Summer Mode!

During the last week of May, the newly enlarged Trail Crew got a taste of how summer workweeks are going to be.  We got to experience the challenge of taking on multiple simultaneous projects, survived an intense storm, learned a thing or two about keeping eighteen people occupied during too-wet working conditions, and continued to revise and improve on the amounts and types of tools we pack for particular tasks.  

Our main task at Mines of Spain State Recreation Area in Dubuque was to fix this staircase (built by the Trail Crew last summer) that had been broken by "falling" boulders.  

Our fearless leader, Mark, showed us how fun being the cause of "falling" boulders can be, and we had a great ethics discussion on why people do things like this and how/if we can stop them.

Another project we worked on at Mines of Spain was replacing rotted/damaged railroad ties on the Catfish Creek Trail.  Railroad ties are seldom the best trail building option (they can leak creosote, a harmful preservative, into the soil) this trail has soooooooooooo many railroad tie steps (hundreds upon hundreds) it would take a crew our size multiple years to switch to something better like flagstone, not to mention more money than the parks have just for the stone.  Our best option here was to replace the dangerous steps with new ties, and hope that we have the resources to opt for something different in the future.

Another project was to rebuild/fix waterbars on Calcite Trail--a trail that was built right through the drainage area between two hills, and at much more than a sustainable slope--creating a perfect path for channeling rainwater runoff, and thus a nightmare of a trail to maintain.  The ideal solution would be to re-route the trail, which is again too great an undertaking for this crew when other parks have equal if not worse problems.  However, we were able to improve the situation by building up existing waterbars--a task that will have to be redone every year, but will go a long way in keeping the trail intact and usable.

Waterbars are basically speed-bumps for water that will at least slow down the flow, but will optimally divert the water off of the trail altogether.  This can be aided by accompanying the waterbar with a "knick", a semi-circular, shaved-down section of trail that is canted to the outside.  This allows water to flow off of the trail before even hitting the waterbar, greatly extending the waterbar's life.

A series of waterbars on a steep hill

Adam helps carve a "knick", so water will drain off the trail before hitting the waterbar

An extremely well constructed waterbar--it is minimally disruptive to a hiker and the accompanying knick will help sheet water off of the trail gently instead of creating a narrow channel of runoff.

On one section of the trail, the terrain extended uphill on both sides.  This is the worst place you could build a trail, because there is nowhere else for the water to go--the trail IS the drainage canal.  Here we built our waterbars to direct the water to the side of the trail, and then dug large "silt-retention pools" for the water to collect in, and hopefully sink into the ground rather than rush down the trail.  If these pools fill up, the water should meander through some plants, debris and undergrowth before coming back to the trail, thus greatly diffusing its velocity and volume and therefore destructive power.

Here is a diagram showing how one of the waterbar/silt retention pool combos we built should work. This silt retention pool is about a 2' deep hole, and we made it about 2' x 3' in size.  We covered it with debris to make it look less like a random giant hole, and in a week or two plants will return to the area to make it even less noticeable.  As you can see, a large stream of water should exit the trail before the waterbar and collect in the pool area.  If it does overflow only small amounts of water will return to the trail at a considerably slower pace.  

One last project was replacing railings and other supporting rails on these really neat floating bridges near Horseshoe Canyon.  It was a difficult task, and the crew even made use of a boat to access outer areas of the bridge.

One of the great things about being an AmeriCorps crew is that some of our time can be used for "education". This is one of the things that really sets our program apart, and makes for an enriching, often life-changing experience, rather than just working on construction projects for a summer.  Typically this occurs out on the trails, when we see certain plants, animals, or insects.

Leah stands in a large grouping of Garlic Mustard, an invasive plant that spreads rapidly and prevents other native species from growing.  There is simply too much for parks to get rid of, and one way we are encouraging people to get involved is to go to your local parks and eat some!  Seriously, the plant is edible, healthy, and tastes exactly like garlic.  It has the texture of a tender lettuce leaf.  I've had some in Caesar salad and loved it, but I've also heard it makes a mean pesto!

A silkworm dangles nearly 20 feet from an overhead limb.

One of four turtle sightings that day!

However, sometimes adverse conditions (rain, in this case) keep us indoors and we can use this "education" time to watch presentations, engage in discussions, or even visit educational sites or facilities.  On our final day in Dubuque we spent a couple of hours at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.  If you've never been to a museum with a bunch of biology, forestry, and environmental science majors, I highly recommend it.  

Next on our plate for the month:  AmeriCorps Orientation, starting work at Lake of Three Fires, and attending/volunteering at the 2010 Iowa Trails Summit in Cedar Falls/Waterloo.

We will be building a trail for pedestrians that will be featured at the Summit, if you would like to come see what we do and help out, here is a flyer for our trailbuilding day:

Summer Crew, Assemble!

The Summer Crew has arrived!

After tying off our loose ends at the various parks we'd worked at, Trail Crew spent two weeks at the Polk City Shop, preparing ourselves and our equipment for the trials/trails of the coming summer. This was mostly manual labor, as we cleaned and sorted our tools, equipment and vehicles. However Trail Crew is much more than a simple labor crew, and there was a great deal of preparation to be made in order to maintain this standard. Educational presentations were prepared by all of us in order to introduce the new crew to our bio-diesel program, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) trail construction, environmental ethics and even healthy and sustainable eating.

Troy, Ty and Tim enjoy a campfire on our first morning.

On the morning of May 17th, the entire crew assembled for the first time. After setting up camp at Massey Marina and making introductions, we brought everyone to the Mines of Spain Interpretive Center for our favorite (yeah right) job ever: paper work. This took up most of the morning, and after lunch we made our first presentations. These were about the program's history and basic trail techniques. This then lead into our first hike, lead by myself, Adam and a veteran of last year's Trail Crew: Troy Heeren. As we hiked the various trails at the Mines of Spain, we pointed out the various problems and the implemented solutions.

This was not only a learning experience for the new Summer Crew members, but also for those of us leading the hike. Teaching is often the best way to learn, particularly when teaching those who are entirely inexperienced because they often have a fresh and novel perspective of the material. Their questions often challenge you to not take anything for granted, and can also cause you to question aspects of your work you had never even fully considered. This made Monday a very enriching experience for everyone.

Tuesday was spent with more presentations, followed by our first real project (and VGP): the completion and maintenance of the trail to Ice Cave at Pictured Rocks Park in Jones County. This was the site of work for several generations of Trail Crew, including us. The limestone terrace we built last fall has held up quite well (with the help of the Jones County Conservation Office) and Pictured Rocks Park itself has gone through a major overhaul. It was good to return to the site of our earlier work, and to assess it with the new perspectives we've developed after months of experience working on various other projects. Overall we were proud of our work, and glad to return to provide some finishing touches.

The Crew assembles on the stone terrace we built last fall.

Our primary project was extending our trail to the newly completed picnic shelter. We also provided some minor maintenance to the trail where it needed it (mostly filling in eroded portions), closed off a section of the old trail that is no longer in service, and transplanted a number of local plants onto a section of heavily disturbed soil that needed to be restored. This was a hefty load for the new Summer Crew, but they took everything in eager stride and performed admirably. We also had the assistance of two volunteers. A special thanks goes out to Professor Charles Frohman and his son for joining us on the trail!

Crew members and a volunteer work to extend the trail to the picnic shelter.

Delilah and Molly haul rock out to a section of trail that needs attention.

Adam, Elizabeth and Shirley transplant various species of plants to the section of bare soil.

The whole crew assembles after a job well done!

Wednesday and Thursday consisted of a mix of presentations and various projects. Our primary work was on a damaged stairway at the Horseshoe Bluff at the Mines of Spain. It is a harsh reality that a construction project that takes days, weeks or months can be deconstructed in moments. This is a reality that Trail Crew has to face on a frequent basis. While it is most often nature that inflicts the damage and wear on our projects, careless and malicious people are often the source of our most significant problems. In the case of this stairway, various welds and boards were broken by persons who found entertainment in dropping large stones off the bluff. Frustrating as such activity is, we can't allow ourselves to be demoralized by such carelessness. Instead we press on, doing our best to repair the damage and prevent such problems from occurring in the future.

Overall it was a busy, tough and taxing week. But it was also fun, enriching and exciting. The next few months promise more of all of the above, and Trail Crew is eager for it!

VGP in Monticello!

Adios, Green Valley!

During the last week of April the trail crew wrapped things up at Green Valley State Park just in time for camping (and trails!) season to begin.  All in all, the crew completed the following tasks at Green Valley:

• Cleaned out the Gater house and yard
• Picked up trash around the park 
• Demolished two old sheds/hog houses 
• Finished building, insulated, sided and roofed a new cabin 
• Installed/repaired a stone drainage area around all three cabins 
• Graded the area around the new cabin 
• Planted grass around all three cabins
• Cleaned up around the newly-renovated campsites
• Installed ADA walkways to the new cabin and four new concrete restroom buildings
• Built, insulated, sided and roofed a check-in stand for the campground

The last task the crew tackled was installing tongue and groove siding on the inside of the check-in stand as well as for the soffit outside the building.  The inside was a bit tricky since holes needed to be cut for electrical outlets and light switches, and the boards needed to be fit around windows, but having already completed this task on the third cabin Delilah and Ceith were up to the challenge.

Delilah uses the scroll saw to cut an interior siding board so it will fit around a window

Ceith uses a brad nailer to secure the siding, making sure to blind nail the brads so they won't show

Meanwhile, JB, Adam and Ewan worked on the soffit outside, making sure to install a soffit vent, as well as tackling the somewhat tricky angles on the architecturally interesting underside of the roof.

Showy angles

Adam makes an angled cut

Adam and Ewan secure one of the boards 

After finishing these tasks and picking up wood scraps around the worksite, cleaning and putting away all of the tools, and cleaning/packing back at the house, the crew headed back to the shop.  The first two weeks of May will be spent preparing for the arrival of twelve new crew members for the summer, who start May 17th.  We will host an orientation for the new members at Mines of Spain State Recreation Area near Dubuque, and we are very excited to try out the brand new facilities at the park's interpretive center for some of our presentations and seminars.  During orientation we will also organize a service project (or volunteer-generating-project) on Tuesday the 18th at Pictured Rocks near Monticello, Iowa, where the trail crew built an ADA-compliant trail last summer and flagstone terrace last fall.  More details on the service project will be coming soon!

Spring Cleaning

April has been a busy time for the Trail Crew. We are currently in the process of hiring our summer seasonal employees, and there is a great deal of preparation to be made so that we can make full use of our extra (wo)man power in the coming months. Our first priority has been tying off loose ends by putting the finishing touches on our various projects at Green Valley State Park. This will allow us to smoothly transition to the more trail oriented projects we will work on once our summer team has been assembled.

The bulk of our time has been spent with shovels and chisels in hand, as we installed new rock borders around each of Green Valley's three cabins and re-graded the ground around the newest cabin. This was time consuming and tedious work, as we had to ensure that each of the borders was straight, (reasonably) level, and properly aligned with its corresponding cabin. We then had to adjust the soil height within the borders so that a sufficient volume of gravel could be placed around the cabin, the goal being to prevent the formation of mud holes under the roof's drip-line as well as to keep weeds from growing around the cabins.

Adam and Ceith break ground to install a new limestone border.

Our limestone border in place and properly aligned.

The rest of our time at Green Valley was spent working on various miscellaneous projects, such as cleaning and touching up the cabin interiors, cleaning the house we've been staying in, minor maintenance on the facilities of the park, and cutting down cedar trees to be used in another project (more on that later). However we have more preparatory work to do beyond tying up our loose ends. In order to be effective leaders this summer, we must have a solid understanding of the methods Trail Crew employs on the trails, and the ability to efficiently coordinate a sizeable team of people with varying levels of experience.

Delilah and Ceith detail a cabin by staining the interior.

Adam works on felling a tree.

Timber!

Delilah drags the freshly felled tree to the limb pile...

...Where Ceith cuts off the limbs...

...And then loads the log onto our truck for transport!

Always trying to be efficient, we stationed ourselves at Palisades Kepler State Park near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This park had been affected significantly by the flood of 2008, and still needed some minor attention. It is also in close proximity to several parks that Trail Crew has worked at over the years. This made it easy for us to accomplish several things at once: to revisit several former projects (and thereby gain a better understanding how to address specific trail problems), and to provide assistance to a park in need.

Our project at Palisades was to replace a flood damaged fence, using the cedar logs we had cut down at Green Valley. While we wanted to participate as much as possible, there was too much to get done in a week, and assistance was needed. This came to us in the form a corrections crew that was serving community service in the area. We trained this crew to prep the cedar logs, dig appropriately sized holes, and to erect the limestone pillars that would serve as the foundation for the fence. This then freed us up to tour trails at Palisades, Pleasant Creek, and the Mines of Spain.

Adam mixes mortar for our stone pillars.

Members of the corrections crew use the mortar to build the stone pillar.

A finished stone pillar, ready to be attached to the process cedar logs we brought from Green Valley.

While touring trails we explored the various problems that trails can face as well as the potential solutions. The most common problem is erosion of a trail due to a combination of rain water and heavy usage. This can not only make a trail difficult or uncomfortable to use, it can also make them dangerous. It also makes them aesthetically unappealing and disruptive to the natural experience that most hikers are looking for on the trail. Luckily there are many solutions to the problem of erosion.

The first and best solution is preventative: construct the trail so that water sheds off the trail easily and evenly so that ruts and gullies don’t form and channel even more water. It is a simple fact of physics that water will follow the path of least resistance, and so a trail must be constructed with the natural terrain in mind so that water will “choose” to travel across the surrounding terrain rather than the trail itself. Constructing the trail grade so that it is shallow in relation to the natural terrain is the best way to accomplish this, as a steeper grade provides less resistance to water flow.

Unfortunately it is difficult to predict the behavior of water on a trail as it being created, so post-construction solutions are often required. These include (but aren’t limited to) rolling dips, water bars and culverts. Rolling dips are gradual undulations in the trail’s grade that cause water to shed off the trail (as it can’t travel uphill). Water bars are physical objects (such as railroad ties) that are buried under the trail to elevate its surface, thereby creating mini dams that push water off the trail. Culverts are a situational solution, serving as a conduit for water to travel through under a trail. Unfortunately this also causes water to concentrate in a small area, and can cause erosion problems downhill if they aren’t installed conscientiously.

With the summer hiring process coming to a close, Trail Crew has plenty more preparations to make and our real work has just begun. Bringing in the summer team is only going to increase Trail Crew’s workload, and that means more to report here! So expect even more exciting updates as we begin to move into summer. Happy Spring everyone!

Green Valley Continued...

Mid-March the trail crew worked toward wrapping up our various projects at Green Valley State Park near Creston, Iowa.  After the internal siding and shingles were added to the cabin, it was time for external siding.  A great idea for providing a rustic look and durable, lasting protection from the elements, this siding was unfortunately quite a challenge for these novice carpenters.  We received some pointers from Mark, the carpenter in charge of the cabin's framing and electrical work, and learned the rest through trial and error (but not too much error, because these panels are costly!)

No idea what we were getting into...

Was it scant?  Or strong?  Oh the precision required 

of this task...

One wall down... you might think this other one looks over half 

finished, but that's where you're wrong.  The final pieces take 

almost as long as the first dozen.

This would be another "almost finished" wall, except

for the fact that cutting that final wedge piece can eat up an

afternoon.  No straight lines here, being stacked on a dozen

other pieces of wood each with their own natural warps

means this final piece needs to be so irregular that it's a task 

best suited to pocket knives.  

So close!

After finishing the exterior siding, the heavens decided to pour.  Some of the crew worked on intensive Asian Lady Beetle habitat destruction back at the house (i.e. cleaning windows) while others waded through the mud moat around the cabin to oil the interior siding, leaving a protective coating that still showcases the natural beauty of the wood.

The cabin still needs some final touches such as a drainage area under the eaves, some landscaping, and a protective coat on the exterior siding, but those all needed to wait for dryer, warmer weather so the crew moved onto their second large project at Green Valley, a check-in stand for the newly renovated campground.  This is where campers will reserve their sites, ask questions, and buy sodas, and it will be the daytime "home" of the campground host.

First wall!

And we have... a frame!

Always looking for ways to cut down on costs and waste, we used

rafters from an old, torn-down building in the park.  Unfortunately, 

this meant an incredible amount of nail-pulling.

 Adam demonstrates how the checkstand will look when it's in use.

Fascia board... harder than it looks, especially with reclaimed rafters

See those blue skies?!  Finally!!!

Back to one of our favorites, roofing!  

We look to be wrapping things up in Green Valley soon, a couple more weeks ought to see both projects through.  This brings us into the long-awaited trail season, and most likely we will head to (somewhat) nearby Lake of Three Fires next, where water quality issues require us to take a look at the popular equestrian trails and re-route or re-structure areas where runoff is going straight into the lake.  Unless somebody finds a (legal!!!) way to dissuade thousands of geese from calling the park home, spiffing up the heavily-used horse trails should do the trick and get the lake's bacteria levels back in check.  

Green Valley Cabin

After a rough start to the month, Trail Crew bounced back to begin working on its next big project: finishing the construction of a cabin at Green Valley State Park. The primary carpentry work was completed while we were working on clearing out and refurbishing the house nearby, and it was our job to put the finishing touches on both the interior and exterior.

The first step was the interior. Fiberglass insulation and a vapor barrier help to ensure that the cabin is weatherized and energy efficient. After applying these, we finished the walls with tongue and groove siding, cut to fit each wall individually. Doing so was a complicated affair with a steep learning curve, but we quickly learned to mind all of the many details associated with trimming a board to have a tight and level fit that was aligned with the boards on the adjoining walls. We also learned to "blind nail" each piece, a technique that hides the nails in the joints of the siding so that the final product is unblemished wood.




After Ceith cuts a piece of siding, Adam blind nails it to the wall. The before and after can be seen on the final photo.

After mounting a mantle above the heating unit, applying the siding to the walls and vaulted ceiling and providing trim to the windows, we moved to the exterior. Siding was again individually cut from stock, this time from log siding that gave the cabin a rustic aesthetic. We also applied drip edges, shingles and vents to prevent moisture from rotting the wood, thereby ensuring that the cabin will stand the test of time.




Adam Delilah and Ceith raise a piece of external siding. After that was finished, everyone moved on to roofing for a day.

Though the bulk of the work is now finished, we still have details to finish on this project. All of those loose ends will hopefully be tied up next week, allowing us to move on to what will hopefully be our first project of spring (is it spring yet? please?). More on the Green Valley cabin, as well as pictures of the final product to come soon!