Christmas Kiosk Cleanup Commencing

A number of our trail kiosks need rehab work.  The Hope Lake Kiosk is probably in the worst shape. Unfortunately, other trail tasks and repairs have gotten in the way.  I've been getting subtle reminders about fixing the kiosks for years.

The Hope Lake Kiosk is at the entrance to Oak Valley Trail on Nell's Rock Road.  It was in tough shape.

It was old and damaged.  The doors had blown off in a storm.  That left the corkboard exposed, and the rain destroyed that.  The roof was mossy and rotting.  The map box needed rehabbing.

The back side wasn't much better.  This kiosk was built in 2001 and is one of the oldest ones built by the Scouts.

We'd been talking about this forever.  One of the hold ups was getting cedar roof shingles to replace the old roof.  We decided to do these kiosks with cedar roofs in keeping with the woodsy Shelton Trail Fung Schway.  After looking around here and there Mark Volaro when up to Newtown to get the shingles, and then drove all over the place to get the right roofing nails for cedar.  Sometimes the preparation and logistics required for a trail work party take more time than the work party itself.  Then there's the getting of the supplies, ladders, boards, tools, garbage bags, etc. to the job site.  I should've gotten a picture of Luis buried in the back of the car wedged in between all the shingles and stepladders.

But we did get all the stuff there on a chilly Saturday morning.  It was a chilly Saturday morning and we got started to keep warm.

First the demolition.  Striping off the old shingles was interesting.  After a while Mike & I got the hang of it.  While we pried up the shingle on one side of the kiosk, Ellen, Bill & Ted took off the junk on the other side.

Cold work finding and putting the right bits in the drill driver.

Safety Trail Tip:  Remember to bring safety glasses and hard hats next time. 

Mark & Ray went over to Eklund Native Garden on Oak Valley Road to cut up a big oak blowdown that crushed a portion of the deer fence around the garden.

We managed to get all the old mossy shingles off one side, then all the nails.  The scouts really nailed this roof on for keeps.  Ted was reminding us of all the fun that went into building the scout kiosk at Lane Street when he was there.  On that one they used a tow truck to set the kiosk in place.

Then we moved our fancy scaffolding to the rear side.  It was a good idea by Ray to bring a plank and 2 stepladders.

Aidan and Luis were helping with supplying tools and cleaned up some storm damage along Oak Valley Trail and parking lot.  There were some smaller blowdowns across the trail, however we forgot to bring a trail saw to clear that.  I normally have all that junk in the back of my car, but it was in the shop.  But Bill Dyer Was Prepared.

With a battery powered hand held chainsaw that he just happened to have with him.  And It Worked!  Here's an idea for your last-minute Christmas shopping items.

Mike & I got the back of the roof stripped.  This side went faster because we were experienced roof ripper-uppers by now.  We had to replace a couple of rotten nailer boards.  Fortunately,  Mark had gotten some 1x4 cedar boards so the ground crew cut those to length and passed them up.  Then we started nailing on the cedar shingles.

It wasn't any warmer though.  But the ground crew kept us well supplied with nails and a variety of shingles, and cut whatever we needed.

Ted took a photo of Mike in action re-shingling.  Mike looks cold.  He did manage to get thru the whole morning without hammering his thumb.

He wasn't the only one who was cold.  More than a few times Mike helped me fumble to pick up nails with frozen fingers to do some nailing.

Mark & Ray eventually came back from cutting up the Eklund Garden blowdown.  It was a big mess of an oak tree that knocked down a portion of the deer fence (another thing to fix).

And here is an Artist's Rendering of Mark cutting the tree.  It's a pretty good likeness.

We finally got one side of the kiosk re-roofed, and decided that it was cold enough for today.  We reached a good stopping point.  We packed everything out and went is search of warmer locales and some hot food and drinks.

But it was a good start to getting some long-standing stuff off our "To Do" list.  We took off all the old rotten stuff and hardware from the kiosk, got half the roof re-shingled, cleaned up the trailhead parking lot and a portion of Oak Valley Trail (bridges still need some boards), and cut up a big blow down at Eklund (another remains across drive).

Thanks to Mike, Aidan, Ellen, Ted, Luis, Ray, Mark, Bill & Terry for coming out on a chilly morning. (Mike said this was the "second coldest work party he ever attended".  Ellen asked him what that was (it was before she became a member of the Trails Committee) and after Mike gave her the Cliff Notes Version of one of our Ice Capades Adventures she just shook her head and oh gosh, No).  Good Times.