I thought I would go check some of the portion of North Country Trail that I maintain, this afternoon. My plan was to walk a 3-mile section. The blazes need re-painting, but I wasn't really up for that. I thought I'd just check for damage from the windstorm and flip dead stuff off the pathway. I was only a few hundred yards into the section when I encountered this.
OK, no problem. I pulled out my 24" bow saw, and got rid of this problem without too much trouble. Just a little bit farther on I found another similar tree, but it was a little bigger. OK, I was able to cut that one out too, but it was about as large as I could do with the saw I had. The piece I had to roll out of the trail was pretty heavy too... oak.
This section of trail follows an old railroad bed (can you tell?), and there are five little bridges. When I reached the second one... uh oh! I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like at first. A huge maple tree had fallen, and the top was spread across this bridge. I took this picture when I had already cleared half of it.
It took me 90 minutes just to cut out all of this tree top. Maggie couldn't figure out why we were staying in one place. She doesn't like doing trail work very much. She'd rather walk. So, all the walking we did was a half-mile, to the end of the rail grade and then back to the car. I wonder how bad the rest of my section is. I'll have to try to get back there this week.
10 comments:
you have such a good heart to volunteer Sharkbytes, I see some volunteers sometimes work on the trail in our area too, I admire them (and you) for their dedication, carrying their very heavy tools climbing up the mountain trails since there is no way up but by foot only, and I am thinking just carrying those tools is too much work already. We are lucky to have some of you kindred spirits around. Hopefully, someday, I can return the favor and be a trail volunteer too.
I can see many volunteers at Cerok Tokun doing what you have done.
Salute!!!
Oh dear. Time to fetch the chainsaw.
You sure had your work cut out for you today. After doing all that clearing I probably wouldn't be able to move right now...lol
Well, while we live far from your trail, I still thank you for volunteering your time, your bow saw, your sweat (and no doubt some blood and tears) to maintaining a trail for the public good. HURRAH! :)
As you know, Shark, I'm not a hiker but I applaud you, and others like you, who work so diligently to keep the trails open for those who like to get out and hike. I had not even given much thought to the aftermath of storms and the like. You are incredible.
I am truly impressed by the amount of work you achieved, we have some folk that do volunteer work and the park rangers clear the big stuff.
Wow, that must have been a lot of work, and more ahead too it seems. How big is the portion of the trail you're responsible for?
I am learning much from you!!!
I think I'll respond to all with a comment about trail work. The 80 miles of trail that our club maintains is split up between various volunteers. I'm just one of them.
Most of us take care of smaller problems. There are several people who are chain-saw certified, and we call them when there are big trees down.
We also paint the blazes on the trees. You should hear more about that later this week.
Post a Comment