Fourteen people showed up today to work on the trail in Sterling Marsh. This is 13 sections of boardwalk that our chapter built in 2009-2011, and are almost a half-mile in length, total.
Here is the crew, except for Dan who took the picture. He was also our crew leader today. We got all the strips we had in place. If you go out there and wonder why we didn't "finish," it's because we have to wait a year to get enough more strips.
Because it was also Public Lands Day, and also North Country National Scenic Trail Day, Carhartt had donated quite a few of their nice orange watch caps to the Association. Anyone who became a member today got one of these free. Our chapter had five to possibly use, and five people stepped up to join and get a hat.
So, what were we doing? Well, this boardwalk has changed that entire section of trail from a continuous mudpit that everyone avoided to a "destination hike." However, because a lot of it is shaded, the wood was often wet and slippery. The Forest Service suggested we try these traction strips. They are really expensive, but the FS had some money to spend on the NCT this year. They got us about half of what we need, and we hope to get the rest next year.
They come twice as long, but Pete (who's currently on a trip) had already cut them in half and taken bundles of them out to the trail.
Our job today was to place them correctly and screw them in place. Notice the chalk line for side-to-side placement, and Pete also made the jigs so we could get them in the center of the decking board easily.
Here's what they look like- although I see that these few aren't screwed down yet. I haven't done the post yet, but I've been thinking about showing the various kinds of traction aids used on trail structures with my personal favorites. Maybe that will be a good follow-up tomorrow. However, these have to be at the top of the list. They will last much better than any of the other commonly used choices and are less likely to break and become a hazard themselves.
Of course, the open area of Sterling Marsh is almost always beautiful!
Could you tell who was screwing down that strip? My buddy Bill came for this workday! We went out for a little lunch afterwards. We had lots of trail stuff to talk about- follow up from the Adirondacks, current projects and hiking dreams.
I even did a little gardening after I got home, and worked on a couple other things a bit. Beautiful weather and a good energy day!
Miles hiked in 2025: 377.
Miles hiked on the NCT in 2025: 226.6
North Country Trail, Jenks TH south about a mile and back
 | See Boardwalk Dedication |
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