) who helped lead the day to ensure that any questions were answered during the build day.

Great news is we got the new re-route tied into the old section of Scorpion!  It’s going to require another pass and some time to sit and compact, but will be a really awesome new section.  Our plan is to give the entire trail more love this season to breathe new life into an old classic.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Fresh Gold

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Fresh Gold

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Fresh gold!

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Brendan and Drew cleaning up a section.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Csaba and Rhett after a day of digging.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – For your viewing pleasure.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Javon and Drew on our way out.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy –  Fresh Gold!

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Fresh dirt on a berm.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Fresh gold!

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Andrew Wiley and Miles getting organic cleared before moving gold in place.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Kevin Menard with Apple Jack

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – discussing the next section with Jeff, Jesse and Mike.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Rosemary and Csaba tamping in fresh gold and checking for outslope.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Jesse Griffen getting the last left berm dialed.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – EB discussing the flow into the next section.

2014 Fall Trail Building Academy – Rhett Dixon getting a section to gold.