Good Afternoon Fellow NCTr's:
Lee Fairbanks and I headed out to Watt's Mill this morning and quickly knocked out a long-standing project on our "to-do" list - installing an ATV barrier at the trailhead to keep riders from skirting the gate posts. The digging was easy today (easiest I think we've done all year) and we had it put in in less than an hour on a cold, wet morning. These kind of days makes one appreciate the hot and sunny weather more.
Lee mentioned that the rain guage at the Fairbanks estate in Chippewa indicated that three inches of rain had fallen in the area on Monday, and we could see that the North Fork of Little Beaver Creek was booming at the bridge crossing at the road, so we wondered what was going on at the shelter area. There were no hunter's vehicles about so we donned the orange and walked into the shelter area to take a look. Wow! There was a lot of water roaring past there, and the creek was out of its banks, but the shelter was high and dry. Dennis Garrett picked the right spot! The base of the platform is probably two to two-and-a-half feet above the high water mark, and there was plenty of dry ground all around the area. Good placement.
We also knew that over the past several months, at the Sterling Road Trailhead at GL285, the pond just below the parking area had been overflowing the dam/roadway at times, causing some erosion on the down-stream side. The roadway is the current North Country Trail route so we thought we'd drive over to take a look at that situation. Yep, lots of water coming across, two to three inches deep in some spots, and eroding the roadway away on the down-side. It is walkable yet, and not dangerously swift, but it will only be a matter of time before it washes all away. It's just not our issue, however, as that is how the Game Commission gets all of its vehicles and equipment into that end of the gamelands, and how everyone (hunters) access that area. We'll see how that works out. Some photos from today start here.
We had a hankering to walk out the new Indian Rock section of trail to see if any of it was under water too but the Sterling Road parking area looked like the long-term parking section at Pittsburgh International - many vehicles, so we decided to pass on antagonizing any of those guys (and/or gals) during their hunt. We'll check it out in a couple of weeks. Much more precipitation to come over the next several months, I'm sure.
A little long-keyboarded this afternoon and I do apologize. Hope to see you Monday evening at the Chapter Christmas party at Hitoe's. Thanks for all you do for the trail!
Dave Brewer
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