Behind the scenes at Big Canoe Trails Committee

Trails committee articles often talk about a splashy project that took many members a day or more to accomplish, but this one will be a behind the scenes look at how we manage and maintain 25 miles of woodland trails.

While yes, there are multiple large projects a year, the bulk of the work is the small, incremental maintenance we do on every trail, every month. These many small tasks and projects add up to hundreds if not thousands of hours per year.

Each of our trails has one or more overseers that inspect the assigned trails twice (or more) per month. Performing minor clean-up, pruning and ensuring the user experience is maximized.

For example, we clean sticks out of culverts before they get too clogged. And when they do get clogged, we clean them out.

Speaking of culverts, our co-chair, Liz Scherer wrote an app that allows her to inventory all physical structures on the trails, like bridges, benches, culverts, signs, etc. with pictures, location (GPS) and current condition, along with notes. This enables the team to know what we have and when we need to possibly clean, update or replace. The database has over 810 items at this time.

Liz also used her tech skills to create the BCTC online reporting system, where the members log their time, and can record images of completed or work to be done. So, every time we go out there, even for an inspection, we log the results. This helps us keep track of small to-do’s as well, where it might take one more member to go out to help accomplish a task. 

Reports from this system are shared with the POA management team to keep them apprised of our work. Our stats from 2023 were 1,700 hours of trail work and 600 hours of administrative work. The administrative work, which most Big Canoers rarely see, is critical, as it involves coordinating the activities of 53 members, and coordinating closely with various POA departments, primarily Public Works. We also log our time for our quarterly team meetings where we discuss future plans and someone will present a topic of interest, such as the recent review of our updated emergency medical pack, going over how to use it and what procedures to follow in case of an accident. 

Trails maintenance tasks cover many areas, depending on the nature of a trail. Some suffer from water erosion, so small diversion channels need to be cut, and then maintained to preserve the trail. In the fall, all trails are blown once leaves start falling en-masse. We ensure trails kiosks (all 18 of them) are clean and the brochure holders have fresh, usable trail maps.

We trim back vegetation that is encroaching on the trails to ensure people can walk freely. This also keeps hikers from walking into vegetation that might have ticks and chiggers.

This is a bigger deal than one might think, as the forest really does grow fast, and if not trimmed, trails get largely erased in a year or so.

We clear-off any debris that falls on or near the trails to make sure they are passable and have as few trip hazards as possible (but do watch out for roots). We make note of trees that are at risk of falling on a trail, and if deemed necessary, we schedule a work team to go clear it.

Several times a year we will apply products to bridges and other surfaces to clear off any slippery moss. We inspect the bridges and perform small maintenance work that only requires hand tools.

We spend the majority of our time on these regular maintenance type activities, which leads to the trails generally being in top shape year-round so we can all enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds us. Happy trails!