A turnout of 9 Trailwrights and 1 friend made for a nice work day getting some badly needed erosion control and trail improvements completed. As usual there is plenty more to do. The hike up to about 2/3 of the way seemed to me to be the hardest part of the day. The work was the easiest part.
In all we did some 200 feet of treadway improvement moving the treadway to the west side of a drainage that is continually wet most of the time. Due to the extent of the water flowing down slope onto the treadway, we installed 3 water bars, one larger earth bar at the top of the section to shunt water out of the area, one off to the side in the woods and another immediately above the main drainage. We smoothed and widened the main drainage and removed a lot of barriers (roots and rocks) that impeded the water flow in the drainage.
We installed some 6 rock steps, filled in low spots with gravel completing the treadway in the lower half with an additional 2 rock steps in the upper half. The visible old treadway was screed in and partially concealed with brush to keep hikers on the new section.
The main ditching project was some 150 feet long and additional side drainages of 30 feet and 20 feet.
As we completed this section we experienced some showers but they were no problem due to the protection afforded by the tree canopy and caused no safety issues.
We packed up the tools and headed out. It was much easier returning to the beginning than it was going up. Maybe that was just my imagination.
A personal Thank You to the crew for a job well done. That message was continuously given us as hikers went by all day making it ALL worthwhile. – Hal
