Culverts Installed!

Today we installed culverts in the ditch on Tomasi Rd trail, and in Hodges ditch crossing over the power line. We fell through the ice in Hodge's ditch in early spring, so it would most likely happen again if we didn't add a culvert here. These culverts will be temporary, but we plan to permanently fix these water crossings next year.

We recently dug this ditch with our tractor. We did some final digging by hand to fit the culvert

The culvert is in! It's around 16' long, so we don't have to worry about falling off the edge of the trail

Done!

This is Hodge's ditch where we fell through in the spring. There was about 6" of water under the ice here

Packing snow around the culvert

Done!

 It remains a good season to explore by back country skiing and snowshoeing the Maasto Hiihto and Churning Rapids trails. Trail repairs have been made and we wait for freeze ups of wet spots and a little more snow to cover hazards to grooming equipment before we begin rolling and setting tracks. We hope that might be able to take place around Dec. 1 but we are at the mercy of the weather gods as to when grooming operations can truly begin.

Once the groomed trails appear be aware that there will be ungroomed trail closures along Swedetown Creek this year due to unresolved damages from the Father's Day Flood. The middle third of the gorge will still be accessible via Dam Hill and Sidewinder from the Vista Trail (trail #7). Vista will be extended to Junction 20 on Tomasi Road via the old Meadow Trail. Due to other flood damage Spring Creek in Churning Rapids has been rerouted with a new section of trail offset from the former creek-side trail.