Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Trail Work Dates, Meeting, and Some Pictures

Good Afternoon Fellow NCTr's:

We have several trail work sessions planned for next few days, working to get some things wrapped up before the holidays and gun season both kick in.  The weather was against us in the spring and most of the summer but we're catching some nice breaks this fall - come on out and enjoy the trail - all help is appreciated!  Here's what we have in mind:

Friday, November 18th we'll meet at the Hodgson Rd. trailhead at 1:00 PM and spend a couple of hours doing grub and finesse work on the new section of trail at Mrs. Kirkwood's farm.  We hiked this section last friday evening in the moonlight and it was a wonderful walk (especially with the new blazes reflecting the moonlight!  And, the flash from the game camera we set off along the route was QUITE a surprise!!)  About 100 yards of serious digging remaining and then some small stump and root removal left to do along the rest.  We'll be out for a couple of hours that afternoon - I'll bring the tools.

Saturday morning, November 19th we'll leave from the front of Jata's in Wampum at 9:00 AM and travel to Snake Run Rd. (east) to repair the handrail on the bridge there.  A large tree limb fell on it earlier this summer and cracked that piece in half, but fortunately Ron Rice builds them so that it can easily be repaired with a new piece of lumber.  Weather permitting, we can also reblaze the road walk section from there down to the west trailhead on Snake Run Rd. that morning.  Again, we'll plan to be out a couple of hours.   Come earlier to Jata's for breakfast if you'd like.

Lee sent out a note on this already, but a reminder that the monthly chapter meeting is on Monday evening, November 21st at Hito's, 6:00 PM.  Come a bit earlier if you plan to order dinner.

Lastly, I am behind on posting pics.  Tammy Veloski and her family took a walk at Gamelands 285 a couple of Sundays ago and she sent me some great photos which I took the liberty of posting starting here.  There are also some from our work sessions last week and the aforementioned friday evening hike.

Hope to see you over the next few days - thanks for all you do for the NCT!

Dave Brewer
Trail Work Coordinator

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Bridge Work Thursday Morning



Good Evening Fellow NCTr's:

Let me get this out of the way first by saying, yes, after two years of crossing Painter Run by hopping rocks and tight-rope walking across logs without incident, now that we have not one, but two bridges across that stream, today was the day I finally fell in.  Other than that unfortunate incident, what a great day in the woods!  My phone (and more profoundly, my camera) survived the very chilly dunking.

Thanks to David Wright, Lee Fairbanks, John Vlah, and Dennis Garrett for coming out this morning to put in a sixteen-foot bridge over the overflow channel, and I especially appreciate all of Dennis's work on pulling together this complicated and time-intensive double-bridge project.  We also found the time today to do some "alignment tweaking" on the 32' foot bridge installed last week, and also to have lunch at the worksite. 

We now have a very smooth, all-season transition between the trail segments at Gamelands 285 and at the Kirkwood Farm.  Left to do out there is about 100 yards of grubbing on top of the hill above the creek on the farm, about twenty yards of the same near Hodgson Rd., and getting the blazes painted and orange flags pulled down.  If we push on it, and get a weather break in the next week or two, we'll have it wrapped up by the start of deer season.  We'll also work on some wooden signing over the winter to identify the couple of spur trails we've generated along the way (to Indian Rock and the Sterling Rd. parking area) as well as identifying the new trailhead on Hodgson Rd. - we'll plan to have those ready for installation in the spring.

I also wanted to appreciate Jake Erhardt for coming out on Tuesday morning to Mines and Meadows and Gateway.  We were able to get a couple of rough sections of sidehill on the approaches to the Gateway bridge cleaned up that morning.  Tough digging.  Before we started we reaffirmed our agreement that if, while working, anyone found any gold then we'd split evenly among that trail work session's crew.  Unfortunately, the agreement didn't have to be tested as we only found the usual limestone, sandstone, and roots as we grubbed.

Some pics from Tuesday and today start here.   I've updated the Google map of the trail from the state line to Hodgson Rd so you can see where we are - viewable  here.

One more thing - we're going to need more places to build off-road trail starting in the spring.  If you are interested in spending some time working with us on court house duty checking out plat maps and then talking to landowners about the awesome opportunity they have to have the North Country National Scenic Trail cross their property, please let us know.  Opportunities exist between the Kirkwood Farm south of Rt. 51, through the Darlington and New Galilee areas, to the Edwards Farm west of Wampum, and between Sankey Hill Rd. and Hell's Hollow at McConnell's Mill.

Thanks for all you do for the trail!

Dave Brewer
Trail Work Coordinator