Sunday September 11th brought the fourth and final trail day on Boogieman for the 2011 season. Backed by Steed Cycles and Giant Bicycle Canada, local builder Sean Gerke took on the task of maintaining Boogieman through the NSMBA Trail Adoption Program, and has since hosted four trail days mostly oriented around repairing structures which are on the verge of failing. This trail day’s goal was to replace two bridges after the swamp log which were beginning to rot, not to mention they were bad news in the wet.  
 

Here’s our project for the day (taken in the rain for dramatic effect) 

This trail day started as most others, treats and coffee at Bean Around the World in Parkgate Mall as we assembled our team of volunteers. This trail day had a turn out of four volunteers in addition to Sean, they include Shawn, Jeff, Josh and myself. Once we had satisfied our caffeine dependency, Sean dropped Josh off at the Mushroom lot to close the trail, and upon his return we gathered our tools and headed up the mountain.
Sean giving his motivational talk (and safety speech)

 

Once all the formalities were out of the way we got to work, well at least Sean did. Before we could dive into building the new bridges the old ones were swiftly dispatched by Sean and his friend the Stihl chainsaw.

 

Sean cuts down the old bridge to make way for the newer less rotted bridge!

After hiding the carnage, the arduous task of bringing in materials began. We had to move 2 stringers, 2 small footing, 1 very long milled log and countless rungs.

 

 

Jeff Tran and Sean Gerke hauling a log through the forest.

 

After a couple hours of hauling timber, we thought it would be appropriate to dig into our lunch which we acquired at Bean Around the World. We enjoyed our lunch on the bridge which was completed at trail day #3

 

Footing for the bridge

 

Josh providing an ample gold supply

After a good break we were ready to get right back to it. We installed the footings for the milled log by digging holes, then filling them with small rocks and ‘gold’.

 

 

Maneuvering the log into place.

 

Sean doing some custom cuts with the chainy.
Connor getting right into nailing in the rungs!
After the majority of the grunt work was done on the log, we concentrated on the ladder bridge which would serve as the exit to the swamp log.
Jeff putting the final nail in

 

Mission accomplished, high fives all ’round

 

 

The ladder bridge exit to the swamp log
The milled log section which connects you to the rest of the bridge
A big shout out to Steed Cycles, Giant Canada and the volunteers who have made these trail days possible, as well as a big thank you to Sean Gerke who bravely took on Boogieman this season, and will keep chipping away at it for many more seasons!
If you want to see the full set of photos from the trail day, head on over to Flickr!
-Conor Coen