This, That Link, and T'Other

Good Morning Fellow NCTr's:

As previously communicated, the Clarion Chapter of the NCTA and the Keystone Trails Association are working on trail-improvement projects this upcoming weekend up around Cook's Forest. I'm planning on heading up there for the day on Saturday to help out and to check out the new piece of equipment the PA chapters have available to use. It is some sort of powered wheelbarrow that will be used (on this project) to transport gravel. If anyone else has an interest in spending the day working with them and wants to carpool to save some gas $ let me know and we can work out the details. The email from Joyce Appel indicates that the crew will take off from the cabins at Cooksburg at 8:00 AM so a very early start from here will be warranted.

Also wanted to let you know that the Wikki Trail Guide for PA http://www.northcountrytrail.org/guide/index.php/Pennsylvania has been updated to reflect the shelter construction and trail extension/rerouting that's been done this season within Wampum's range, not to mention my better understanding of the route at Cemex. The linked maps have been redrawn and some new photos added. The neat thing about the Wikki is that anyone can edit or add information, so if you want to update it (or fix any of the verbage) you are able to. It's a good resource to point people to when they ask us, "So, where does the North Country Trail go through this area?"

The other link is to a report by our NPS Ranger/Volunteer Coordinator Dan Watson talking about North Country Trail volunteer hours, found here http://www.northcountrytrail.org/insight/ He reports a 14% increase in the number of volunteer hours nationally on behalf of the North Country Trail for the past year. I can't verify it, but I'm wagering a full 2% of that is attributable to the time Lee put in on designing, funding, and building that new hiker shelter at Watt's Mill this past spring! Just my gut feeling on that one though.

Have a great week! Tentative plans for chapter trailwork are for next Sunday evening and the following Tuesday morning. I'll send out the details once verified.

Thanks for all you do for the trail,
Dave Brewer
330 531-1623

Trail Therapy 10/28/10

Good Evening Fellow NCTr's:

Lee Fairbanks, Doug Turner, and I headed out to the state line at PA Gamelands 285 this cool, gray afternoon to work on our little reroute project there and the session proved to be both productive and therapeutic. Doug worked down on the relatively (relatively!) level section at the top of the stream valley, grubbing out the rocks, roots, and dirt along the flagline to make a connection to our existing trail. While he was doing that Lee and I worked our way eastward, up a pile of root-infested rocks, digging sidehill and a switchback. The three of us knocked out eighty-some yards of trail in two short hours.

It got therapeutic today as each of us kind of worked our own area of what was being built, crafting the new treadway with what each of us knows about building trail. Not a lot of conversation, just kind of being "in the moment" in the woods.

I can't speak for the other two guys, but for the most part, my thoughts included contemplation of my love/hate relationship with trail rocks. As we decide to build a new section of North Country Trail across a big old pile of discarded strip mine rocks we always agree that it's gonna be "some tough digging." Then when we start digging I think, "Man, this is tough digging!" - as I set aside the pulaski, hazel hoe, and McCloud and have to use the pick-mattock to pry them out of the ground. But then, once I get going, I start realizing the possibilities, like "I can build a little step-like thing here with that big rock," or "These'll be GREAT for that little bit of cribbing I need right here for this sidehill!" or "This will look awesome with that little wall of rocks right there." Trail Rocks - hate 'em - love 'em.

Enough of that - some photos from today are here http://picasaweb.google.com/105725471641034380528/WampumChapter2010TrailWork#

Between family and work obligations I am going to be tied up the rest of this weekend so, tentatively speaking, our next trip out probably won't be until next weekend sometime. I'll get the word out as soon as I know something definite.

Thanks for all you do for the trail!
Dave

Trail Work Plan For Thursday 10/28

Good Afternoon Fellow NCTr's:

We've had a little trail reroute project near the state line at Gamelands 285 on the back burner for several months now - we'll plan on starting on that this Thursday afternoon, October 28th. We're taking the trail off the Game Commission two-track and over into the woods along the top of a hill with a nice view down into a stream valley.

The plan is to meet at the Rt. 251 (state line trailhead) at 4:00 PM and work for a couple of hours on this project. I'll bring the tools (sorry, no pie this Thursday) - bring along some water to drink and definitely wear flourescent orange as we're contending with both archery and small-game hunting seasons.

On another subject, as we started off on our hike on Sunday, Julie Meier from Venture Outdoors was telling me about seeing a bear during a hike at Moraine State Park. The details on that are here
http://blog.ventureoutdoors.org/2010/10/26/trick-or-treat-these-unexpected-guests-were-a-real-treat/ Pretty neat!

Thanks for all you do for the North Country Trail and hope to see you Thursday afternoon at Gamelands 285.

Dave Brewer

Pumpkin Pie Hike Recap

Good Evening Fellow NCTr's:

What a fantastic day on the North Country Trail! We couldn't ask for a better weather day, the trail was in good shape, the crowd was large and enthusiastic, and the logistics of the whole situation (parking, transportation and most importantly, pie) worked out great. Thanks to all that came out and hiked, shared with the hikers what we're about, brought pie and other goodies, manned the shelter at Watt's Mill to make sure everyone was taken care of, and transported hikers over to the trailhead. Great team effort!

There are some photos from today posted here http://picasaweb.google.com/105725471641034380528/2010CommunityHikeIndianRock?authkey=Gv1sRgCJGn_6T32sbjLQ#

I was told that we started off at Sterling Road with seventy-two hikers and I know that we had three hikers and two trail runners out ahead of us. We also picked up at least four more people who had hiked in from the Watt's Mill end to meet up with us. Over eighty people on the trail at Gamelands 285 in one afternoon? That's crazy! Crazy cool.

Thanks again to all of those who contributed to building that mile and two-tenths of trail this year to build on what Bob Cody and the SCA crew did last summer. A nice 2.5 mile section of North Country Trail on the ground - on to Darlington!

Dave Brewer

PS - Thank you to Doug and Daphne Turner for bringing me a piece of pumpkin pie out at the trailhead. Don't know who made it but it was delicious.

Newspaper Article - Trail Work Recap 10/20/10

Good Morning Fellow NCTr's:

Well, yesterday's trailwork session at Gamelands 285 didn't turn out exactly as anticipated, with the local press being a no-show, but it was a great day to be out on the North Country Trail anyhow. It turns out that the reporter and photographer had gone out the day before and walked the segment that we are hiking on Sunday, and along with talking with Lee Fairbanks over the previous couple of days, did an excellent story that appeared in this morning's Beaver County Times. You can find that here: http://www.timesonline.com/bct_news/news_details/article/1373/2010/october/20/hiking-the-north-country-trail.html

My thanks to Joyce Appel, Jake Erhardt, Doug Turner, and Lee Fairbanks for making the trip out yesterday with me and working on clearing leaves, roots, and trippers, along with putting in three Carsonite posts to help identify the new trail route. A few pictures from yesterday start here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2941031810098879960nxxQkP You'll notice that we had all wasted our time combing our hair for this trip out. Oh well, mine probably needed combed anyways.

Lee and Eleanor Fairbanks walked the section from the old iron bridge back to the shelter at Watt's Mill on Sunday, checking the condition of that segment, and spent some time getting the shelter area and access trail in good shape, so we're covered there. Thank you to them for doing that. This afternoon at 3:00 we'll meet at Sterling Road again and work on grubbing the last part of pathway - the west end of the new segment from the old iron bridge up to Indian Rock - clearing trippers and checking out the sidehill on that end.

It's all coming together for Sunday's hike. Thank you everyone for your contribution to the effort!

Dave Brewer

Trail Work Plans 10/20 And 10/21

Good Morning Fellow NCTr's:

The Community/Pumpkin-Pie Hike being next Sunday I think we should spend another couple of work sessions at Gamelands 285 this week. The entire section of new trail is blue-blazed and walkable, but we have some Carsonite posts to plant and some toe grabbers to remove and general grub work that needs done on the section from the "big hill" out to the double track. Here's the plan - hope you can join us:

Wednesday the 20th we'll meet at the Sterling Road trailhead at 4:00 PM (I work Tuesday night and will be needing all the beauty sleep I can get) and plan to get the Carsonite posts put in. We'll also start the grub work. We'll be out by 6:00 or so as it will be getting dark.

Thursday the 21st we'll again head for Sterling Road and continue the grub work, beginning at 3:00 PM (instead of 4:00). Starting an hour earlier will give us a little better cushion on getting it "acceptable". Don't know if we can get it all done in two days but we'll definitely be able to get the trippers taken out and the worst spots taken care of.

All help is appreciated, so come when you can and leave when you need to. Thanks!

Dave Brewer
330 531-1623

Indian Rock - Connection!*

Good Morning Fellow NCTr's:

On the morning of September 23rd, as five thursday-morning trail crew guys fought their way through the underbrush, exploring a proposed route from the base of Indian Rock hill back out to the Game Commission double track to get out to Sterling Rd., some clown (who had been out plotting and planning with his GPS and marking flags) remarked, "It's only about 500 feet from here to there," in an attempt to sell the idea of the ease and simplicity of building this particular little piece of connecting trail. "We'll run the DR mower out as far as possible, then it's just a little bit of sidehill work to get back up to where we need to connect," he proclaimed. The other four looked skeptical. They were right to be.

However . . . three weeks and approximately forty-five labor hours later, we got it - we're connected as of yesterday morning when Lee and I headed out and finished off the last 40 yards of sidehill. We have a followable, walkable trail from the beginning to the end. The digging team of Fairbanks and Brewer were pretty efficient (probably not as good as Fairbanks and Fairbanks who were out on Sunday afternoon - but we're darn good diggers if I say so myself) in knocking out that last bit on a beautiful, sunny morning. The blazes from the double track to the base of the hill also got painted yesterday. There's a map here of how the whole thing ended up:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108657039929755040265.00048dac38585c56e767d&ll=40.793401,-80.474505&spn=0.002262,0.004812&t=h&z=18

"Details" (like taking out toe grabbers, end-of-the-section connection grubbing, installing some Carsonite posts, etc) left to do. Piece of cake.

Tomorrow morning we'll head back out to Gamelands 285, Sterling Road trailhead, at 9:00 to work those "details". We missed eating at Jata's in Wampum this week so we thought we'd try out "Rick's Place" in Darlington (on Darlington Road) for breakfast around 8:00 tomorrow and then head for the gamelands. Join us at least for breakfast if you can't make it for the whole morning.

Lastly, if you don't receive the NCTA Blue Blaze Bulletin in your email, here's a link to the issue just sent yesterday http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Blue-Blaze-Bulletin-from-the-North-Country-Trail-Association.html?soid=1101552208337&aid=NKEkWxGkmGc

Hope to see you tomorrow at GL285 - Thanks for all you do for the trail!

Dave Brewer
* Note - That's the 500th time I've sent the words "Indian Rock" out to you all this year. Whew!