Our second crew outing of 2016 continued with the LDTC on Long Mountain working with the Long Path Trail Crew to relocate a steep and risky section of the Long Path. The relocation will be about 0.3 mile of new trail replacing about 0.1 mile of dangerous trail. There was much to do including side-hilling, taking out blowdowns, brush removal and of course adding a few new steps. Originally we wanted to complete this relocation and close off the old trail in 3 weekend outings, that’s only nine crew days. It was a lot of work but with both crews doing their best, it all got done in only 5 days over 2 crew weekends. This crew outing weekend was all about the weather. Friday was wet and hot with a lot of bugs. We worked hard to get the new relocation completed and ready to be opened. Saturday was wetter and with even more bugs. Jakob blazed the new trail while we finished up most of the little details and blocked off the old section. Also in the old section we built water bars and took other water controlling measures to keep heavy rain water from washing out the new trail. Saturday night it snowed so Sunday morning there was a lot of snow on the ground, it was very cold and with a high wind advisory, the wind chill factor was 13 degrees. It sure takes a lot of commitment to be out in these conditions non-the-less, there were 8 volunteers in the crew today. With the relocation complete, we moved on to a close-by Long Path stream crossing in need of a few stepping stones. Even though snow, cold water and high winds were not the best working conditions, the crew, using only hand tools and a rope-puller, was able to move four large rocks into place. On our way back to the parking lot we cleared away a brand new blow-down that fell Saturday night during the high winds. Back in the parking lot the wind was still blowing and it was only 32 degrees so our normal crew end of day meeting was cut short. We’ll be back at the stream on April 15th. come on out and join in.
