Tree tower brackets

Jay and I made brackets to hold the return wheels off of nearby trees.  We made them out of scrapped pressure treated 4x4's.  I measured the distance from each tree to the string ahead of time so we knew how long each bracket needed to be.  We figured 5 brackets should be enough to keep the rope up off the ground the entire length of the hill.

Bill helped us haul the brackets and tools up the hill.  We used a pole saw to shave the bark off the tree and create a flat surface to attach the brackets to.  We ended up pre-drilling and using 4 lag bolts for each bracket.

Here is Jay pre-drilling the first hole with Bill ready to hand a bracket up to him.

I can't remeber what they were talking about here..

Here is what the brackets look like attached to a tree.

I spent a few evenings after work glading the woods next to the tow.  It's really fun as it's hard not to get excited about skiing the new lines this winter.

Jay also finished welding the return wheel car rim attachments.  The small box sections will slide over the end of each 4x4 bracket.

The larger wheel will be the return wheel at located at the top of the hill.

Jay and Donna suprised us all with the coolest shirt ever.

String it out

Jay, Bill & I spent the morning fine tuning the tow line and figuring out which trees we needed to attach the return wheels to.  Bill determined which trees would be used for this as well how many return wheels we needed to keep the rope up in the air from top to bottom.  We brought along some string to help define the tow line.  We tied one end of the string to the truck and the other end to a tree at the top.  This turned out to be an extremley useful idea as it gave us a straight line from top to bottom.  Getting a line established also pointed out which trees still needed to be cut.  When we originally started clearing the tow line we didn't  cut any of the big trees for a few reasons.  One being that we wanted to attach the return wheels to the trees instead of trying to erect telephone poles on a steep slope that had very little soil to work with.  Another reason for keeping trees around was to keep a certain level of tree canopy above the tow to help prevent future undergrowth.  Plus, we wanted to create that glade skiing experience.  The general idea is to manage the area as wooded area and not as an open ski trail.

Here is Jay pulling the string up the hill.

Bill hiking up along the planned tow line.  If you look closesly you can see the string in this picture.

Jay also worked on thining the underbrush for one of his future ski lines.

Here is the string marking the tow line as seen from the bottom.

Mid-way up..

And near the top..

Progress

The days are getting shorter and it's nearly dark when we get started on the ski tow in the morning lately.  We've had an awesome stretch of sunny warm weather.  The fog clouds usuallly stick to the valleys below in the mornings.  It creates a surreal sea of clouds with mtn islands rising above.  Here's a good example during a sunrise from the top of the gap.

 

Jay spent the morning working on the return wheel brackets.  The return rope needs to be kept up high and out of the way of skiers headed up the hill.  By installing several wheel hubs (car wheels without the tire) the rope stays in the air and out of the way.  Jay went over to Mikes shop and welded an arm brackect for the wheel hubs.

It came out good.  I was impressed.  The metal box will slide onto a 4x4 pressure treated board hanging from a tree.  The ability to slide it along a 4x4 will allow us to adjust it easily.  This will help make the line straight as possible.

I spent the morning moving the truck into place.  This involved driving the truck down our deiveway, over the gap and down the VAST/VASA trail to the bottom of the tow.  The truck stalled (turns out it ran out of gas) on my way down the hill.  With no power brakes I almost couldn't get the truck to stop.  After filling the truck up with some gas I managed to almost fly off the trail. The gears popped into drive unexpectedly.  Given the track record of the truck so far I drove the rest of the way down the hill very carefully and with the door slightly open.  Just in case I needed to bail.  Yeah.. it was touch and go for a moment there.

Here is the truck headed down the VAST/VASA trail before the steep secrion (where I ran out of gas).

Here is where I turned off the trail and into the woods.

 I had to clear a path for the truck to drive 50 yards from the trail to the tow site.

I had to pop it into 4 wheel drive for this section.  It was tricky getting it into 4 given the truck's age I guess.  I was psyched when I finally got the truck into place.

Jay and I also stopped over at a good friend and neighbor of ours, Robert Frank's, to see his chicken coop.  His coop wasnt any old ordinary coop.. This coop had a few old building supplies and scraps that he had collected.  We found lags screws and some scrap metal that we'll use for the return wheels.  Here is Jay snd Robert shopping at the coop depot.