Blaze Painting and Trail Building This Week

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it.

Steven Wright

Good Afternoon Fellow NCTr's:

Steven makes a good point, but we are absolutely WHIPPING through the roadwalk blazing/reblazing project we started on Sunday. Have some pictures from those projects posted starting here https://picasaweb.google.com/105725471641034380528/WampumChapter2011#5656417370823564434

I figure we knocked out about four miles on Sunday afternoon in and around Darlington, and another 1.6 miles in Wampum this morning. My thanks to Doug Turner, Jake Erhardt, The Eilers - Rick, Sher, and Candice, Dennis Garrett, and Lee and Eleanor Fairbanks for coming out to work on this project. Many hands DID make light work. We'll continue on as scheduling and the weather permits. About seven miles left to do, I think, give or take.

Speaking of "Many hands," we've confirmed that the SCA crew will be coming to the Kirkwood Farm this Thursday, the 29th, to spend the day helping us grub out and define our new section of trail there. If you can come out and lend a hand that'd be great! If you can stop by and say, "Howdy and Thanks" that'd be great too! They should be arriving at around 9:30 that morning at the trailhead on Hodgson Rd., right above Crawford's Camping Park.

Thanks for all you do for the North Country Trail! Hope to see you Thursday!!

Dave Brewer

Trail Work Coordinator

A Busy Week Ahead

Good Afternoon Fellow NCTr's:

We have a heavily-scheduled week ahead of us - hoping you can make it out for some or all of these:

Sunday, September 25th we'll be meeting in Darlington at 1:00 PM and plan to spend two or three hours paint blazing as much of the roadwalk between Rt. 51 and the Edwards Farm at I376 as we can. We'll gather at the Greersburg Academy that afternoon and plan out our attack on this ambitious project. Paint, brushes, stencils, etc. will be provided. You don't have to be the "Expert Painter" to contribute to this project so come on out on Sunday. Those telephone poles with blue blazes on them will definitely improve the hiking experience for those trying to work their way from Darlington Twp to the Wampum area. The forecast looks favorable and the Steelers don't play until that night - perfect!

On Tuesday, September 27 we're planning to leave from Jata's Diner in Wampum at 9:00 AM and going to the boat launch parking area on River Road to work on reblazing the road walk from the trailhead near there, under the Wampum bridge, and into town. We have several hikes on this stretch of trail planned over the next month or so and it'll be good to get it whipped into shape. We'll be out for two hours that morning. Again, painting and clearing supplies provided. Come earlier to Jata's for breakfast if you'd like.

THE BIG NEWS

It is on Thursday, the 29th that we are receiving our second trailwork gift of the year. Josh Nard, Program Director for the Student Conservation Association in Pittsburgh, is bringing a crew out to Beaver County for the day to help us with the Kirkwood Farm trail extension project. They'll be arriving at approximately 9:30 AM and we'll meet at the Hodgson Road trailhead (above Crawford's) to walk in and begin work. The project will involve grubbing, grading, and refining the pathway that we've flagged and then cleared with the mower. They'll be working from the point where the spring SCA crew (our first gift of the year) left off and working their way back towards Hodgson Road. I'd encourage you to come out and work with these young people, or at least make the trip out to thank them for their help. All of our past experiences with the SCA crews and their advisors have been extremely positive - the work they do is superb and their work ethic is excellent. We have put a lot of new, quality trail on the ground over the past three years thanks to SCA's help. Tools (AND LUNCH!) provided - bring drinking water and dress for the weather. Here's a map of the project http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=200253697770480530268.00048dac38585c56e767d&msa=0&ll=40.795391,-80.467343&spn=0.016017,0.0421

On Sunday morning, October 2nd, the Wampum Chapter will be leading a hike for Keystone Trails Association members at Cemex, from Sankey Hill Road down to the boat launch on River Rd. The KTA is having their Fall Weekend Event at Camp Lutherlyn, near Butler, and our hike is one of the activities on their program. If you'd like to help out with leading or walking sweep on this hike shoot me an email and I can let you know the "wheres" and "whens." Should be an excellent opportunity to show off one of our segments of the NCT to some out-of-town hikers.

Lastly, ("At last," you say) my thanks to Jake Erhardt and Lee Fairbanks for making the trip out to Mines and Meadows and Gamelands 148 (taunting the rain clouds) this morning. The trail through the ATV park is in good shape and showing no signs of abuse, and we were able to clean up the treadway and drainage channel near a culvert pipe out at 148. We also had the opportunity to bounce around a couple of trail name suggestions - like Dave "Camera Killer" Brewer, Jake "The Pack Mule" Erhardt, and I was thinking for Lee - "Rock Ferret". We'll work on these though. Couple of pics from today are here.

Thanks for all you do for the trail - hope to see you this week!

Dave Brewer
Trail Work Coordinator

Mines and Meadows Trailwork Friday 9/23

Good Morning Fellow NCTr's:

The trailwork plan for this Friday morning, Sept 23, is to go to Mines and Meadows to walk our trail segment there to check our ATV "deterrers" and general trail conditions, and then to make some repairs to a culvert pipe just over the border in Gamelands 148. We'll be leaving from the front of Jata's in Wampum at 9:00 AM and travelling to the upper parking/camping area at Mines and Meadows - go past the first camping area, as you first enter the park, and continue on up the roadway, over the narrow concrete bridge to the second. We'll plan to be out for a couple of hours. Come to Jata's earlier for breakfast if you'd like.

In other news, Tammy Veloski and her son Kyle spent some time this past week at Watt's Mill re planting a signpost that had fallen into disrepair, as well as doing a maintenance walk through Gamelands 285 near Indian Rock Hill. Appreciate their efforts out there to keep the trail in good hiking condition.

And, last Friday afternoon, I ran into a couple from Calcutta, OH who were hiking the trail at Gamelands 285 from the OH/PA line to a point a couple of miles in and back out. Jim and Judy said that they were frequent visitors to the trail and they wanted me to convey their appreciation to everyone from the chapter involved in building and maintaining the NCT there. Satisfied customers!

I have some pictures posted here - a couple that I took and some that Tammy shared with me from her and Kyle's trip out

https://picasaweb.google.com/105725471641034380528/WampumChapter2011#5653240587090578642

Thanks for all you do for the trail!

Dave Brewer
Trail Work Coordinator

Two Big Things*

* And a couple of little ones

Good Morning Fellow NCTr's:

Two big things - one a reminder and the other one something to make you aware of:

Our September Chapter meeting is this coming Monday evening (the 19th) at the hiker shelter at Watt's Mill - hoping you can make it out for the camp fire, hot dog roast, and pot luck. We have some awards from the NCTA National Conference to pass out, as well as conduct the monthly business. Dennis Garrett tells me that he'll be out there around 5:00 that afternoon so come early to enjoy that beautiful site along the North Fork of Little Beaver Creek. To coordinate the menu contributions please contact the Fairbanks at Fairbanks14@comcast.net and the Garretts at dcgcag@gmail.com. Should be a nice evening of North Country Trail comaradarie. How to get there? Here's a map.

Secondly, please set aside Sunday afternoon, September 25th, to come out and help paint Darlington. Well, not actually the town, but the blue paint blazes through town. The plan is to meet at 1:00 PM that day at the Greersburg Academy and then work for a few hours doing the paint blazing thru that area on telephone poles and sign posts. The NCT follows six miles of roadwalk between PA Rt. 51, through Darlington and New Galilee, to the Edwards Family Farm. With enough crew, paint, organization, and by utilizing a car-shuttle system we can probably knock out a big part of this project in one afternoon. The long-range weather forecasts looks fine, and the Steelers don't play until later that night, so here's a perfect opportunity to spend time helping our hikers get through this part of our trail range. Paint and brushes provided and no experience necessary - bring drinking water and a snack if you'd like. Also suggest wearing flourescent orange or day-glo if you have it as we'll be (obviously) working along the roadways.

Here's a map of what we have in mind, the mile segments in different colors http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=200253697770480530268.0004ad0dd09364571cc3b&msa=0&ll=40.82654,-80.405159&spn=0.064038,0.1684

*As to the smaller things - Trail Work planned for Friday the 23rd at Mines and Meadows in the morning, Tuesday the 27th at Gateway in the AM, and Sunday, October 2nd at Gamelands 285 for the afternoon. I have them on the Event Calendar, and will be sending out reminders with the details as we get closer to those days.

Thanks for all you do for the NCT - hope to see you out for some or all of these!

Dave Brewer
Trail Work Coordinator

Shindig At The Shelter Monday 9/19/11

Good Afternoon Fellow NCTr's:

Our September Wampum Chapter meeting is planned for Monday the 19th at the hiker shelter at Watt's Mill. On the agenda is a campfire and hot dog roast/pot luck dinner, presentation of awards to chapter members from the Dayton National Conference, our monthly business meeting, and some good old North Country Trail Comaradarie. The meeting is scheduled for 6:00 PM but come earlier to enjoy a nice late-summer evening in a beautiful setting along the North Fork of Little Beaver Creek. Bring a friend along and introduce them to one of the premier locations along our section of NCT.

Hot dogs and condiments are being provided - all additional contributions to the dinner menu are welcome. To coordinate the dinner effort please contact Eleanor Fairbanks at Fairbanks14@comcast.net and Maa Garrett at  Dcgcag@gmail.com to let them know what you have in mind.

One other thing to consider is that this past spring's high water washed away all of the seating (cut logs) that we had in place out there so you may want to bring along lawn chairs for campfire comfort. People downstream somewhere in Ohio are enjoying sitting on those logs this summer, I imagine.

Map of Watt's Mill Area

Hope you can make it out to Watt's Mill next Monday evening!

Upcoming Dates - Trailwork and Meetings

Some upcoming dates and activities to make you aware of:

Monday, September 5th is the deadline for nominations for the Chapter Honor Award. I've received several already, but if there is someone you'd like the committee to consider, please get your thoughts to me this weekend. The criteria state that the honoree is a volunteer who demonstrates loyalty, commitment, and hard work annually to the local organization’s chosen activities.


On Tuesday morning, September 6th, we have trailwork planned at Cemex. We'll take off from Jata's in Wampum at 9:00 AM and head for the River Road trailhead and work our way uphill (the walk out will be all downhill!) to finish off our cleanup from the logging disruption. We'll be out for two hours - Tools provided. Come earlier to Jata's for breakfast if you'd like.

Tuesday evening, the 6th, the 2013 National Conference Planning Committee is meeting in Slippery Rock at 6:30. The meeting place is at Ginger Hill Tavern, 278 S. Main St., Slippery Rock (near the Sheetz). There are some materials available for review beforehand, so if you are interested in being involved with this and didn't receive them please contact Joyce Appel at joyceappel@windstream.net  Everyone is welcome to get involved in this LARGE event. Come around 6:00 if you are planning to order dinner.

Thursday, September 8th, we have trail building planned on our new segment at the Kirkwood Farm. We'll meet at 4:00 PM at the new Hodgson Rd. trailhead (right above Crawford's Camping Park) and spend a couple of hours with the DR mower and saw continuing our clearing work. My thanks to John Rarick for joining me this past Wednesday morning as we got a start on this project, clearing about half the distance we need to go.

A reminder that our monthly Wampum Chapter meeting will be held at the shelter at Watt's Mill on Monday, September 19th. Cook out, potluck, campfire, NCT comaradarie . . . plan on coming out. Details to follow.

Lastly, Jim Nocera is putting plans together for a Photography Hike on October 15th, and Lee and Eleanor are working out the details on the annual Pumpkin Pie Hike for later in the month, but we're in need of a volunteer with an idea for a destination and itinerary for our September chapter hike. Jim Houk and Dave Wright did a great job with the last two and their efforts are appreciated. If someone would like to take the lead on this I'd be willing to work to help to get the word out on it. If you have an idea for a "Let's Go!" shoot me an email and we'll pull it together.

http://northcountrytrail.org/get-involved/calendar/

Thanks for all you do for the NCT!

Dave Brewer
Communications Coordinator

Where's Rick Now?

Last June I blogged about Rick Ostheimer (aka his trail name Handlebar), a Wampum Chapter member and trail grubber and digger extrordinaire, who was thru hiking the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.  You can see that original post here  http://davebrewerwampumchapter.blogspot.com/2010/06/wheres-rick.html

This season, I've been asked, "Where's Rick now?"  Well, back on the 3,100 mile-long Continental Divide Trail, of course.  He had to discontinue his hike last season because of illness, but he climbed back on that horse and headed west on June 30th to the Boulder, CO area to resume his solo hike.  He encountered some deep, deep snow at the outset of this year's continuation, necessitating his jumping ahead a bit to get out of it, but he'll go back and finish off that skipped section at the conclusion of his hike.

As of Monday, August 29th Rick was reporting from Butte, Montana and still headed north.  You can follow this year's trek through his trail journal at this site  http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=335037  There is also a Guest Book associated with his journal if you'd like to send him a message.

Here's a link to the Continental Divide Trail Website http://www.cdtrail.org/page.php

Wishing Handlebar the best on his journey!