I can't believe I invented this...

Well, they didn't have one pre-made. Simple, really: Bring the compressor up to the Visitor's Center, attach this to the blowout valve for the outdoor water faucet, blow water out of line for winter.

First Welding Project

It ain't purdy, but it will get the job done, and for about $4 in steel, will save a bunch of money in spilled janitorial supplies:



Here's the 45 degree test. No spills! If that old maintenance truck hits a 45+ degree roll, there'll be more trouble than just spilled cleansing materials.

Trail Ends!

Some visitors were very frustrated with the Eldorado Canyon Trail:

"Lack of Signage/cairns near/past Rincon/.8 miles to VC area, near boulders. UNMARKED - TRAIL JUST ENDS!!"

I did a little work - hopefully the trail is a bit clearer now.

Before:


After:


Before:


After:


My biggest challenge was seeing the trail with "fresh" eyes - I'm so used to it that I almost didn't notice the overgrowth.

First multi-volunteer project

Six of 'em, and we made the place look purdy.

Before:


After:


More photos can be found here.

All in all, it was a very rewarding project. I got about two tons of crusher fines (a.k.a. "Pink Breeze") at Pioneer Sand and Gravel. Then we pulled weeds, leveled out the trail, and topped it with a nice layer of fines.

This makes enough of an improvement in visitor's first impressions of the park that it's probably worth $50 a month in the summer to go get Pink Breeze and keep refreshing the trails. I think a tidy, well maintained entrance says pretty succinctly "We mean business."

It's amazing.

We've had a clogged urinal. I suspected something complicated - a deposit of salts or calcium, some bad plumbing, something. I read through countless testimonials from plumbers about clogged urinals, and the advice was the same: Pull the urinal.

I did.

Someone with low hygienic standards and nimble fingers had managed to lodge a big wad of gum and plastic wrappers down the urinal. I'm actually amazed, more than anything. I can't figure out how they did it, let alone why.

My Section of Trail

Last week, the Trails crew generously let me spend a day with them. I made this. It's a small section of trail, but I'm proud anyways.



To have lots of nice small-size rock on trails, you don't haul small-size rocks. You haul a sledgehammer and turn big rocks into medium rocks, drop them on the trail, and then turn the medium rocks into small rocks.

More about the Fowler Trees.

The mystery of the dead trees begins to unravel.



Looking from the bottom up - the innards of the tree seem healthy, and there was a good drainage of sap from the center of the tree. I walked along the tree thunking it with a sledgehammer. About 10 feet up, the tone changes - I'd bet that the tree is dead from there up.



This is what the damaged portion of the tree looks like. It's shedding its bark.



All of the branches look like this. Debarked, with insect galleries clearly visible.



The notch cut was above shoulder height. Hard work.



I'm not proud of this cut. It got the job done, but this was a treacherous, loose slope. I was lucky to have the uphill tree to hide behind when the lower tree fell.

The worst day in my office...

is probably better than the best day in yours:

Stairs. Finished. Ahhh.

And they turned out well, I think.



Well, the first two guys to walk on them said nice things. That was a long week of work.