From a Ryan Brady Photo

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Trail Toboggan Building Workshop: Fall, 2008

This fall, a group of Northland College Outdoor Education students took part in a trail toboggan building workshop. This event is part of a program-wide initiative to identify, and use, methods of backcountry travel that are more sustainable, and are, in fact: As Sustainable as Possible. The wood used for this project was from a single, locally grown White Ash tree that went down in a storm. It was sawn, and processed locally, and it produced a total of six beautiful toboggans that have the potential to out-last all of us, given reasonable care. You can find more information about sustainable backcountry travel linked from this page.

Hot White Ash planks come out of the steamer box

Workers hurry to bend the hot Ash planks over the form

The bent planks are tied into place to cool-to-shape

It takes careful layout work to prepare for the drilling of cross braces

The planks and cross braces are drilled and countersunk

And the toboggans are assembled

This weekend of work produced four finished toboggans, with two more to go