NCT Thanksgiving In June

There were so many things to be thankful about today on the North Country Trail that I thought that maybe we had jumped ahead to November (with unusually nice weather).

First of all, thanks to the Tuesday morning crews for all the work that's been done at Cemex already this season. Why am I especially thankful for that? Because I am also thanking Doug Turner for joining me out at Fletcher Hill Road this morning to help weedwack and prune the first quarter mile or so southward from there. What an overgrown mess. I'm thankful that when we finally arrived at the edge of the field walk two hours after we started clearing the path through the woods, we could see that the trail across the field had already been mowed and cut back this season, was very discernable and is easily walkable, so Doug and I didn't have to try to weekwack our way across it. We'd have been out there til sunset.

As of right now I give thanks that through everyone's efforts all of the Cemex section has been gone over at least one time this season. To follow Doug's train of thought from this morning - If we keep after it we may get ferns to grow out there in that poison ivy and bramble patch someday. :) Please consider Bob's message from last week and think about adopting a mile or two of trail to maintain as we have sections available in both Beaver and Lawerence counties. Many hands make light work.

Secondly (or possibly thirdly) I appreciate Bob Cody heading to the shed this morning and fixing the DR mower. We noticed a problem with the deck on it about three weeks ago and after an aborted attempt (they shippped the wrong part to us) he was succesful in getting that up and running for the chapter. That mower has been a lot of work the past year for Bob.

Thanks to John Edwards for taking great care of his section of trail across the family farm and up into Gamelands 148. It was in great hiking shape today. Also, kudos and thanks to whomever chainsawed out the BIG blowdown tree between Wampum-New Galilee Road and Possum Hollow within the last six weeks. That tree trunk across the trail was huge and the removal was a professionally done job - didn't know anything about it 'til I saw the accomplished-task this afternoon.

Lastly (of all the big stuff) thanks goes out to the Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Chippewa. Each August a group of local and out-of-state visiting youth work out of the church for a week doing community service projects and they have offered us some help with the trail this year. August 2 - 5 (Mon thru Fri) from about 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM each day, they'll have a dozen young people and their adult advisors available to help us work on a couple of projects that we've planned for the year - a three hundred yard reroute near the state line and building another quarter mile of new trail out to Indian Rock - both projects at Gamelands 285. We'd like to have someone from the chapter with these groups each day to teach, supervise, and demonstrate our appreciation for the help so please check your schedule to see if you'd be available to help out for a day or two.

Trail work is Sunday evening - 4:00 to 6:00 PM or so at Gamelands 285. We'll meet at the state line trailhead on Route 251 and prune and lop our way up to the area of the relocation to be done so we can get a flagline set for the volunteers from the church to follow in August. Bring water and the bug repellent of your choice - another humid afternoon in store for us on Sunday.

Thanks for all you do for the trail.

Dave Brewer