July 2021 Newsletter

A little history about Trailwrights and
Artist’s Bluff:
In 1989, the Park Manager, Charles Whiting,
approached Hal Graham and asked if the
Artist’s Bluff trail was salvageable or they
would close it down. Hal looked at it and said it
could be saved if we could find rocks. The
ones there had to stay in place or the whole
side would fall down! They looked at the
curbstones left over from the building of the
parkway and Hal said yes, it’s possible, but
how are we going to get them there?
Charlie had a small load dropped off
and they sat until NH Trails day, July 15, 1989
when a couple of rocks were taken up by
young men in the group that day. Then, in
1990, we were contacted by Bob Miller of the
Shock Incarceration Unit of the state prison
asking if we needed volunteers. They began
carrying the rocks up in 1991 so we could put
in all those steps. Then they carried up bags
of crushed rock to prevent erosion above the
junction to the bluff. They stopped in 1996.
In recent years, Trailwrights has
discovered the art of cutting rocks. and has to
reset many of the steps because hikers are
trying to bypass them, which erodes the
already fragile trail.
That’s why we adopted that trail and
work on it every year now.
Peggy Graham

Special notice!!!
We would like to welcome Karl Gould
into our directors as treasurer. And to
gratefully acknowledge the years of
service from Ralph Potter in that
position. We have such dedicated
directors for which we are thankful.

2021 July Trailwrites Newsletter PDF

November 2020 Newsletter

We hope that all of you and your family members are safe and healthy.  Due to NH State regulations, we have not been working on State properties until further notice. The requirements are not practical for a trail crew.

            What can we say? It’s 2020. Nothing is as it was. In August we had the opportunity to help Dottie Bean of Farmington again by building two bridges to replace rotted ones and add steps to the steep trail, as well as cleaning out her water bars which weren’t to bad. Someone has been doing that, thank you.

            On Halloween, three individual members attacked the Artist’s Bluff water bars. Well, it’s 2020.  They hadn’t been cleaned last spring and after Thursday’s snow, they were frozen solid and required a pick to open them, much less clean them out.  Needless to say, they weren’t all done.

            Maybe 2021 will be better.

            We hope you will plan to come out with us next year if you missed these two opportunities. Many thanks to Ray Jackson for being Dottie’s “event chair”, and to all who came out for Dottie and Artist’s Bluff.