CROSS COUNTRY
CABIN CREEK SNO-PARK
Organized by the
KONGSBERGER
2010 TRAIL WORK PARTY
DATES:
Saturday and Sunday,
October 9 & 10 and 30 & 31, 2010.
WEED PULLING
WEDNESDAYS: June through August.
If you enjoy cross country skiing on the Cabin
Creek Sno-Park Nordic ski-racing trail system, please consider joining us for
these cross-country ski trail work parties. Invite your friends!
Dress for the weather; bring your trail work
tools, plenty of food and water, along with your strong back and positive
attitude!
Please join us if you’d like to be part of the solution. Did you enjoy skiing here during the
2009-2010 low snow year? The only reason
we were skiing on our course into April, is all the work Kongsberger Ski Club
members and guests put into it during the dry-land season. Would you like to help us continue to make
Cabin Creek the best public access ski trail system in Washington? What trail projects would you like to see
completed? What will you do to help make it so?
Please prioritize your weekends; as calendars fill up fast.
Goals for 2010:
De-veg
the “
“De-vegging” means cutting brush down to ankle height and
limbing trees as high as you can safely reach.
Dig out culverts. Keep water off the course—dry ground gives
the snow a place to stick—by digging out drainage ditches to collect the water
before it gets to the trail, get it through the culvert, then give it a place to
go.
Kongsberger
Ski Club has long been considered the lead advocate and steward for the Cabin
Creek Sno-Park area. KSC is working with
the US Forest Service and Washington State Parks to develop a master plan to
keep this area a non-motorized, groomed cross country ski track for beginner
through international competitive cross country skiers. Trail construction goals are to bring the
trail system up to International Olympic FIS standards with a groomed width of
six meters between the drip lines of whole trees. We do not intend to make it as strenuous in
elevation changes as an Olympic course.
We are also working with the
Parents—I hope you
will bring your kids with you to the work parties. Getting your children out in the woods to
work on the trails, even if it is near the cabin, gives kids a sense of
accomplishment. More importantly, it
gives our “Kongsberger Kids” a sense of ownership in the club, too. I can’t think of a better job for a ‘robust
and healthy’ kid than to throw every fist sized (and larger) rock off the
trail!
Youth athletic and academic groups: Get a good work out while you help prepare
the trails that you’ll train and race on. Get hands-on experience in botany,
earth science, environmental science, and advocacy while earning community
service hour credits. Demonstrate
positive leadership by being the instigator and get your group up here! If the planned trail work party dates do not
work for you, please contact the KSC Trail Chairman to coordinate.
Typical schedule:
Meet
in the Kongsberger Ski Club cabin by
Please
be sure to record your names, how many hours you worked, and what you did in
the Log Book on the Living Room round table.
We are providing this data to the WA State Parks and US Forest Service
to help them justify more budget dollars to improve our skiing.
Wear:
A
hat, long sleeve shirt, long pants, sturdy boots, and work gloves. Dress for the weather. Eye and ear protection as appropriate. I strongly suggest wearing Hunter Safety
Orange. Did I mention “dress for the
weather”? We don’t wuss-out if it’s
raining.
Remember: “There
is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”
Bring:
Water,
food, rain gear, sun block, bug-juice, and the rest of your “Ten
Essentials.” Dry clothes for the trip
home? Mountain bike, hill-bounding
poles, and/or trail running gear?
Trail work party days are not good days to be on a diet. Eat and drink a lot. A
small back-pack, water bottle belt, or Camel Back type hydration system works
well. This will make your day
more productive and enjoyable, too.
Tools:
Bring
your favorite loppers, ax, saw (Bow saw, pole saw, and/or chain saw), brush
hook, brush-hog, grub-hoe, pick, shovel, rake, sickle, etc... If you don’t have any tools, we’ll
share. Be sure to bring your strong back
and positive attitude.
Safety: Please be careful; we don’t want to have to
use your first aid kit on you.
Watch
out for the ground bees; they are always angry.
Your participation indicates that you know and accept that you are
responsible for your own medical and/or other emergency insurance and/or care. We’ll do our best to prevent a negative
situation.
I hope you know that Kongsbergers are *not* prohibited from
working on the trails on your own schedule. Please check the wall map in
the cabin, or contact me for priorities.
–Thanks. A note to Non-Kongsbergers—Please
contact Jim for further info. See contact info below. We’d be thrilled if you want to participate.
Please
forward this invitation to your friends who ski at Cabin Creek. Invite them to a Sixten Jernberg style work
out:
Driving
directions:
KSC
is located about 12 miles east of
http://www.parks.wa.gov/winter/trails/?TrailType=nonmotorized&Region=3&Park=11
NOXIOUS
AND INVASIVE WEEDS ERADICATION:
Kongsberger
Ski Club has been assisting the US Forest Service with their noxious and invasive
weeds control program. This is part of
KSC’s commitment to being advocates and stewards for the Cabin Creek Nordic ski
trail system. The
Frank is organizing “Weed Pulling
Wednesdays” starting in June and running through the summer. Hope you can join us. See the Native Plant Society web site for
more info. http://www.wnps.org/cps/volunteer.html#knapweed
Knapweed. http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/weed_info/Written_findings/Centaurea_biebersteinii.html Nasty tap
root poisons the ground around it. They
are all over the stadium area and boulder meadow. Pretty pinkish-purple flower. Thrives in dry disturbed soil in sunny
areas. Dig up the tap root if you don’t
want to have to do it again in a couple of weeks.
Saint
John’s Wort. http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/weed_info/Hypericum_perforatum.html Usually on the trail in the shade.
Oxeye
Daisy. http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/weed_info/Written_findings/Leucanthemum_vulgare.html
If
it looks like a daisy, dig it.
Thistles
(Bull, Canada and California)
Prickly.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CIAR4
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CIVU
The
approved eradication method is to dig up and remove the plant from the area in
a plastic bag. No herbicides. There are printed pictures and info sheets in
the cabin with instructions to “take care of business.” Noxious weed
eradication is part of Kongsberger Ski Club’s efforts in working with the
Your
commitment to working on the trail system is what has made Cabin Creek
the outstanding Nordic ski course that it is. Since 1954, KSC has been on this
location. KSC designed, built, maintains, and provides the leadership in working
with the
Anyone
with a Sno-Park pass with grooming sticker is encouraged to cross country ski
on these trails. Kongsberger Ski Club members put in over 1,000 volunteer work
hours every year on the course that everyone with a Sno-Park pass is welcome to
cross country ski on in the winter. We
hope you’ll join us this fall for some digging, de-vegging, weed-pulling, and a
run. And especially this winter for our
races, Wednesday Night Headlamp time trial series, and just to ski and enjoy!
Thank
you,
Jim
Slyfield
Trails
Chairman, Kongsberger Ski Club
email: ksctrails **at** gmail **dot** com
PS: One
of our "High Performance” racers told me that he wanted to catch up on
going to church on Sundays in the off-season, and asked if we were going to do
any work parties on Saturday. My
response to him, and everyone else, is that anyone who wants to do trail work
on Saturday is welcome to do so! In
fact, you don't have to wait for an "official" work party weekend to
help. Just check the map and "to
do" list in the cabin and have at it!
Guests: If you are
motivated to assist, please contact us and join us on a scheduled work day.
Ozzie, Paul, Kaare, and several others are often at the cabin on Wednesdays during the summer. If your priorities allow, feel free to join them.