Fall Trail Maintenance Schedule

Please mark on your calendars our Fall 2010 trail maintenance schedule:

Saturday October 30th
Saturday November 13th
Saturday November 27th
Saturday December 4th

We'll meet at the main Syncline parking lot at 10 a.m., for deadfall clearing, brushing, hopefully, with our new brusher and erecting of alternate trail signs. Plan to bring hand saws, chain saws, heavy duty clippers and lunch. Pack your skiis or snowshoes for the December work bee.

Look forward to seeing some of you on the 30th,

We hope many of you cross-country travellers will come to the annual general meeting for the Syncline Castle Trails Association.

It's being held Saturday, April 24, at 2:30 p.m. at the Beaver Mines Community Park, west of Pincher Creek, Alberta, about 20 km. 

Lots to talk about.

The skiing on the Syncline Trails is done, I'm afraid, unless we get a heck of a snow fall.

D

This from a friend who was out in the West Castle Valley, downstream from the old minimum security camp and Castle Mountain Resort, on February 25: 

today three of us skied to Castle River Falls today via the cattle corrals on the West Castle Road.  The
conditions where pretty good considering the lack of snow...we only had to
walk over dirt a couple of times and on the grass a few times.  It was fun
to go together and have lunch at the falls.  We walked out onto the beaver
dam ponds and over to the renewed dam.  If you are considering this trip we
took 4 hours round trip with breaks, chats and lunch.  A quick trip could be
done in 2.5 - 3 hours.

Otherwise, I think the snow is going fast on the trails, turns to slush by late morning, and lots of bare patches. We need snow.

Still skiing

Out skiing today on the Syncline Trails and though they definitely could use more snow, it’s still worth a ski. Bare in spots, where there’s a full canopy of tree branches overhead. Fast on the downhill. And there’s been a big troop of snowshoers out and about.

I was down in Waterton Park on Sunday, up the Akamina Parkway and drove as far as the road is open, then skied into Wall Lake. Much better snow there as you would imagine, avalanche conditions are generally favourable, but check it out at avalanche.ca before you go; conditions can change. I talked to a friend who had been out on Forum Ridge (on the way to Wall Lake) a few days earlier and he said the snow was crusty.

Lots of snow on the Syncline Trails, and they have now been packed a couple of times up to New Year's Eve. New snow since. It should be super.

We have finally found a good arrangement for getting the trails packed, though we won't have the resources (nor do we think it's the best thing to do) to pack after every snowfall. It's likely we'll groom those trails after 20-25 cm, but it's also budget dependent.

A few of us were also skiing down the Dipper Trail in Waterton last weekend (heads east from Little Prairie). That is a sweet trail.

Have fun.

Out skiing today, Dec. 15, on the Syncline XC trails: lots of fun, snow is anywhere from 6 - 10 inches deep, dense with some fresh snow on top. 

We had to break trail around the lake, though somebody had been by a few snows earlier. Skiing over lots of moose tracks, some rose crested finches flitting around, deer, but no others skiing.

Parking lot has been cleared.

We're hoping to get some posters out and new brochures circulated early in the new year, looking for suggestions where to place them.

Trails report

SCaT volunteers have been out on the trails four times this fall, clearing brush and deadfall from the trail system, and improving signage to some extent.

So the trails are pretty much a go - now for some cross-country skiiing.
Just add snow.

We've always had trouble packing new snow on the system - too few volunteers, too much work. This year may not prove any different. Because of low volunteer resources and tight finances, we've decided not to put our snow machines into service. We are trying to find others that would be willing to do so on a regular basis, but haven't landed anybody yet.

So, it may be a skiier packed process this season.

Tell us how your ski season is going this year, by submitting your comments to this blog.

Hope the week goes well. Maybe we'll see you this weekend.
Dave

Trail clearing and maintainence

Hi folks,

If your interested in joining us to explore the X-country trails and help with general clearing/maintence of the trails we will be meeting in the main parking lot at 10 a.m. on the following dates.
Sat. Oct. 24
Sat. Nov. 7
Sat. Nov. 21

Bring yourselves, enthusiasm, lunch/water, and if you have one a small brush clearing handsaw.

As always with these trails, dogs are welcome.