September 23,24,25 2016 was our final crew outing for this Appalachian Trail relocation/rehabilitation project on Black Mt. in Harriman State Park, N.Y. On February 1, 2016 LDTC crew leaders and all the necessary personnel from the NY Parks department and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy got together on Black Mt., A relocation plan to bypass a steep and eroded section of the Appalachian Trail was laid out and agreed upon by all. It would take about 2 months for all the paperwork to be signed and a crew schedule posted. At 9am April 29, 2016 the crew met in the Anthony Wayne north parking lot to begin the project. With special permission from the parks department, we could use three work vehicles to shuttle the crew from the safety of the parking lot to an area closer the work site. That closer location was near an A.T. trail head on the shoulder of the Palisades Interstate Parkway, a very busy 4 lane high speed highway. Getting closer was a safety issue since we didn’t want our crew to have to cross the busy roadway each day carrying heavy tools etc. With permit in hand we parked as close as we could the the trail head, then hiked our tools up to the worksite which was about .5 mile in and about 350ft. up, basically a good hike to start our day.
We were working on the Appalachian Trail so we encounter many hikers. With Bob Fullers guidance and encouragement, we have all become knowledgeable trailside ambassadors. For the most part hikers were very interested in our work and always expressed their appreciation for our efforts. We enjoyed meeting them and took every opportunity to explain our work and mission.
As with most relocations, we bypassed a steep and eroded section, added steps and built a smoother more sustainable trail. Uphill from the new relocation we also rehabilitated a short but very steep section of the existing trail by adding steps and cleared the trail of loose boulders. From beginning to end this project took 21 crew outings (seven 3 day weekends) to complete. One of the benefits of this project was the view. When lunchtime came around we all hiked a littler further up the mountain to get a better view. And Wow what a view. Way off in the distance you could see the New York City skyline. It was quite a treat.
As you can tell from the pictures this project took a lot of effort and as always, it was all done by volunteers.
Speaking of volunteers, not everyone could make it every time we went out and that’s OK with us. Some volunteers came out out almost every day, others came out for a few days and some could only make it 1 or 2. Don’t feel that you have to commit to the entire project or even a weekend, join us whenever you can, any help is greatly appreciated and being a volunteer you can come and go as you see fit.
This project is over, hopefully our new volunteers learned something about crew life and about trail building, I know everyone had a great time. We really appreciate their efforts and look forward to seeing them again.
If this looks like the kind of activity you want to be part of, contact us, we're a community of volunteers who build, protect and maintain hiking trails.
