Giant Bicycles Canada Inc. has partnered with Steed Cycles to take part in the North Shore Mountain Bike Associations (NSMBA) trail stewardship initiative. Given our geographic location and the rich north shore heritage of the “boogieman” trail located on Mount Seymour, the trail stewardship program seemed like a no-brainer to both Steed and Giant.Sunday, August 14th/11 represented the return of the Steed/Giant trail maintenance crew to the wilds of Mount Seymour to complete phase 3 of the boogieman stewardship project. After a quick application of rider repelling tape and trail closure signage at the boogieman trailhead, it was time to take a quick spin down the trail to meet with the rest of the crew for a quick safety meeting + build plan for the day.
After making my way down boogieman, I was able to creep through the rich north shore fauna while Sean Gerke, trail builder extraordinaire laid down the law to the rest of the group. The lush greenery is truly something to behold on older shore trails like boogieman. 
The goal of the 3rd incarnation of our trail day was to repair a 25 foot section of the signature 500+ foot long log/ladder bridge that runs through the swamp of the lower section of BG. The condition of the section slated for replacement was so bad that it had to be taped off and was no longer safe to ride. In my books, the only place yellow marking tape belongs is either on the race course or to block things off whilst improving them, much like today’s event. Time to get to work and rectify the situation!
 |
A brief section of the gigantor log ride near the bottom of BM |
Chainsaw… Check. Orange safety chaps…. Check. Gentleman Trail Builder Sean, start your engine. Step 1, the easy part, removal of the unsafe section. Please note that yes, it is indeed a large twig barely holding up several hundred pounds of aging lumber and yes…. It was definitely time for it to be replaced. It should also be noted that destroying unsafe stunts is fun, especially when you plan on replacing it with something better J
Sweet success! The easy part is now over and it was now time to get the sleeves rolled up and start the process of digging holes for our supports. This would involve first digging out 2 large holes, bringing over some freshly debarked cedar supports, followed by collecting large rocks and mineral dirt from the surrounding area to pack down the supports. While removing the old support, we were extremely fortunate to stumble upon a queen bee deep in hibernation that was carefully moved to a suitable new location. Much respect to this queen bee for toughing it out on Seymour and where is the honey at?
Alright…. Enough hand holding, it’s time to put this thing into OVERDRIVE….. OVERDRIVE 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Colby Large, BC Sales Representative, father, husband, rider and a keen woodsman!
Sean and a fun-guy hanging out in the woods trimming down a fallen cedar that will be used for the rebuild of the ladder bridge. While one half of the group was busy sourcing materials and digging holes, the other was hard at work producing cedar planks of all shapes and sizes. After several hours of plank production, with the team working a full capacity, an ample supply of planks were created for this and future projects. Jeff, Eric and Nica hard at work below!
Nica Novlesky, inside sales representative for BC and everything in-between western Ontario, making short work of some sweet smelling cedar with the tools of the trade. Not to be outdone in the pane below, C-Large big-ringing-that-thang!!!!!
Fraser swinging the pick and digging deep….. Really deep. Some serious work was required on all fronts to get the two holes dug deep enough; as apparently, there was quite an elaborate root system underneath our dig spot. Shocking…. Not so much. But remember kids, if it was easy, everyone would be doing and it wouldn’t be half as cool. Speaking of the “easy way”, please see below for antonym in picture form. Also, please remember that water from the middle of the stream is always more delicious……
Many large rocks, a couple dozen bucketful’s of mineral dirt and a couple of support logs….. All the ingredients required for a sturdy base necessary for ladder longevity.
Sean propped up on the support making short work of a very long nail as the final preparations are made on the support structure. Finally, the 2 main support beams were installed then it was time to start hammering down the cedar planks. The team could see the daylight at the end of the tunnel and it was all hands on deck as the day’s project neared to the end.
The final rung was being hammered down and it was time to give this badboy a go! So it was time to hit that thing up for the virgin run and fantastic news……..I made it!!!!!! (Even without my training wheels)
In closing, it was an amazingly productive day of trail building and the weather was kind enough to not rain on us, even though it was supposed to. I would like to extend a big thank you to Sean, Nica, Colby, Eric, Martin, Fraser and Jeff for participating and picking up the slack for the author, who decided it would be a good idea to take a sweet digger up in whistler the day before. It was a privilege to work with everyone on this project and help improve our local trail network. Also, a big thank you to Colby and Giant bicycles Canada for supplying lunch for everyone. Trail Day # 4 is just around the corner, so please contact Steed cycles and get involved!
Andrew Armour
Inside Sales Representative
Giant Bicycles Canada Inc.
