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"How To" Maintain a Trail
.... a guide to keeping trails safe and pleasant

INTRODUCTION

This page is a summary of tips and techniques recommended for maintaining the Peninsula Section of the Bruce Trail. It is intended to help rookie trail workers on their first few maintenance trips, and as a quick review for experienced trail workers. It is not a substitute for the official BTC Guide for Trail Workers 3rd Edition (.pdf, 31.3 MB) published by the BTC Trail Maintenance and Development Committee.

WHY STANDARDS?

The Trail is maintained by several hundred Trail Captains, each with their own "style". That "style" however, should only be exercised within the guiding standards of the single Bruce Trail that stretches from Niagara to Tobermory. The last thing we should do with a visitor to the Escarpment is get them confused or lost. They need to feel positive about their Escarpment visit, and impressed that it is one big but fragile ecosystem. A blaze in Peninsula should look exactly like a blaze in Niagara (as long as it’s a good one!).

WHY BUILD THE BRUCE TRAIL?

A GOOD TRAIL IS A WAY TO ALLOW PEOPLE TO EXPERIENCE NATURE

The Bruce Trail is a way to allow people to experience the natural Escarpment. The emotional attachment to Escarpment lands that results will increase public support in the struggle to protect the Escarpment.

Your job as a Trail Worker is to build a trail that provides as positive an experience as possible for the greatest number of people, while respecting the land, landowners, and available reources of the Bruce Trail Conservancy.

ROUTING

The Optimum Route

The "ideal" route of the Bruce Trail is based on the "Optimum Route" in Niagara Escarpment planning documents. For reasons of access, there are still sections which are not on the Optimum Route. Your job as a Trail Worker is to keep your eyes, ears and imagination open for opportunities (for example, real estate signs, chats with landowners), which could lead to reroutes closer to the Optimum Route. Call the Trail Director or BTA quickly with your ideas or observations. Timing is everything.

The "Ideal Route"

Roughly speaking, the Ideal Route gets you along the Escarpment while providing safe walking, interesting scenery, VARIETY, avoidance of ecologically sensitive areas and LOW MAINTENANCE.

Route the Trail for Low Maintenance

In general, routing to avoid wet or easily overgrown areas avoids ecological disruption while making your job easier! Structures such as boardwalks, bridges, stairs, and sidelogging are expensive, hard to maintain in safe condition and sometimes ugly, so "go with the flow" and use the land. On the scarp edge, this usually translates into the following:

• Scallop the route. Rather than simply following the edge, stay back (may be smoother terrain anyway), swinging out for lookouts and variety only occasionally.
• Seek variety. There is usually a gradient in the trees and shrubs as you move away from the cliff edge. A wider variety of habitats makes for more interesting hiking.

Go around rather than over. For safety reasons and lower maintenance , going around rocky outcroppings, wet spots, thick groves of trees, etc., is highly recommended. The fewer live trees you cut ("making a hole in the woods"), the less you will be dealing with light-loving shrubs and annuals while the tree canopy fills in.

The Maps in the Bruce Trail Reference are at a scale of 1:50,000, not detailed enough for trail route planning.  The BTA produces maps to a scale of 1:10,000, showing property lines, contour lines, concession numbers etc.   Contact the Trail Director if you need one.

TRIMMING

Leonardo da Vinci must have been a Trail Captain, because his famous drawing shows a trail worker checking to see if the treadway is wide enough and high enough.

IDEALLY, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO WALK THE TRAIL WITH BOTH ARMS STRETCHED OUT AND NOT TOUCH VEGETATION. ALL YEAR. EVERY YEAR.

This means…

• if you touch a leaf, trim the branch back at the tree trunk. Sure, the trail will be "too wide" at this point, but you will not have to trim it again for a long time!
• Branches droop when wet, which is the worst time for them to brush a hiker’s Tilley. Trim high!
• Rather than cutting numorous small twigs, cut the branch that supports them. It is faster, lasts longer, and makes the trail look more natural.

There are places where trimming this wide is not practical, such as a narrow space between two trees.

TOOLS

1) Loppers - The best tool for almost all trimming is the long handled lopper, either bypass or anvil type. Compound jaws greatly increase the cutting force. Loppers with telescopic handles are TERRIFIC, giving you more reach and more leverage (you can easily cut 2" trees at the base).

• keep loppers sharp (small file)
• never cut dead , dry wood
• never "twist" them to finish the job

2) Saw - A bowsaw, either fixed or folding, is the best tool for deadfall up to 8" in diameter.

BLAZING

Blazes are not only for leading you to your destination. They are also the visible symbol of your volunteer work and the expression of the vision of the Bruce Trail. Simple, visible, cheap, easy to maintain – why can’t everything be like this?

The standard dimensions for a blaze are 5 cm x 15 cm (2" x 6"), with sharp edges, square corners and bright paint.

How to Put a Blaze on a Tree

• Pick a long-lived tree over 4" in diameter (but not the nicest tree in the area!).
• Scrape the bark with a long-handled paint scrapper to make a smooth area. DO NOT SCRAPE DOWN TO THE LIVING CAMBIUM AREA.
• Use a blaze template to make a perfect 5 x 15, vertical blaze. Work the paint in. USE ONLY HIGH QUALITY LATEX. Spend another 49¢ for the good brush.
• Blaze in a team of two. Stand back or have your partner stand back and pick the best blaze location
• BLAZE AFTER LEAVES HAVE EMERGED
• Never blaze when trees are wet or rain is imminent.

How to Maintain an Old Blaze

• Do you still need it? If not, scrape it off.
• Scrape off old, loose paint and repaint (see above).
• If the blaze has grown wider due to tree growth, either (a) carefully scrape the extra paint away and repaint or (b) "tuxedo" with black paint. Tuxedoing is overkill on easily-seen blazes, a miracle in other situations. Tuxedos need more maintenance, so use only on grey utility poles, or light coloured trees.

How Many Blazes?

• The next blaze should be visible from the last one. This may seem excessive, but remember that trees fall down, vegetation grows, and the treadway disappears in Fall.

A Note About Wooden Utility Poles

They seem to shed blazes faster than a dog sheds hair. The oily wood treatment and exposed locations mean reblazing is needed as often as every year in some cases

1. Cutaway jug - carrier
2. Exterior latex paint
3. Water for cleanup
4. Black tuxedo paint
5. Long handled paint scraper
6. Blaze template
7. Tuxedo template
8. Gloves
9. Good paint brush
10. Rag
11. Robertson screwdriver

Blazing Without Trees

Where the trail crosses open spaces with no trees or posts, the best alternative is a blaze post, available from your Trail Director. These posts must be solidly erected to withstand humans and cattle. Metal T-posts are the best way to get sufficient depth without needing very long posts or excessive digging.

SIGNS

Minimum signage requirements....

• White main trail diamonds every 1 km in both directions and near junctions and trailheads.Blue side trail diamonds every 1 km in both directions and near junctions and trailheads.White main trail "appreciation" sign near access points (several metres along the trail, not right at the road or parking area).
• Blue Side Trail description signs at both ends of sidetrails.

ATTACHING SIGNS

• All BTC signs are now mounted on treated plywoodUSE #3 ROBERTSON DECK SCREWS, NOT NAILS. Screws can be backed out as the tree grows. Screws make sign removal easy.CARRY A RED ROBERTSON (#3) SCREWDRIVER AND A FEW DOZEN #3 1 1/2" SCREWS
• TIP – DON’T SCREW THEM IN. GOOD SQUARE BLOWS WITH A HAMMER WILL DRIVE IN SCREWS WITH LITTLE EFFORT AND 100% RESULTS!

OTHER SIGNSA variety of signs to help control usage of the trail are available. Just ask!

TREADWAY

Rock

The Niagara Escarpment is a thousand km long rock. In many places, where no glacial gravel or forest soil has covered it, the treadway will always be irregular, hard rock. People with reasonable footwear will have no problem.However, you can clear away the "Rocky Rollers", those rocks that move when you step on them. Do a few on each trail visit. After while, the trail will be a better walking experience.

Tree

Trees that have fallen across the trail or are dead and leaning across the trial must be removed promptly. Cut small fallen trees with a bowsaw, have a chainsaw certified trail worker do the big ones, and remove fallen branches.

• Remove all trees, even small ones lying flat. A clean treadway is easier to follow . Deadfall is very useful for blocking abandoned sections or confusing forks, so don’t add to the confusion by leaving logs across the trail.
• The Bruce Trail Conservancy (BTA) does not allow chainasaw operation without BTA or equivalent certification. If you need chainsaw work, call the Trail Director.

Moving heavy logs is a good way to hurt yourself. Try ...

• Rolling – often, a piece of deadfall can be rolled off the trail without any lifting. A lever, such as a sturdy branch, can make it even easier.
• Minimal Cutting – One well-placed cut can reduce a heavy log to two lighter ones for removal.

While deadfall lodged in other trees can be hazardous , it is acceptable to leave sound, well-lodged leaners if removing them is even more hazardous to trail workers. Carefully plan how you will cut such trees, and clear an escape route before you start to cut. If in doubt, call the Trail Director for assistance.

Leaf

Most people look down as they hike, and clean treadways are a great help. New routes can benefit from being raked, to distinguish them from surrounding leaf litter.

Annuals and Grasses

In open areas such as pastures, the only things that keep the treadway alive are dozens of boots or weed whacking (power equipment recommended, for sections over 100 m). Whack in early June, just before farmers cut hay in the Peninsula. A second trip in July may be needed.