Chain Saw & Brush-Cutter Safety, Familiarization, and Practice Course

“This will give you a heads up for the USFS Saw Certification and the upcoming trail maintenance trips on the BRT.”

This Meetup will give those people signed up for the USFS safety & certification classes on the 14th and 15th and/or one of the May trail maintenance trips a chance to become familiar with the use of the BRTA chain saws, brush-cutters, and other equipment beforehand.

You’ll experience excellent scenery, good food, camaraderie that can’t be beat, and the chance to learn a valuable life skill. After all, you never know when you might be driving down a back road and find a dead-fall blocking your path.

We’ll meet at the Sun Ray Shopping Center, 2165 Hudson Road East, St. Paul and depart at 10:00AM sharp for the 60 mile van-pool ride to Plum City, WI. where we have access to a plot of wooded land a bit north of town which provides an ideal practice site.

You can expect to get back to St. Paul by dark but we may take a day hike to Nugget Lake County Park afterwards and/or stop for a bite to eat so keep your evening schedule flexible.

The van-pool, lunch, safety gear, and all equipment will be arranged by the BRTA. There will be no charge for those signed up for one of the May Border Route Trail Maintenance Trips. Others will be charged $5.00 to help defray fuel and lunch expenses.

Keep in mind that there are no drinking water or toilet facilities at the site that we’ll be going to. Please bring the following: a water bottle, TP, leather work gloves, hiking boots, personal meds, long pants, and rain gear. You may want to bring a day pack to carry your miscellaneous items.

In order to get a heads up on safe chain saw operation we suggest that you download a copy of the USFS Chain Saw and Crosscut Saw Training Course Student’s Guidebook (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/atf/cf/%7BD25B4747-42A3-4302-8D48-EF35C0B0D9F1%7D/SAWYER%20HANDBOOK.PDF).

Time permitting along with a sufficient number of reasonably strong warm bodies available, we'll also move a '67 Fiat 850 Spider body shell out of the barn.

Co-sponsored by the Border Route Trail Association (http://www.borderroutetrail.org/), the Minnesota Rovers Outdoors Club (http://www.mnrovers.org/) and the Twin Cities Hiking Meetup Group (https://www.meetup.com/hiking-177/).