Trail builders carve paths through Squamish rainforest in a labour of love

If you go mountain biking in Squamish, B.C., north of Vancouver on a regular basis, chances are you have biked down a trail built by "Big Red Ted" Tempany.

Tempany has been building bike trails in Squamishfor over twenty years. His company, Dream Wizards, can be credited for thousands of metres of trailbuilds and upgrades including sections of Diamondhead Trail, Stl'lhalem Stl' Trailand Sea to Sky Gondola Trails.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Half Nelson, one of Tempany's most popular trails. Half Nelson is a three-kilometre mountain bike trail in Squamish that attracts thousands of local and international cyclists every year.

We recently joined Tempany and his fellow trail builderMike Reed as they worked on a section of the trail that had not been touchedsince its creation in 2009.

Build it safe and they will come

Reed says the popularity of the trail arises from itsversatile design which can accommodate beginners while still providing elements for advanced cyclists.

The part of the trail that is being worked on, however, was too steep for beginners to get down safely. To avoid this, Dream Wizards is building anew section that will flow back and forth down the mountain on switchbacksbefore meetingup with the original trail.

Trail building

When Tempany'sexcavations run into a rock on the new part of thetrail, he frees it by choppingawaythe hard soilaround it.

Next, Tempany uses aripper tooth extension on his excavator to pull the rock free from the soil.

After Tempany frees the rockhe notices something wrong with the excavator. The track isn't in the rightposition and they try a number of tools to fix it.

Tempany says that doesn't happen often, but it's a good exampleof the unpredictabilityof the job that requires constant problem solving.

"There are days when the work isreally defeating and days where you accomplish a lot," says Tempany.

Doing a lot with little funding

Tempany attributes much of his success to the fact that he can do a lot with little.

Squamish has over 200 mountain bike trails which all need restoration and upgrades over time,so there is never enough money.

The Half Nelson, however, was the firstmountain bike trail in Squamishto be primarily government funded with a healthy budget of $100,000.That'sthanks to Mike Nelson, who stopped by while the men were working on the trail.

Tempany used half of the funds to build Half Nelson and put the rest into other Squamish trails.

Trail Building Anonymous

Tempany admits he donates a lot of free labour to Squamish trails and says he'saddicted to the work.

"I always joke about Trail Building Anonymous. Hi, my names Ted, and I'm a trail builder," he says.

Reed hasthe same passion. After several brain injuries from mountain biking, Reed has a hard time with over-stimulating situations and says the forest is aplacehe can find peace.