Delaware Valley Chapter Trail Work: 2009 Rewind

Trail volunteers from AMC's Delaware Valley Chapter can be spotted throughout the Valley from the Appalachian Trail to Valley Forge National Historical Park. Some of them may have yellow paint on them!

Check out only a few of the DV Chapter's Trails 2009 Accomplishments:

Ewok Village removal – phase II
Ewok Village is the name of a set of tree and stone structures built on AT National Park Easement Lands slightly east of Little Gap, Pennsylvania. This is on lands maintained by AMC Delaware Valley. The structures were removed in May of 2008 and then mysteriously rebuilt. They were removed again on National Trails Day, 2009, hopefully for good.

Katellen Drainage week
September 4 to 7. Joint project with ATC to improve water drainage on the Katellen Trail. Katellen trail is mostly on State Game Land (SGL), with a small section on State Forest Land. It is a straight spur up to the Appalachian Trail from a SGL parking area.

Visit by head of AT National Park
October 17. AMC-DV hosted Pamela Underhill, the head of the Appalachian Trail National Park, on a tour of parts of the AT corridor near Smith Gap. Corridor maintainers from other Pennsylvania and New Jersey clubs attended. This was Ms. Underhill’s first visit ever just to see corridor boundaries work and discuss problems with this undertaking.

Maintenance of Leroy Smith
In late May of this year Mike & Kieu Manes (avid trail volunteers)were hiking the AT in New Jersey and stopped to chat with a young couple that were thru hiking. The female member of the young couple appeared complete disinterested in any discussion until she heard mention that we maintained the Leroy Smith Shelter. A fit of excitement hit her, she had to tell us how nice and clean our shelter was, and that we had an adequate supply of toiler paper. She thanked them many times, and informed them that Leroy Smith Shelter is known as one of the best maintained lean-tos. This was confirmed by other thru hikers twice on later occasions, but never as dramatically.

Give back to trails in 2010 by getting dirty and having fun! Hit the trails either on the AT, in Valley Forge NHP or in Nockamixon State Park.

AT Corridor Monitoring: Early spring and Fall are good times to do corridor monitoring along the Appalachian Trail. If you are interested in going for a hike and searching out the corridor, please contact - Mike Manes, 215-855-1315, AMCDVTrails@aol.com

Appalachian Trail Section Maintenance: Our chapter maintains a 15 mile section of the AT between Wind Gap and Little Gap, the Leroy Smith Shelter and two side trails to the AT. If you are interested in helping out please contact Dan Schwartz 610-746-3404 NCA 9PM, Dan.Schwartz@lehigh.edu

Valley Forge National Historic Park We are working the park to re-hab and maintain trails in the Mount Misery and Mount Joy areas of the Park. If you are interested in helping this project along, pleasesend email with your contact info to Mark Kern, bikermjk@amcdv.org or call him at 610-558-9628.

Nockamixon State Park. We are currently maintaining about 3 miles of trail in Nockamixon SP (near Quakertown, PA). If you'd like to help work on trails in this park, call Peter Jarrett, 610-282-4635.

MOC Trail Crew Rewind: 2009 Season in the Gap

The Mohican Outdoor Center (MOC) Trail Crew 2009 season was another season of great feats and fun on the trails of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in NJ & PA. The crew put in over 4,000 volunteer hours with almost 90 volunteers between April-November. There also were a significant amount of first timers that couldn't help but come back for some more!

This year the MOC Trail Crew mainly focused on Adams Creek Trail, Coppermine Trail, and Toms Creek Trail. Their largest project was building a new 37 foot span bridge across Adams Creek. Each year the Crew does an amazing project similar to this.

On Coppermine Trail they reconstructed & reinforced the stone footings for the Coppermine Bridge, replaced bog bridges, and redefined the entrance and trailbed.

It is now much easier to see where the Coppermine Trail branches off from the Appalachian Trail. Thank you!

The Crew also completed trail assessments at the beginning of the season and rebuilt Tom's Creek Trail's trailbed & rehabbed a culvert.

Beyond all the Mohican Trail Crew's hard work out on the trails they also know how to reward their volunteers with great food especially in November. November is the last month of the Crew's season where all the volunteers who have put in at least 20 hours feast on a fine Pre-Thanksgiving meal. See for yourself!

This is also a special time when the volunteers with 20 hours or more get rewarded with a t-shirt or more as part of AMC's Stewardship Society. This year the following volunteers who gave 96-223 hours were receipients of the Marian Pychowska Award:

Cari Boggiano

Gloria Donatelli

Harold Hoeschen

Brad Keller

Bryan Molyneux

Greg Molyneux

Quint Reiff

Philip Romano

Diane Streets

We hope to see you in 2010! Join one of the MOC Trail Crew Weekend Work Parties:

2010 Dates

April 10-11

May 15-16

June 12-13

July 10-11

August 14-15
September 11-12

October 9-10

AMC - US Virgin Islands Trail Crew - 2010

Getting the winter blues already? Can't wait until next summer to get out on the trails?

Join a number of AMC Trails Volunteers for a week of trail work in the US Virgin Islands on St. John in March, 2010!

This cooperative vacation/service week offered by the AMC, US Virgin Islands National Park, and the Friends of the Virgin Islands is a great way to get active, meet new people and contribute to the conservation efforts of the trails on St. John.

The crew runs form March 21-27, 2010 and once you arrive in St. John all of the camping, meals, on-island transportation, and trails leadership is taken care of by quality AMC and Friends of the Virgin Islands Staff.

We will be based out of Cinnamon Bay Campground for the week in their new Volunteer Site, working each day for 6-8 hours. There will be plenty of time to hike, snorkel in the bay, or participate in any number of other recreational activities on the island.

For more information and to register please visit the AMC Volunteer Trail Crew program description of the US Virgin Islands - St. John Trail Crew.

2010 Volunteer Trail Crews!

AMC Volunteer For Trails - 2010

The 2010 schedule is now on-line. We have so many fun and exciting programs for teens and adults in the Berkshires, White Mountains, Maine Woods, Baxter, Acadia, US Virgin Islands, and more.

If you have joined us in past years or you plan to make 2010 your first crew, we are looking forward to working with a wide range of individuals that have a passion for conservation... and don't mind getting dirty.

Check out the full 2010 schedule of one to four week Volunteer Trail Crews>> or our schedule of 2010 Skill Sessions and Weekend Work Parties>>

We look forward to hearing form you and hope to see you on the trails this summer.

-Alex

AMC North Country Trails Volunteer Programs Supervisor

Photo: Everett Moore

Acadia Crew - Week #3

AMC Acadia National Park - Volunteer Trail Crew, Week 3

September 13 – 19

Working under the capable leadership of Nick Scott, who was assisted by a volunteer crew leader, nine adult volunteers took up the challenge of helping a National Park Service Trail Crew re-construct a popular and well used trail located on Great Head just north of Sand Beach. The work involved crushing rocks with a sledge hammer to create a base, top coating with soil, clipping roots, brushing in a temporary trail and where necessary digging exit drains. The crew also highlined 125 large rocks from two quarry sites that would later be crushed for new trail base or used to build steps. The outcome was a real team effort.

The crew lived at Echo Lake near South West Harbor where The AMC maintains a family camp during the summer. A great location with a full kitchen, dining hall, library, wall tents on platforms with cots and most important, hot showers. For a trail crew, this is the life of luxury. The food met peoples needs but on Wednesday things got out of hand when we had four desserts. Fresh baked open face fruit cake, fresh baked banana bread, ice cream and some rice pudding made from the leftover rice from Tuesday. On another evening the group was treated to apple crisp prepared by the youngest member of the crew. Acadia is a good site to learn the basics of trail work complemented by great views and the food is not too bad either.

Nick Scott, AMC Crew Leader and Bill, Volunteer Crew Leader

The start of each work session began with Nick leading the group in stretching (not to be confused with yoga) activities to get everyone prepared for a physically active work day.

At the end of each work day, Nick would drive the crew to a different section of Mount Dessert Island. After all this was a work vacation.

Submitted by Bill Brodnitzki, AKA Grumpy

Early Snow to the North Country

I woke up on Tuesday morning, October 13, to a snow covered back yard. I can’t believe the snow is already falling… what happened to summer? We really never got the full summer season and my garden is proof of that. Our volunteers worked through the endless rains and cool temps throughout the season to beat records for amount of work completed and hours served.

These are a collection of shots from around Pinkham with the 1 inch+ of snow that fell in the overnight hours. Trees still loaded with leaves drooped low with the weight of the snow. Let’s hope this is not a forecast for a long cold winter. Fall is typically the best time to get out and maintain trails. No bugs, cooler and dryer air all make for great work days in the woods.

With such a short summer it would be a shame to have such a short fall.

Photos by: Alex DeLucia

Life on the Edge: Reclaiming 5 ¾ miles of AT Boundary in the Mahoosucs

Let me admit, right off the bat, that I love boundary work because every day starts and ends with a bushwhack. This summer, I’ve punched through pockets of spruce-fir, scaled 500 foot ledges, and walked cleanly through open hardwood forest. I have the scars on my hands, the holes in my shirts, and, embarrassingly, maybe still the spruce needles in my hair, to prove it.

I also love boundary work, because it is a different relationship with the land. As a steward, I have been involved in countless trail work projects, composted a thousand gallons of human waste, and spoken openly with the public about the work I do. Yet boundary work is a different kind of land conservation, protecting a well-defined line of public land in the middle of some of the most volatile lumbering operations in the Northeast. Through a coordinated effort between all arms (Pro Crew, Camp Dodge, and the Shelter Caretakers) of the Trails Department this summer, we managed to reclaim 5 ¾ miles of boundary along the Appalachian Trail in the Mahoosuc Range, on the eastern side of the range, from Gentian Pond to Cascade Mountain.

The Mahoosucs are unique in the White Mountain world, since they are mostly private owned land. There are no Wilderness Areas, no large tracts of public land, although recent conservation efforts will hopefully change that in the next few years. There is a thin ribbon (1,000 feet wide) of the Appalachian Trail, a thin corridor owned by the Park Service, and it is that ribbon that a surveyed boundary line protects from encroachment.

In the past five years, the AMC, in partnership with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, has made a concerted effort to reclaim this boundary line, which has been left mostly un-maintained (with the exception of a few dedicated volunteer adopters) since it was first surveyed twenty years ago. Small boundary crews have managed to reclaim the boundary line from the Maine State line to Gentian Pond (roughly 5 trail miles), with the most recent boundary crew working in 2007.
What it means to reclaim the line is to repaint blazes, cut trees in order to see those blazes clearly, and locate monuments that mark the trail. The mechanics of boundary work seems like an antithesis to what we’ve been trained to believe about trail work. We spend the days cutting down trees (rather than preserving them), painting blazes like crazy (rather than sparingly), and stripping moss off rocks to find survey monuments (rather than controlling erosion of thin topsoil).

Following segment maps to trace the line, we repaint blazes; a set of monument maps aid us in locating aluminum monuments, spaced roughly 500 feet apart. This surveyed line does not behave like a trail, climbing straight up rock walls, through boulder fields, and traversing above dropoffs that make me nervous; this line follows the reason of surveying, not the reason of treadway. Near Cascade Mountain, I crawled carefully to an isolated blazed line tree, perched in the middle of an exposed steep ledge. I tried not to look down.

Boundary work is also very slow. The line can be buried in an impenetrable spruce-fir thicket, difficult to follow in open hardwoods with faded blazes on peeling birches, and, also, dumbfoundingly scaling 800 feet straight up a cliff (as it does around Gentian Pond). Monuments can be challenging to locate, buried under twenty years of duff, sometimes a solid foot underground. A crew can claim as few as 300 feet a day (a spruce thicket compounded by a fir wave) or as fast as 1,000 feet a day (in open hardwoods with less to cut).

First out on the boundary was the AMC Pro Trail crew, in July. Interested in some lighter work for their “All Crew Days” (when the entire White Mountain crew gets together for two days of trail work), they tried their hands at boundary work, with guidance from me and from their capable trailmaster. With the enthusiasm for work our crew is known for, the sixteen of them barreled through 1 ¾ miles of boundary line in roughly eighteen hours. This crew cleared from Page Pond to Cascade Mountain, leaving me to do the blazing and monument finding.

The next crew was the Camp Dodge crew, in last August. This crew reclaimed 4,000 feet of boundary line, moving north from the Dryad Falls trail towards Gentian Pond.
Labor Day weekend saw a visit of the volunteer corridor monitor for the section between Dream Lake and Page Pond, Ray Brassington. His work is a vital contribution to connecting the boundary line this season!

The final crew was a group of five caretakers (plus myself for three of the four days) from the AMC Backcountry Campsite program. We started where Dodge left off, and moved northward towards Gentian Pond, through spruce and fir and down (and up) cliffs. With this final push, through hail, hypothermic rain, and occasional hints of blue sky, the reclaimed corridor line was connected to where our 2007 crews had left off, at Gentian. It was connected at a monument poised at the lip of the cliffs surrounding Gentian Pond; standing on that surveyed line, cut and blazed clearly, I felt the weight of that connection.

We have an uninterrupted reclaimed line of over ten miles on the eastern side of the Mahoosucs, from the Maine State Line to Cascade Mountain. The fact that this was such an extraordinary display of coordination, among various parts of the Trails Department, makes this accomplishment even more satisfying.

To end on a personal note, I said that I loved boundary work because every day starts and ends with a bushwhack. I’d like to recount one day in particular.
I spent two days in August alone in the woods repainting blazes and finding monuments along the 1 ¾ miles that the Trail Crew had cut. These days were sunny, crisp with early fall air, and some of the first days that I wore my wool coat to work. I had a paint bottle in my pocket, boundary signs poking out of my pack, and laminated survey maps catching on branches. These were good days.

This section of boundary line starts off flat and gentle, down around Trident Col. Working south from there, the line starts to climb, then things become cliffy, the open hardwoods become thin-soiled softwoods, and it was somewhere around Cascade Mountain that I encountered that solitary blaze tree I described above (which I painted, perched carefully on the root system and really wishing there was someone to take a photo).

Those days, I would work until 6 to get the most of the daylight. On the day in question, I worked until 6:30, to reach just one more monument, to reach one more corner, and rehang one more boundary sign. At that last monument, I put the paint bottle back in my pack, securely lashed down those massive laminated maps, and looked up at the ledge in front of me. And started climbing.

The benefits of bushwhacking are seeing new places, open and wild and with a semblance of the pristine, that we don’t get with a trail. Somewhere between where I left the boundary line, and where I met the trail, was a glorious open ledge, looking out to the valley, where maple trees were beginning to burn red, where the sky was cooling to dark blue, and the clouds were yellowing in evening light. I had spent the day in tough terrain. I had located monuments and reblazed an important line. I had paint on my hands and a bruise on my shin. I paused and smiled. The breeze picked up. And I kept climbing.

That’s life on the edge. A mix of dedication, fearless tackling of tough terrain, and, literally, standing on the edge of protected public land. As a steward of it.
For more information on the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s volunteer corridor monitoring program, visit: www.appalchiantrail.org, or (more specifically): http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.mqLTIYOwGlF/b.4805679/k.761D/Corridor_Stewardship.htm

(Photos and post submitted by Sally Manikian)

AMC North Country Trails Volunteer Awards - 2009

Each year we recognize a few of our dedicated volunteers at the annual AMC Trails Volunteer BBQ at Camp Dodge Volunteer Center. Listed below are the recipients of the 2009 Awards.

Congratulations to all and we look forward to another safe, successful and productive season in 2010.

25 Years of Service:
Barbara Kukla

10 Years of Service:
Stephen Soreff, Peggy Tucker, Larry Garland, and Garry Gerossie

Trails Volunteer of the Month Awards - 2009
June: Chris McNeil
July: Barbara Kukla
September: Jeff Longcor

Outstanding Commitment Award
Chris Shafer and Maria Earley
Old Jackson Road (AT) and George‘s George

Rookie of the Year Award
Herb Coolidge & Joan Lore
North & South Forks of the Wright trail

Pied Piper Award
(encouraging others to volunteer)
Keith Enman
Mahoosuc Trail (AT)

Hobblebush Award
Matt Colello
Lower Royce Trail

Early Birds Award
(early submissions of Work Reports)
John & Cheryl Compton
Lower Osgood Trail and Osgood Cut-Off

Phil & Nancy Cayford
Cedar Brook – N. Hancock Summit: Hancock Loop Trail

“D. D.” Award
(Dedicated Doug)
Doug Cate
Lower Airline Trail

Hardman Award
Peter Thorne
Stillwater Junction – 2nd Brook Crossing: Shoal Pond Trail

Most Active New Adopter Award
Michael Blais
Full Goose Campsite – Notch Trail: Mahoosuc Trail (AT)

Getting It Done Award
Adam Schmucker
Mt. Lafayette Summit – Garfield Trail: Garfield Ridge Trail

A different kind of Trail Adopter

Let me introduce you to a different kind of Trail Adopter. These individuals not only serve a

s the AMC’s frontline backcountry educators, composters and search and rescue volunteers, but they also leave their marks as adopters of 23.2 miles of trails in the White and Mahoosuc mountains. If you are fortunate enough to converse with one of these multifaceted stewards, who are accustomed to all the peace and quiet living full time in the woods has to offer, the impression you would get is that of a truly genuine individual that is living this life by conscious choice. This is the lifestyle choice of a Backcountry Caretaker, a different kind of Trail Adopter. [Photo by Sally Manikian]

Often mistaken for as a “ranger,” caretakers strive to maintain the authority of our resource, minus the uniform. But like a uniformed backcountry Ranger, a Caretaker has a certain amount of self-motivation that drives their actions. These personal ethics are so strategic that the challenge is often maintaining a diplomatic stance when interfacing with visitors. [Photo by Sarah Hayes]

So with a little insight into thought process of a Caretaker, let’s get down to the common grounds Caretakers share with Trail Adopters and other AMC volunteers alike: an interest in conservation and a love for backcountry recreation. In what other unique ways does a Backcountry Caretaker satisfy this interest?

Caretakers composting gallons of human waste. That’s right- mixing (homogenizing) human feces to prevent contamination of water sources and the creation of a nuke zone of manmade catholes, to assist the growth of local vegetation, among other reasons that boil down to keeping our natural areas natural. So, poop in a privy at an AMC backcountry campsite today, then come back in a year to see your contribution returned to local community. [Photo by Juliane Hudson]

Caretaker educate thousands of individuals on low-impact travel and camping principles. The AMC staffs nine backcountry campsites fulltime from the end of June through September, then on a weekend basis through Columbus Day. During the operating season Kinsman Pond, Liberty Springs, Garfield Ridge, 13 Falls, Guyot, Ethan Pond, Nauman, Imp, and Speck Pond campsites accommodate between 10 and 11 thousand visitors per year. (That’s a lot of poo!) Each and every one of these overnight visitors interacts with a caretaker at some point along their backcountry journeys. They are wondering things like is the water source is “good,” where to store their food, when is the sun next scheduled to come out, where is a good place for their hammock, and so on.

Visitors also want to know the most effective way to wash their dishes, the least impactful way to pristine camp, the more courteous method to pass other hikers. However, very few inquire directly about how to leave no trace. Enter a Caretaker. Having been educated on how to teach and practice the Seven Principles of Leave No Trace at the Trainer level, a Caretaker becomes skilled at maintaining authority without the presence of a uniform.

Caretakers become self taught semiprofessional photographers. An unlimited stock of natural frames to play with and every desirable lighting circumstance occurring at some point during an 11-day stint leads to some pretty darn good pictures, as pointed out by Mahoosuc Rover/caretaker Sally. Sure, some of the good photos make the obligatory Facebook appearance, but they are just as likely to stay stored on a memory card until the photographer can get to a computer, which can take months. There’s nothing like spending weeks alone at a time pondering how to photographically document the personal experience of living and working in the woods.

Multifaceted individuals indeed. So leave it to the poo-stirring-earth-levitating-resource-protecting-trail-adopting diplomats to exemplify what Thoreau really meant by sucking the marrow out of life. [Photo by Sally]

Trails Volunteer of the Month - September 2009

Jeff Longcor

I live for adventure. Nothing is more thrilling to me than experiencing the challenges and rewards offered by the wilderness. I developed a deep love for the outdoors at a young age during family vacations and boy scout trips. I cherish vivid memories of stormy sails, vertical climbs, night hikes, cave explorations, and white water roller coasters. With support from my family and friends, I've managed to embark on a number of unforgettable expeditions to places like the Northern Cascades (NOLS) and the summit of Aconcagua in Argentina. I believe that any wild adventure with good friends should always generate more plans for the future. While celebrating new years eve on Aconcagua, I sipped a fine Argentinean wine from a plastic nalgene (soon to be used for pee) and resolved to complete the 48 4,000fters in NH. My resolution quickly grew into an obsession that compelled me to hike every weekend. The natural beauty and solitude of the mountains gave me a desperately needed escape from the crowded city.

Throughout my pursuit of the 4,000fters, I shamefully took the AMC trails for granted. I never considered the hard work and dedicated effort required to maintain these wooded paths until I attended the basic skills session at Camp Dodge.

I originally volunteered to serve as a trail adopter on behalf of Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO). Every summer, TWO leaders bring 200 freshmen into the wilderness of ME, NH, and VT for a five day backpacking trip. TWO offers a trail crew trip for leaders and students interested in giving back to the outdoor community. In the past, the trail crew experience often suffered from logistical and legal issues that developed from working on a different trail each year. When a highly respected TWO leader named Dandan suggested that we adopt our own trail, I jumped at the chance to oversee this new approach. The unprecedented success of the 2008 and 2009 trail crew trips motivated me to volunteer for the Carrigain Region Leader position. I am proud to say that many of my friends at Tufts have shown their support this summer by hiking adopted trails, performing trail work, and attending AMC events. I would especially like to thank Vertical Ice Climbing Enthusiasts (VICE) members Phil Mallon, Austin Siadak, Jed Palmer, and Talya Peltzman for joining me on so many hikes and dirty work trips. I also greatly appreciate August Longino's efforts in fostering a trail maintance program within the Tufts Mountain Club (TMC).

I plan to continue serving as a Trail Adopter and Region Leader with the ultimate goal of facilitating a mutually beneficial relationship between Tufts University and the AMC.

Thank you,
Jeff

Mt. Williams Spike Crew 8/23-28/09

Small but mighty; that was the theme of our final Berkshire Teen Trail Crew of 2009. At the end of our last work day, four participants and two leaders looked from one another to the 16 stone steps, two waterbars, piles of brush and masses of crush we had made, marveling at how we could have gotten so much done with so few people. Really, there can be only one explanation: our crew rocked! Everyone was psyched to work, eager to help each other out, and totally respectful. Our positive mental attitude was through the roof, and we had a great time. It was the kind of week when the world seems to be on your side. The weather was beautiful, the bugs were negligible, and spirits were high.

On our first work day, we ran into some familiar faces. Poppins, the thru hiker who helped one of our crews make crush at Guilder Pond hiked by us on his way up Mr. Greylock and stopped to say hi. We also ran into another thru hiker named Ramble On, who had hung out with some of the other AMC ridgerunners and me back in Connecticut. He was so appreciative of our work that he stopped to take a picture of us rolling rocks. Seeing their familiar faces was nice, and their sincere gratitude gave us incentive to keep working hard all week.

Of course, if you work hard, you’ve got to play hard, too. We had a lot of fun throughout the week. One day, some other AMC staff members brought in a cake for us, and we had a little end-of-season celebration. Another day, we drove our van to the summit of Mt. Greylock. Phil and I sang a lot, which was fun for us, but perhaps not as much fun for the participants who had to put up with our rather mediocre vocal skills. On our last night, our crew had enough leftover food from having four fewer participants than expected, that we were able to do some “trail magic” for the thru hikers at our campsite. We hooked them up with some hot dinner and provisions. The coolest activity, however, was definitely our hike to a nearby clearing, where we watched the sun set behind the mountains and ate copious amounts of Crunch bars.

After such a great week, it was hard to say goodbye. But fall is coming, school is calling, and it’s time to start preparing for another great year of Berkshire Teen Trail Crew. See you next summer!

-Alexa

berksblog

Guider Pond Spike Crew 8/9-14/09

What a beautiful place to be a trail crew! We spent our week on the north side of Mount Everett, between Guilder Pond and the Glen Brook Campsite. The trail definitely needed some work, but the area was otherwise quite beautiful. Our campsite was only half a mile from our drop-off/ pick-up location, and it was even closer to the work site. Our convenient location meant less time hiking to and form work, and more time for swimming at the beautiful Guilder Pond. Just minutes from our work site was a rock outcropping that sloped right in to the refreshing water. It was the perfect spot to hang out, unwind, and wash up after a hard day of work.

Our campsite wasn’t half bad either. It had a lovely stream, a privy, and plenty of open space. We pitched a tarp over a tent platform to make a kitchen area, and set our tents up around it. The only concern at our campsite was the wildlife. Black bears abound in the Northeast, and if they don’t find your food, the mice will. But never fear; bear hangs are here! We used two different ropes to string our food high out of reach of the bruin bandits and murine mooches. Bear hangs can seem like a bit of a chore sometimes, but when one participant found a bear footprint, I think we could all agree that they were worth the effort.

Our food was definitely worth protecting. G.O.R.P. quickly became the snack food of choice, and our meals included: eggs made to order, extra cheesy mac&cheese, miscellaneous Mexican madness, candy bars, and chocolate chip pancakes. We also had a special treat when another member of the AMC staff brought us burgers and potato salad.

Sometime between all the eating, swimming, and relaxing, we got quite a bit of trail work done. Native bog bridging, lumbar bog bridging, turnpike restoration, waterbars, drainages, brushing – we did it all. Good thing we had plenty of helpful visitors. We received visits from some DCR staff, the AMC’s Southern New England Regional Trails Coordinator, an AMC ridgerunner, and two thru hikers who where eager to help. The thru hikers, who called themselves Poppins and Aesop, even inspired some of our participants to give themselves trail names like Ninja-Squirrel and Young Duff.

Working on the trail was great, but our coolest work assignment was a piece of campsite maintenance. We got to sledge and burn a broken picnic table. After staying dry for the first half of the week, the weather took a turn for the wetter on Wednesday evening. To keep our spirits up during the dampness, one of our leaders, Jim (a.k.a. The Firebender,) started an amazing fire despite the wet conditions. We burnt the picnic table, dried out clothing, and had some good laughs.




-Alexa

berksblog

Race Brook Stewardship Crew - Week 8

Another two week crew and another great bunch of volunteers has come and gone. It always amazes me how much more a crew can get done when they have that second week where everyone knows what's up and is ready to "get'er done" as they say. Our project for these weeks brought us to the Race Brook Falls trail, a feeder trail to the At, and a very popular day hike. It also happens to be right in our backyard, literally just a few miles down the road from the office. Being so close we got lots of visitors and helpers out for a day or afternoon of fun. Because of the popularity of the trail it has experienced a serious amount of blow out over the years. There are sections that are over fifteen feet wide! Our goal was to reclaim the trail where we could, install cribbing to retain soil and keep hikers from venturing any farther into the forest, and add strategically placed brush and stairs to direct hikers.


Although some of us were a bit reluctant to part from our usual rock work life, we had a great time learning some new skills and playing with trees. The Monty Python "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay" song could be hear throughout the forest at we hacked, sawed and skinned our way through the week. We even got the chance to build a wooden staircase with some of the logs that were too big for cribbing. A bit like playing with Lincoln logs, this was definitely the favorite project among many of the volunteers.



Being a two week crew, we like to add in some bonus activities to keep things fun and prevent burn out. Besides multiple swimming trip and a BBQ we also had a sunrise pancake breakfast on the top of Race Mt. It took some work on our parts to convince a crew of teenagers that it was a good idea to get up at four in the morning and hike to the top of a mountain, but in the end they all agreed it was definitely worth it. We were a little worried that it would be cloudy and that our hike would be for nothing. Well we were right about the clouds, but they had a surprising effect. The cloud cover sat low in the valley and as we were high atop a mountain it made for a sea of white below us, with the occasional mountain peak poking through looking remarkably like islands. Finish it off with chocolate chip pancakes and you get nothing short of perfection!



Over the two weeks the crew had ample opportunity to practice their authority of the resource skills that they acquired on their weekend of leave no trace training. It is always entertaining to see who you'll get to share the woods with, but I think these two weeks take the cake! Connor would have been so proud if he could have heard them discussing the LNT principles and trying to share the knowledge. With our evening entertainment covered the crew had more time to rest up and were on their game every day. In the end we put in one small rock staircase, over 300 feet of cribbing and brushing, a wooden staircase and waterbar and lots of side hilling and fill to top it off. A very productive crew and lots of fun to hang out with. I really enjoyed getting to see both weeks and watch as both the group dynamic as well as their skills at trail work developed. To close it out I'll leave you with these finally thoughts from Monty Python. "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay. I sleep all night. I work all day. I cut down trees. I eat my lunch. I go to the lavatory. On Wednesday I go shoppin' and have buttered scones for tea!"
berksblog

Haley Farm Stewardship Crew - Week Four

Week four of the Berkshire trail crew has come and gone, and what a week it was. It marked the half way point in our summer and was the first of our two week stewardship crews. With a number of returning crew members and lots of experience the crew was ready to hit the trails Sunday in record time! Our main project was to begin a massive staircase on the Haley Farm Trail of Mt Greylock, one that will take multiple summers and crews to finish.

Due to the steepness of the trail and quarry area we decided to set up a high line system to safely move our rocks. Basically it’s a bunch of cables, attached to multiple trees, many feet in the air, and controlled by a grip hoist. The idea being that the rock is raised into the air by the hoist and than slid along the cable to its end destination. Though they can be a bit time consuming to set up, once in place things become remarkably simpler than other rock moving methods. We spent a good part of Monday getting the high line ready to go and flew our first rock Tuesday morning to much excitement. Nothing like watching a huge boulder gliding through the air to get your week off and rolling!

Our next big excitement came Wednesday morning. Although I am happy to rise early as we do when on crew, I am not the most aware person at 6:30 in the morning. So as I made my way groggily to our bear hang tree, on an early morning quest for food, it took me a little bit to realize that something was different. As I looked up into the tree I saw a large object sitting on the nearest limb, and to complicate things it appeared to be alive. The creature was brown, a few feet tall, very fat, and unless my eyes deceived me it seemed to have quills. Yes that’s right, there was a porcupine in our bear hang tree, a very massive porcupine to be precise. Thinking I might be experiencing some sort of early morning, pre-caffeinated, hallucination, I went to get my co leader Valerie. She was able to confirm that I was indeed seeing the Godzilla of all porcupines sitting with its butt on the rope that held our food suspended in the air. Once confirmed there was then the matter of what to do with this prickly friend. Though there was some discretion about just how far porcupine quills could shoot, or if in fact they could shoot at all, no one seemed too keen on angering the creature. I am no animal expert, but it seemed like giving the porcupine rope burn on its butt, by lowering the food bags, might cause a little unhappiness in our friend. However, as tummies began to rumble we knew something had to be done. We eventually managed to move the rope enough by shaking it to convince the porcupine that there were better places to nap, and it scurried up the tree.

One porcupine, many flying rocks, a river swim, copious thunderstorms and a ridiculous amount of mac and cheese later the crew finished their fist week. They were given a little taste of civilization, i.e. showers, laundry, and a Bar-B-Q before being sent once more into the woods. This time it was for a weekend of leave no trace training and backpacking on the AT.

After an intense weekend of hiking, the crew returned to Haley Farm to finish some solid work. Over the course of two weeks, our group put in 3 beautiful staircases, 4 waterbars, a crush pit, and a crazy amount of brushing. This was all completed, despite several setbacks – including finding ourselves in a shelter for a couple hours due to two massive thunderstorms. We had a phenomenal week, even considering food mishaps, mysterious trail workers, long hikes, and weather. And of course, what better way to end these two weeks, but a poker game – with starburst candy as chips!

A stellar crew, with a go get’em attitude, these folks couldn’t have been more enthused about their volunteer work. We truly appreciate all of their efforts!

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Project Planning – Burnt Island, ME

On Tuesday, August 18^th, Andrew Norkin (AMC Director of trails and Rec. Management), Kelsey Heeringa (AMC Trails Volunteer Programs Coord.) and Alex DeLucia (AMC Trails Volunteer Programs Supervisor) headed off the coast of Maine to scout projects for a week on Burnt Island.

Roughly 12 miles off the coast of Port Clyde, ME is Burnt Island; a little known island that sees use from paddlers using the Maine Island Trail system (Maine Island Trails Association – MITA) and Hurricane Island Outward Bound students. The owner of Burnt Island has a longstanding relationship with MITA and Outward Bound allowing camping and use of the island’s trail network.

Hoping to beat the heat the three of us were looking forward to some time on the ocean. Much to our surprise we found calm seas, lack of wind, and humid heat, even on the island. These were rare conditions and I am sure that our crews will find cooler and breezier conditions during their project week.

In the fall of 2009 AMC volunteers and staff will be working on the trail system on Burnt Island for one week. The AMC Volunteer crews will be working on installing bog bridges over several muddy sections and brushing out overgrown trail along the island’s perimeter trail. The staff trail trail crew will be working on one 16 foot bridge, leveling out a long section of extremely rocky coastal trail, minor trail relocations, and removal of several large blowdowns.

For one week our crews will be living the island life, bringing all of the food, water, tools and gear out to the island. The sounds of the surf, the salt air, and some good hard work will make this a great week.

We will be sure to report back on the success of this week later this fall. We are looking forward to this week of work as well as building a relationship between the AMC and the Maine Island Trails Association.

Photos by: Alex DeLucia

National Forest Foundation Funds Alpine Pro Crew Work

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Through the rain, sleet, thunder, and who knows what else, a six-person faction of the White Mountain Professional Trail Crew completed erosion control and trail definition work on Mt. Eisenhower last week. Between the interesting weather this summer and the rugged commute from Nauman campsite every day, this project was even more than meets the eye. Focusing on the alpine zone area, the crew worked a total of 3.5 weeks, installing wooden and rock erosion control and tread definition features.

Wood, you may ask? On the summit of Mt. Eisenhower? Isn't that ABOVE treeline?

Yes, it is.

On the south end of the summit, there were few native rocks to use, and certainly no native wood. So, as part of the spring airlifts we flew cedar logs up to the summit. Since then, they have been transformed into soil retention devices, protecting the fragile and rare alpine ecology that characterize this gorgeous summit.

So, the next time you find yourself on the summit of Mt Eisenhower, check out the new handiwork!


This project happened thanks to grant funding through the National Forest Foundation.

Fountain Pond Teen Trail Crew 8/2-7/09

The Birth of a Trail:

Our project at Fountain Pond was unique and exciting. We weren’t just fixing a deteriorating trail; we were building a new one. Ultimately, the trail on which we worked will connect the Berkshire South Community Center to the Fountain Pond parking area off of Rt. 7. The trail is part of a greater vision to extend a network of trails to the places where people live, work, and learn. Why drive to a faraway parking area to begin your hike when you could take a trail right out of your neighborhood? It’s a pretty neat idea, and I think everyone on the crew was psyched to help make it a reality. Walking into the woods and walking away from a real hiking trail is an awesome accomplishment.

Livin’ it up at Berkshire South:

As participants and their parents rolled up to the Berkshire South parking lot, a lot of people asked Connor and I were we were going to camp. “Right over there, just beyond those trees,” we would answer, pointing to the woods just beyond the picnic area. The Fountain Pond crew was the AMC’s first teen trail crew to work in the “frontcountry.” The location definitely had some merits. Being in the frontcountry meant flush toilets, showers, a picnic area, and best of all, no need to treat drinking water.

Running water aside, the campsite was pretty woodsy, filled with vegetation, wildlife, and a ridiculously large mosquito population. We stayed in tents on top of a few wooden platforms, next to a low ropes course. Our food also needed a safe place to stay, out of reach of bears and other critters. We set up two bear hangs, hoisting our provisions with ropes rigged in trees. There’s no better team building exercise than getting everyone working together on hoisting 4 giant bags of food 15 feet in the air.

This ain’t your grandma’s trail crew:

We were a pretty tough crew, and we got a lot of work done. The daily routine was: getting up at 7 am, taking down the bear hangs, eating breakfast, packing for the day, hoisting the bear bags bag up, taking a brisk 2.5 mi. hike to the work site, working, breaking for lunch, working some more, returning to camp, bear bags, dinner, bear bags, and some much deserved rest.

Our hard work definitely paid off. We filled two turnpikes, set seven stepping stone, and did and incredible amount of side hilling and brushing in. We started from square one and left behind a section of trail that people will enjoy for many years to come. Basically, we kicked butt.

Fun stuff:

Of course, all work and no play makes for a dull trail crew. Our work week definitely had some highlights. We ate some awesome food. Dinner was a major part of every day, and we ate dessert every night except the night we decided we were we just to full from so much delicious dinner. Wednesday evening was probably the most gourmet. We went to the community center for a community dinner, provided by a local chef. The other camp food was good, but you can’t beat professionally prepared salad, gnocchi, and poached peach. Wednesday was also cool because a bunch of local volunteers joined us at the work site. It was cool to meet new people, and have even more volunteers working on the trail. We did some cool after work activities over the course of the week, as well. We swam in the Green River, picnicked at Lake Mansfield, and played an awesome game of tag.

The week ended with the traditional pancake breakfast. We had all morning to eat delicious pancakes and wait for parents to arrive. While we were indulging in some fried, syrupy goodness, two staff members from the community center came to take our pictures for the news letter. So in conclusion…We’re kind of a big deal. Thanks for a great week, Fountain Pond Crew.

-Alexa

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Publish Post

Berkshire Teen Trail Crew Week Six, Mt. Williams

The Start:

Week Six started with a bang, or rather a small distant roll of thunder, barely audible off in the distant hills, but none the less threatening to the start of our week. As we gathered together the last few things on our list and threw them in the van, trying to escape the heavy “mist” rapidly “settling” on the KCC, I worried about the weather we would see up on Greylock.

That was all the thunder we heard all week, and the end of my worries. Aside from one random downpour that lasted just long enough to soak us, our tools, and our worksite (and our morale [but only for a short while]) it was the best weather we have seen yet this summer.

The nice weather may have helped, but the volunteers’ hard work and wonderful attitudes are what really got things done this week. Working on a particularly eroded section of the AT on Mt. Williams our project options for the week were varied and almost limitless. My field notes indicated that we certainly would not run out of things to keep our hands busy this week. After meeting the crew, I was close to certain that they had it in themselves to take a nice chunk out of our to-do list during the course of the week.

The Monday:

As soon as our tool and safety talks were over on Monday morning the crew was hard at it quarrying diligently, and finding some amazing rocks. Katharine and I quickly decided that this crew was completely capable of taking on a few projects at the same time, and given the condition of the trail there was no shortage of those. By Monday afternoon we had opened up a can of worms that only crew leaders with massive amounts of faith in their crew would open. By the days end we had started three projects including a “6” (it turned out to be 10) step case, two double step check steps, and accumulated a bulldozer worthy pile of crush.

The Meal:

All volunteer crews build things on the trail, but how many take dinner to the level of fine art? Stir Fry night can be boring, predictable, and downright lame. Week after week of jamming trail crew quantities of the same old veggies and instant rice into the world’s smallest frying pans can lead to crew frustration and bland palate disorder. In order to prevent such problems and break the broken record pattern of manotiny we rose to the occasion and created a meal not soon to be forgotten. Armed with the trail wok, solution to holding massive quantities of vegetables; Katharine, the solution to blandness and predictability; and volunteers, the solution to not having broccoli animal carvings on your stir fry (Wait!?! Was that a problem? Well, we certainly had the solution.) we took Trail Crew meal time to an unsurpassed level. Yes folks, the following photos are evidence that we had fresh squeezed lime juice on our stir fry, and broccoli carvings of an Asian Elephant (notice the small ears), duckling, and person with crazy dreads to garnish our meal. And yes, in the lime juice picture I may be saying “Check this out Dodge Crew, Berkshires gettin’ fancy pants!” (or something to that effect).

After a fancy pants meal what do you do for dessert? Why a sunset hike up to picturesque Mt. Prospect of course. I would give that chain of events Five Stars. But we are not here to have fun! Oh no, there are rocks to roll, holes to dig, rocks to smash, and rocks to smash, and….well, you get it, crush-tastic amounts of work.

The Step:

Every once in a while something happens that makes a trail crew leader tear up and fill with parent like pride. The Step was one such occasion for me. As the week progressed our crew members skills developed rather rapidly. By Wednesday the whole crew was excelling, and everyone was working on their own projects, setting scree, steps, and making crush, with very little need for input from Katharine and I. At one point the trio working on setting steps called me over to ask what I thought of the whole they had dug for their step. I chuckled and told them that the hole looked wonderful, and at worst it might need a slight adjustment which we would figure out once it had been placed. The crew rolled the rock in the hole and it stuck with a slight awkward angle to it. They let out small sounds of disappointment, at which I chuckled because while the fit was not great, it was far from bad. I helped them roll the rock out and suggested that they shave a little dirt out of the hole. Two scoops of dirt later we re-rolled the rock. Plop...the end...no crush, no wobble, flat, 7 inch rise, 12 inch run, 2 feet wide. The teens started laughing at me and my excitement. The perfect step. Everything about it had worked in our favor and it stuck in the hole that teen volunteers had dug (with very little crew leader input) perfectly. It doesn't get much better than that.


The End:

In the end we ended up with a beautiful staircase, two amazing check steps, a renovated/ rebuilt waterbar, and several reshaped and cleaned waterbars. It was a wonderful week from start to finish and we all felt accomplished and satisfied at the end.

-Philly
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