Pretty big Bike Eater along trail 56!On my ride through the park on Monday it was nice to see crews out working to fix some of these problem areas. I didn’t ride out into the affected areas too much as there were heavy trucks and vehicles rolling along the trails so I didn’t want to get in the way. Still, there was lots of activity in the campground which is “closed for the season” so there was clearly some haste to get work done before the snow flies.
Road washout - the water moved some pretty big trees!The first big repair is the campground road bridge which washed out in the early summer. It sat all summer looking pretty ugly with the culvert pitched in the air and big trees wrenched aside by the strong forces of rushing water. The heavy rains actually washed out the side of the dam upstream which must have sent a tremendous wave downhill. Back in June a temporary bridge was placed in another location closer to the lake so the campground could function through the summer season. I was beginning to wonder if that would be a "permanent-temporary" fix for the ski trail as well. On Monday however it was good to see some heavy equipment in there removing the debris and preparing for new culverts to go into place. I guess, after a design phase they waited to close up the campground before the heavy equipment got to work.
High hoe clearing the debris to prepare for a new culvertOf the most concern to me was the bridge at the base of the hill up to Lusk lake. This is a favourite trail and seeing one of the bridge piers collapsing had me worried that the trail would be closed for the season. The bridge itself looked passable for a skier but the heavy snowcats wouldn’t be able to cross and groom the trail up the hill.
Lusk Lake bridge pier looking shakySince my first visit in October, it’s nice to see that crews have shored up the bridge. I must say its a pretty ugly "bandaid" approach they’ve applied to the bridge… but I hope it will work. I guess the bandaid approach was employed here because of high costs in other areas. Perhaps next season they will patch up the bridge properly as I think there are a few key flaws to their repair which won’t last in the long term.
How many structural weaknesses can you count - as an engineer, I can see 3 that leave me wondering...Also at work were repairs to trail 56 which heads off into the woods and up to the Pontiac lookout and Lac Richard beyond. Having ridden through there a couple of weeks ago I had found some pretty big “bike eating” ruts from water rushing down the trails(pictured at the top). It was all well and good to ride around these in the summer but with a blanket of snow these would become a invisible and pretty hazardous crevasses, surely catch skiers out and causing some serious injuries. These washouts of course only occurred in steep parts of the trails so skiers would be going pretty fast when they fell into these unseen trenches. Kind of like an elephant trap! Being in lonely parts of the park would only compound the problem of getting help and extraction of the injured parties. Glad to see those repairs underway.
Trail 56 closed for repair work
Truckloads of fill heading along trail 56 to the washoutsSo lots of work going on in the north end of the park. That coupled with big repairs of the culvert on the “Doldrums” – further south - has surely meant a big bill for the NCC this year. Could this in part be responsible for the ski pass price increase? Ah well, glad to see some action which will mean good skiing once the snow flies… which I’m getting really antsy for. My ride on Monday was under sunny skies and +18C!! That’s definitely not mid-November weather and not conducive to snow production.
Lots of work underway to get ready for ski season and beyond
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