years ago I was out in that wild and wonderful state of colorado a state that is a very similar to that wild and wonderful state of west virginia
similar yet different
while out in colorado working several jobs and snowboarding nearly everyday I used to watch the ski patrollers while I was on the chair lift
I would watch them and their daily duties
the ski patroller is like a fireman...
when they are not saving lifes there are other tasks to fulfill
the patrollers are bombing avalanches
they are testing the snow stabilty to decide what areas are remain open and what areas of the mountain they close
they also work to improve the quality of the skiing on the mountain
one way that the ski patrollers improved the quality of the mountain was the use of snow fences
the same type of fences used to preserve sand dunes would be used to create drifts of snow
the drifts would develop in front of and behind the snow fences
the patrollers would return each day to pad the collected snow down only to let more snow to collect to be padded down
then the fence moved slightly or entirely
I mimic this process to a certain degree on the trails of rock creek park
I try to improve the hiking paths by terracing the steeper sections
as well as the rapidly eroding paths many of the paths are the routes of water headed down the valley into the creek on rainy days some of these paths can look like water falls or rivers
on days with rain of great volume my favorite time to put a few logs perpendicular to the trail
in one of these paths is on a night before a big rain the logs collect all of the furtile top soil and sand terracing
the trail creating steps slowing the erosion holding onto furtile soil aiding in growth slowing decline
after the sand and soil collects I often try to pad this soil and sand down in the hope that the step will build up and hold strong enough to make the trail a more pleasant hiking experience
over the years I have installed many of these
some have lasted months
some have lasted years
some logs never caught any soil and never built up to a stair
but most of my efforts have worked for some time to make the trail more enjoyable
well... except some of the paths are no longer as fun to sled down
but... there are still trails to sled on other than the ones I have terraced