SAP Employee Dig Day
December 7, 2018
Photos by Kai Mueller
On Friday, November 30, we hosted our first employee Dig Day of the season with SAP, which is a business operations software utilized by some of the local bike industry companies. SAP's offices are based in the Palo Alto/San Jose areas, and we were eager to welcome everybody to Santa Cruz for a sunny day of digging. Many members of the group were not only first-time trail builders, but were also experiencing Wilder Ranch State Park for the very first time! We were fortunate that this Dig Day came just after some recent rains, so the ground was soft with moisture, and there was no dust in sight. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and it was a perfect day for trail building in Wilder!
And build trail we did! We were focused on working on the West Engelsmans Reroute project, which is a new singletrack trail to replace the West Engelsmans fireroad. The goal of the day was to hand build brand new trail, starting the day with natural ground and ending it with nearly finished trail. We began by clearing the duff and raking back the top organic layer of leaves and grass. Then we dug in the bench cut to create a level tread, and started smoothing and perfecting the trail surface. When the day was done we had dug approximately 1000' of trail between the different groups!
We enjoyed having so first time trail builders with us, especially on a day when we are actually building brand new trail instead of maintaining existing trail. It's always exciting to see people gain a new understanding of how trails of built, and it's especially rewarding to see your progress. What's cooler than seeing terrain transform from natural ground to a beautiful multi-use trail in a single day?!
One of the most enthusiastic volunteers of the day was Kai Mueller. Kai hails from Germany, and while he's built halfpipes in the snow before, he's never handbuilt trail. He contributed some German muscle to the day as he worked in Bruce Dorman's crew building fresh new singletrack.
Kai is right—digging can be hard work and might result in some sore muscles, but we think that's a really good feeling! When you feel that achiness, it means you contributed some serious elbow grease to help make sure Santa Cruz has some of the best trails in the world! And it's an even better feeling to ride those trails knowing you helped make it happen.
Thanks to Kai and everybody else at SAP for joining us for a fun day of digging in Wilder Ranch State Park. We hope you'll be back for more!
To learn more about Dig Days, click here!
To schedule an employee Dig Day for your company, email [email protected].
Don't forget, it's always an exciting time out on the trails, and you never know what sorts of treasures you might find as you start digging. Here's our own Emma Ussat with her unique find of the day!
On Friday, November 30, we hosted our first employee Dig Day of the season with SAP, which is a business operations software utilized by some of the local bike industry companies. SAP's offices are based in the Palo Alto/San Jose areas, and we were eager to welcome everybody to Santa Cruz for a sunny day of digging. Many members of the group were not only first-time trail builders, but were also experiencing Wilder Ranch State Park for the very first time! We were fortunate that this Dig Day came just after some recent rains, so the ground was soft with moisture, and there was no dust in sight. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and it was a perfect day for trail building in Wilder!
And build trail we did! We were focused on working on the West Engelsmans Reroute project, which is a new singletrack trail to replace the West Engelsmans fireroad. The goal of the day was to hand build brand new trail, starting the day with natural ground and ending it with nearly finished trail. We began by clearing the duff and raking back the top organic layer of leaves and grass. Then we dug in the bench cut to create a level tread, and started smoothing and perfecting the trail surface. When the day was done we had dug approximately 1000' of trail between the different groups!
We enjoyed having so first time trail builders with us, especially on a day when we are actually building brand new trail instead of maintaining existing trail. It's always exciting to see people gain a new understanding of how trails of built, and it's especially rewarding to see your progress. What's cooler than seeing terrain transform from natural ground to a beautiful multi-use trail in a single day?!
One of the most enthusiastic volunteers of the day was Kai Mueller. Kai hails from Germany, and while he's built halfpipes in the snow before, he's never handbuilt trail. He contributed some German muscle to the day as he worked in Bruce Dorman's crew building fresh new singletrack.
It was so great giving back to the great mountain bike trails in Santa Cruz. This event being organized by MBOSC was my first time building a trail (from scratch) and with the perfect weather conditions, great instructions, and tools we all had a lot of fun on our volunteering day. The only thing that might be improved would be a massage or hot tub for everyone. ;) - Kai Mueller
Kai is right—digging can be hard work and might result in some sore muscles, but we think that's a really good feeling! When you feel that achiness, it means you contributed some serious elbow grease to help make sure Santa Cruz has some of the best trails in the world! And it's an even better feeling to ride those trails knowing you helped make it happen.
Thanks to Kai and everybody else at SAP for joining us for a fun day of digging in Wilder Ranch State Park. We hope you'll be back for more!
To learn more about Dig Days, click here!
To schedule an employee Dig Day for your company, email [email protected].
Don't forget, it's always an exciting time out on the trails, and you never know what sorts of treasures you might find as you start digging. Here's our own Emma Ussat with her unique find of the day!
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