Photos from Gorge Rehab or "Trench Filling 101"

I think these two comparison photos show what we were trying to accomplish better than any others that we took. We filled in the entire area under the pole that laid on the bank of the trench on either side - in the after shot, with just the quad parked there, the trench is completely filled in with logs and sand - level with the forest floor again. I took the after photo from a different angle as the sun was directly at the lens otherwise. The quad is parked on top of where the pole had been the day before.

What's under the sand? Here's a couple of photos showing the dead red pine logs that we hauled out of the woods and placed in the trench, then the skid steer placing sand over the top of them.







Here is a before shot as the trench was being filled with debris and an after shot of the same mid section trench with sand, shredded wood and top soil all in place.






Here is a shot of the piles of sand, mulch and topsoil at the west end of the project:



Here's a photo of one of the neat landmarks along this trail, before we filled in the area next to it:



Couldn't resist this photo of Foxy, our nine year old Border mutt, mother of our 8 Quarter Borders:


Many thank yous to give out - many people worked very hard on this project. Ed Setterington gets extra "attaboys" for staying over Monday, Tuesday and Weds. to work on the west end of the gorge. We had over a dozen workers on Saturday, including Kathy Bietau from the Forest Service, who also got us the DNR grant to do this work. We had 9 people on Sunday, working until 3 p.m. Per usual, anyone who wanted to, brought dogs and got in a couple of runs with their teams too. Our nephew Scott came over for two days of abuse, Monday and Tuesday.

We still need to seed the whole area, lay down straw and put in posts at the road to keep ORVs out but as of the end of today, the majority of the work is DONE. We have permission to open up this stretch of trail for winter use by sled dog teams. Rick has a nifty plan for a swinging gate as part of the post closure. THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO PITCHED IN WITH THIS CRAZY PROJECT!

Annual MiDD Meeting and Work Weekend - 9/12

Just a brief note to remind everyone that our Annual Meeting is this Saturday at noon. This will be a lunch meeting. MiDD will be providing sloppy joes (turkey or beef, your choice) and a side dish, dessert, coffee/pop for lunch.

We will be working on the trail repair project beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, break for the lunch meeting, then back on the trail project. We will be placing "woody debris" in the "gorge", filling it with sand, wood chips, top soil - leveling all that out and then seeding the trail repair with perennial rye grass seed. We have a rented skid steer to move materials around where we need them.

Shovels, rakes, gloves will all be useful. We will be working on this project starting Saturday and on into next week too. Free camping for all volunteers. Bring the dogs and get in a run early or late on our private trails.

This project is being funded by a grant MiDD received via the USDA/Forest Service with funding from the DNR.

For last minute info, please call me at 231-745-3614.

Photos from the Aug. 22/23 Work Weekend

Here are some photos from our work weekend - repairing ORV damage to our main trail from our property to the west trails on Federal land. We put in a grant application last summer and received the go-ahead on the project this spring. Kathy Bietau from the Forest Service helped put the grant together. The funds are out of the DNR ORV repair fund. We are putting brush/small trees in the center of the trail and hauling in and placing sand in the trail to raise the trail to the rest of the forest floor.

Rick loaded and hauled the sand from the piles of sand dropped along our "driveway" for the project, through our property and down the trail to the project site. He had to get the truck through the deep sand on every pass in order to dump and turn around and go back for more. Our old equipment functioned better than expected and we used up all the sand on that end of the trail by the end of day on Saturday.

The dump truck worked pretty well for human transport too. The kids got a kick out of riding in the back of a dump truck.

Here you can see the trees/brush under the sand. Tad Brake was on hand to help out on Saturday. He has lots of farm and equipment experience to share along with a super positive, sunny disposition.

Once the sand was dumped it had to be raked out so Rick could drive over it with the next load.

There was also time to run some dog teams once the work was done on Saturday (and again Sunday morning.) The weather was much cooler than the previous weekend, notice the sweatshirts and jackets. The previous weekend we were in shorts and tank tops and ended the day with a swim in the Pere Marquette River - very cool running water.

Mike Monarch was on hand to help out too. He enjoys watching everyone hook up and run dogs - his sled dogs are all retired now.

Always time for a little relaxation after a hard day's work. This is a nice string of mostly Seppala Siberians in the background. Nicholas, the little blond on top of the truck, turned out to be a hard worker too and always good for a laugh.

Our big week long work session is coming up beginning Saturday, September 12th through the next weekend. We are renting an all terrain skid steer and moving sand on the far west end of the project (where more piles of sand are sitting.) We are also putting a layer of shredded wood and top soil on the sand and then seeding the whole project. This will allow us to use this section of trail for incoming and outgoing teams and also to use the trail in light snow conditions and with wheeled rigs which is was not possible with all the exposed roots across the trail. We should be able to groom a 6ft. wide trail this coming season.

We have a few openings for Mushing Boot Camp the first weekend (Thurs. at 4 p.m. to Sunday at noon) of October. Check it out at www.mushingbootcamp.com

1st "Gorge" Trail Work Sessions Aug. 15/16 & Aug. 22/23

We met and walked the trail with several Forest Service folks on Thursday, July 23rd in the a.m. and we all decided it makes more sense for them to complete their portion of the trail rehab before we begin work on our section. They are closing the entry point to the illegal ORV trail that we are rehabbing. They are also attending the yearly meeting of the Lake association where most of the ORV traffic comes from on Aug. 1st to let them know that the trail is being closed for good (3rd try over the years) and serious enforcement will be taking place if they try to bypass the trail closure.

We will be working on the weekends of Aug. 15/16 and 22/23. The sand and wood chips are already on site; we have an all terrain skid steer (bobcat) rented for the work week in Sept.

Our big push on this project will still take place Sept. 12 - 19, rain or shine.

Boot Camp News

Interested in Mushing Boot Camp the first weekend in October? Get your registration in - we need all 9 teams registered ASAP. Go to: http://www.mushingbootcamp.com/ and fill out the forms and follow the instructions there to get signed up.

Below are a few more photos of the trike with one dog in harness in lead, the other two running by their necklines.

Here's two views of the same section of driveway - what a difference 8 months makes!

Finally back on the blog!

Whew! Took me many hours to figure it out but I finally did - back in business.

Here's a few photos of my trike set up with 3 dogs attached. The leader is in a guard harness (1/2 harness) and the other two dogs are running attached to their necklines only. Just when you think there's nothing new to try in dogsledding, someone comes up with a novel idea.





Jason Barron at http://www.kanabearenterprises.com and a few others are using this technique to back off some of the power so the dogs can get out in warmer temps and get some exercise in the late spring, summer and earlier fall. I know it sounds weird but the dogs do figure out to back off a little and they love getting out and running.



I'm hoping this will help reset their thermostats, so to speak, so they can tolerate warmer temps in the winter and beyond into next summer too. I'm also looking forward to using this technique in the winter to reduce power in the team when the conditions are dicey (read: icy!)



We aren't going far, only 1 - 2 miles a run, depending on how they look. Even at that short distance, I stop and offer water most days. It also affords a training experience, stopping, standing, waiting for my "go" command on the trail with little holding power on my end (a ball bungie around the hand brake is all the parking brake I have.) I think they are learning some better "wait" manners with this too.

I am running 5 teams of 3 a couple of times a week each, including right up to this week. In the really hot weather, we laid off for a week or so.

I run them right up to the kiddie pool when we come back to the barn and they jump right in to cool off (well, most of them anyway - some just don't care to be wet.)

Mushing Boot Camp comes to Baldwin!

Here's a photo from our trails on private land - I thought I would include a spring view of the B team to show what our trails look like to anyone who hasn't been here. We are hosting a Mushing Boot Camp the first weekend of October (Thurs. through Sunday noon.) Go to www.mushingbootcamp.com to sign up!





Here are some photos from our impromptu trail work session last Friday and Saturday.

Many thanks to Ed Setterington and his friend, Jake for the work they did last weekend on the Sweetwater Challenge trails. We opened up another mile of new trail to the west and improved the overly challenging section of trail to the East.

The photo with the 3 amigos includes Rick and is taken on the east side of the far east wetland, looking west.

The photo where you can barely see people is taken on the newly opened trail, there's a couple of serious hills in that section - you can see many miles to the south from the highest hill.