Submitted by the Uniacke and District Fire Department
MOUNT UNIACKE: As many community members may be aware, after many years of daily use, the Uniacke House Trail that exits near the Fire Department has had several large tree roots and rocks exposed (some over 8 inches high).
Although the trail was certainly usable, there were several trip hazards along the path not to mention strollers weren’t able to be used safely. The boardwalk on the small lake behind the Fire Department also sees a lot of foot traffic throughout the four seasons. Over time, the boardwalk had shifted and was leaning towards the lake.
A few of the boards and the 4×4’s lining the edge had aged and needed to be replaced.
Recently, Uniacke & District Volunteer Fire Department applied for and received a municipal grant to repair the boardwalk and re-groom part of the trail. The boardwalk repairs (material and labour) were contracted out, but the firefighters wanted to do the work on the trail.
With the labour being supplied by firefighters, this allowed us to purchase more materials for the trail. After several months of weekly training being cancelled due to the pandemic, this was a morale building opportunity we couldn’t pass up.
Starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, August 8, close to 15 firefighters began the process of preparing the trail for repair. Using hand tools, small tractors, and a mini excavator, many rocks and a small amount of roots were removed from the trail before we started bringing gravel in.
As the hours passed, we moved gravel to form the new trail base and crusher dust to top it off. We estimate we were able to get approximately 5-600 feet of trail groomed using just shy of 90 tonnes of material in six hours.
We would like to thank the following firefighters for their time and/or use of personal equipment:
Ryan Penny, Donna Hosking, Shawn Darby, Ali Tooke, Allan, Nick McNeil ( tractor), Bruce Fraser (tractor), Mary-Ann MacDonald, Brenda Bradford, Todd Murphy (4 wheeler), Brian Supple, Rick Enders, Henry Raymakers, Dustin Bamber, Adam Powell (mini excavator), Morris Williams (4 wheeler and trailer). Thank-you to Eddy’s Variety for donating some of the food for our end of day BBQ.
All in all, it was a great day repairing the trail and the hope is the efforts lead to several more years of safe trail usage.
- Shawn Darby on behalf of Uniacke & District Volunteer Fire Department
