Spring Cleanup (Mar. 22, 2009)

It is another incredible sunny spring day and I had decided to get out on my new cross country bike and go for a ride up Menzie's trail in Golden Ears Park and do some trail clean up. This was winter has been one of the snowiest on record and fallen trees and snowy winter conditions had kep the park closed to vehicle traffic all winter long. A sudden wind storm hit our area just a couple days ago and I knew there be even more falen debris on the trail. This was also my first ride on my new xc bike and I was stoked to test it out.

Right off the bat thebike proved to be amazing. I was able to sprint up hills that I was barely able to slug my way up on my freeride bike. The light weight and especially light rolling weight made for a very quick and mostly painless climbing bike.

It didnt take long for me to encounter fallen trees on the trail. I manage to drag a couple fallen trees down into the bushes and off of the trail, but others I had to cut with my trusty collapsable saw. I only manage to get out 2.5 km because of the extensive debris. I will definitely have to get out and do some more. Here are some examples of the cleanup:

Before.

After.

Before.

After.

This is what the trail should look like, meandering through the forest with the sun filtering through the canopy.

Of course there is more to this adventure than just biking and pretending to be a lumber jack. I was approaching the lookout and it was a pretty technical ascent so I was looking forward to reaching the top and resting my lungs and have a drink of water and a rest while admiring the view of Allouette Lake. Instead of a view of the lake I got a view of a middle aged man completely butt naked! I suppose he heard me coming up the trail because he had been racing to pull on some pants and sweatshirt. So I simply stopped on the trail just outside of the clearing and had a drink of water before going out to the view point. I wanted to give him a minute to reclothe himself. Now as if being naked wasnt weird enough, he had a tall tripod set up with an slr camera mounted on it! I have no idea what this guy was doing and I didnt ask. I simply commented on the nice weather and he agreed that it was and then I left. You never know what you'll find out on the trail.