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This position entails working on a large variety of trail maintenance and construction projects throughout the Rocky Mountain West.

Responsibilities:

– Maintain tradition of high quality trail work, representing Singletrack Trails Inc

– Report to and communicate regularly with supervisor

– Must be able to handle project tasks in an organized, flexible, and creative fashion

– Maintain tools and machines to a good working order

– Maintain and enforce safety standards at all times

Required skills

– Experience working on a variety of trail reconstruction and construction projects
– Ability to perform the duties of a trail worker
– Strong leadership skills
– Ability to manage tasks and problem solve without direct supervision
– Strong, professional communication skills
– Self-motivated
– Ability to follow instruction without close supervision
– Knowledge of hand tool use and care
– Valid drivers license and good driving record

Desired Skills
– Two years of trail construction experience
– Experience operating small equipment including, but not limited, skid steers, compact skid steers, trail dozer, excavator, chainsaws
– Self-sufficient in backcountry work environment

Compensation and benefits: Based on qualifications; housing and food provided while onsite of project

To Apply: Please send cover letter, resume, and three references via e-mail at info@singletracktrails.com

Singletrack Trails Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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Pushing the prairie grass around.

Sinlgetrack Trails has also garnered a reputation for machine-assisted construction over the last nine years.  Our machine of choice has been the Ditch Witch SK500 and now the SK650.  These small mini-dozers allow us to construct trails through grassy areas at a much faster rate.  We have the ability and skill to construct trails between 18”-36” with these machines.  With a smaller machine, we can leave more rocks, more trees, and more texture on the trail and the corridor.

Using the dozer to build features

Now, thanks to a couple projects in 2013, Singletrack Trails is now the proud owner of a Sutter Trail Dozer 480.  This beast is powerful.  It is great for building beginner style trails through almost any terrain.  The dozer has the capability of pushing larger amounts of dirt around to create phenomenal pumps, berms, and roller trails.

Building trails in North Cheyenne.

Are you looking for that beginner trail in a park environment?  Let us know, we would be happy to build a trail that makes you smile no matter what your skill level is.

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The Singletrack Trails and Tools for Trails portion of the booth.

The conference was well attended with many land agencies and non-profit groups in the American Southwest.  It was great to catch up with old and new faces to discuss how Singletrack Trails can help to assist each agency’s trail building needs.

Testing out the new Sutter 300 mini dozer.

Singletrack Trails through its partnership with Mountain Khakis and Club Ride was able to donate three separate gift cards to the Symposium’s silent auction held in the Exhibit Hall over the three day event.

Building the legacy trail on Tribal land.

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Juniper branches scratch and claw at me as I drag their severed limbs away from the trail corridor. In a densely choked declivity between lichen covered boulders, I arrange the branches to lay flat as possible against the dark duff of needles, branches, and bark, and wonder how many cycles of rainstorms, erosion, and decay it will take for this collection of disparate organic material to turn into dirt.
As a trailbuilder it is our medium, the corpus of our work. Sure there are wonderful creations of wood, and signature slickrock rides, but dirt is the sine qua non of mountain biking. Cutting a trail through the landscape is akin to process of surgery & dissection, abliet with picks and McLeods. Excavating by hand through the landscape, one is exposed to a very intimate and detailed natural history of erosion, decay, and life. One sees what an incredibly slow process by which dirt is formed here in the arid mountain west.
Growing up in the fertile pastures and fields of Southeast Kansas, I took the existence of dirt and green growing things rather for granted. When I moved to the high desert of Western Colorado, it was a shock to realize that every green and growing thing existed only because someone had brought water to it. Then I began to understand the miracle of life in the desert more, and appreciate against what incredible odds it survived against, whether it be a juniper tree, a chunk of crytpogram, clump of cactus, or fragrant sage. The smallest difference, a dead juniper branch laying across a steep slope, creating a miniature terrace for rabbitbrush to take root, the shade of a boulder protecting a deep bed of moss, all random elements coming together to support life, and by their own cycle of life and death, enriching the earth for those to come after them.
And then we use it to play on. So I think about the gravity of my acts every time I prune a juniper limb to blood red purple eye, hack through the bed of rootbound organic matter that vacuum seals Wyoming rocks in place, or crush lichen covered rock into backfill, and make sure that I am doing my best in the cycle of life and death to make this world a better place for those that come after me.

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Singletrack Trails was at the conference to attend the PTBA member meeting and co-present with Applied Trails Research a presentation about GIS and GPS uses in the trail planning, construction process, and trail promotion phases of a project.  We also had new information on a new venture called Tools for Trails.  It will be a great source for hand construction tools to build trails.

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This collaboration of effort is the fruit of the advocacy efforts of SORBA-Middle Tennessee to get the City of Nashville to commit to a trail a trail construction project within the Metro limits.  This project also addresses the work of the Mayor’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee to create more ways for the citizens of the City of Nashville to recreate in a non-motorized manner within the Metro boundary.

Our palette was a small 120 acre parcel in the northwestern portion of the park.  Our team did our best to maximize the useable terrain to create a trail system that will be durable for all seasons and disperse a larger amount of users around the trail system without constantly waiting to pass other trail users.

Now that the layout is on the ground, the City of Nashville staff will review our alignments.  With luck, Singletrack Trails and a crew of fantastic PTBA members from the region will be on the ground in April and May to complete the build out of the trail system.

The conceptual plan made by Applied Trails Research that helped to focus flagging.

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Singletrack Trails is working with COPMOBA, Grand Valley Trails Alliance, and the Grand Junction BLM FieldOffice to construct one more section of trail before winter hopefully arrives.  Even in the Grand Valley, it is eerie to be building trail in short sleeves and dry moondust in December.

This trail will be an extension of Joe’s Ridge and full`features like pumps, rollers, and jumps.  The new trail is going to be a trail similar to the Singletrack Trails spring project PBR Trail, but with larger features and jumps.

COPMOBA, GVTA, and the Endoholics came out in force on December 1st to build the first portion of the trail.  James and Jeff, of the Singletrack Trails crew, have been out all week working on building the jumps in Section 2.  This Saturday, December 8th, there will be another volunteer trail work day to complete Section 3.

James sculpts a new berm

Jeff stacking rocks to hold a berm

Berm to berm to hip

Rock farming to support a berm

Looking up at the berm

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The weather allowed us to finish one other section of trail that passes through the cliff band on the north side of the river. This trail is called Rock Slide for obvious reasons.

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Blog/RSS: This blog that you are reading this post on right now is sent out into the internet via really simple syndication or RSS.  Don’t have the time to visit Singletrack Trails on a regular basis?  You can click on this link or the orange symbol on the upper right of the page to get the URL to paste into news reader such as Feedburner or Google Reader.  This is a great way to keep track of multiple sites that post information in one central location.

Facebook:  Singletrack Trails recently created a Facebook page.  The content is growing on a weekly basis.  The information here will be quick tidbits about the current project, how to find more information on Singletrack Trails projects, or trailbuilding industry news.

Flickr: Singletrack Trails prides itself in taking high quality trail images to promote its work or trails in general.  All of the slideshows on this blog are of Flickr sets.  Follow us on Flickr to get notices of the newest images as soon as possible.

Vimeo: Though not as great for SEO ranking as Google’s YouTube, Singletrack Trails likes the user interfaces and high quality rendering of Vimeo.  Follow us on Vimeo to add our latest videos to your homepage.

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