Seasonal Trail Preparation for Opening Weekend

​At the beginning of each season, while season pass holders and day users patiently wait for the surrounding Nordic facilities to open their respective trail networks, the team at Callaghan Country prep for another shovel marathon. Although some seasons are easier than others due to a larger initial snowfall or a better settled snow pack, all trails must be broken in. All facilities deal with this at the beginning of each season, but small organizations like ourselves can find this time of year particularly labour intensive...nearby wildlife is likely to pick up on some grunting and cursing in the woods!​

In general, Callaghan Country has two types of trails, ones with a dirt road base, and ones without. In the summer-time, some are obviously roads, while others are just a cut right of way through the woods. For example, both Mainline and Real life/Wild Spirit are road based trails, whereas Parkway, Lost Crew, Conflict Lake, Ring, and Solitude are simply cleared right of ways. Here's where our work gets tricky...right of way trails still have large boulders, water features and wood debris on the ground underneath the snow, resulting in significantly more shoveling to get the trails to a stability that the snowcat can drop its tiller safely and groom through. While road based trails are fairly simple to break in (only requiring a few passes of the snowmobile to pack the snow down), non road based trails are extremely...let me say it again, EXTREMELY labour intensive. In particular, Parkway, the portion of trail that connects Mainline at Callaghan Lake to Wild Spirit requires an enormous amount of attention.   

As our summer visitors would know, Parkway has some fairly abrupt features, such as; large river crossings, large boulders, narrow pathways, as well as many sharp corners and dips. In addition, the dense forest canopy through Parkway limits the volume of snow that reaches the ground, resulting in less material to work with. Initially, Parkway requires the trail crew to snowshoe the entire trail, making at least four passes side by side. The purpose of this is to start the packing process, and give the trail crew a solidified path of snow to focus the build on. In the past the crew would attempt to get a snowmobile through immediately but, clever folks that we are, have learned the added step of snowshoe stomping is a more effective use of time in the long run. Once snowshoed several times over, the crew will attempt to get a snowmobile through. This task usually proves to be far more technical than just driving through...remember those abrupt terrain features? The snowmobile has a tendency to break through to the vegetated portion of the snowpack, which is generally unconsolidated early season.   This makes it easy to spin the snowmobile’s track...a seemingly simple task ends up taking the better half a day (essentially we all become Charlie Brown on these days...good grief!). Once the initial sled pass occurs, the team will try to widen the trail with more sled passes, which usually results in a sled breaking through a creek crossing or some other feature, again resulting in a potentially lengthy removal (no more Charlie Brown here...it's all The Incredible Hulk now).  With the added energy of 'Hulk Aggression', we eventually find success!

Good example of the 'daily sunken snowmobile'

Now, the crew can focus on terrain features still poking through the snow...mainly, stumps and rocks. These features must be buried or ramped so the snowcat’s tiller and/or track does not snag them, potentially costing thousands of dollars in damage...yikes!  In addition, the trail’s dips and sharp turns are smoothed out by shovel.   Uneven ground and ‘swivelling’ can cause the snowcat to throw a track, resulting in 'yet another' loss of one or more day's work (and this stuff is specialized...we like to call it 'in-the-field snowcat repair').   Next up, all bridge decks must have consolidated snow on both their approach and departure to reduce the chance of the snowcat sliding off the edge of the bridge. At this point, the trail has likely been open for several days, if not weeks, when snowfall has not been persistent.  Although the crew will have dragged a snowmobile roller through, the trail may still have too many protrusions to risk the snowcat’s beloved tiller. It is only once enough snow has fallen on the precisely sculpted trail bed that a snowcat can eventually get through the narrow trail. Up to this point, all trail work and upkeep (shovel grooming) has been done by hand...our hands. Even once the Piston Bully100, Callaghan Country’s ‘small’ snowcat gets through, shoveling may persist to keep many of the stumps and boulders under the snow's surface. Moreover, once the small snowcat has gotten through several times, the trail crew switches their focus to getting the Piston Bully300, a much wider snowcat through.  Depending on the season and how deep the snowpack is, the trail network’s upgrading is constant, and fingers X'd, can be carried out by the snowcats alone. 

MAIN IMAGE: PB 100 slipped on Parkway bridge 2010, TOP L: PB 100 thrown track Lost Crew 2013, TOP R: PB 100 thrown track Lost Crew 2013 BOTTOM R: Real Life Flooding 2014

​Now, during those 'dark days' more commonly known as shallow snow pack years, like the one BC's Coast experienced in the winter of 2014/15, we are constantly shovelling to allow the snowcat’s safe passage. In addition, extreme events like heavy rainfall and flooding can easily destroy the trail over night (sigh!). Many of the creeks in the region swell beyond their drainage capacity, resulting in overflow, which not only takes the snow with it, but in some instances significant portions of the road as well.  Although these events can be both dangerous and frustrating - with enough shovelling, the trail crew can make anything work, and the trail should reopen within a few days at the most...that is our magic!

So what is the point of all this work? Essentially, the purpose is:

• to gain access to the Solitude Valley/ Upper Callaghan and Journeyman Lodge, 
• open the trail network as soon as possible, 
• mitigating equipment damage. 

Although this level of labour is difficult to balance with a small staff, it is essential to the operation of Callaghan Country, and our team is 'deep-down' happy to carry it out...after all, Callaghan Country did not get to where it is today without...a labour of love.