Hitch 1 report

Progress Report:

Program Name: Finger Lakes National Forest
Dates: 5/31-6/9/2010

Brushed and cleared Interloken trail (2 miles)
Brushed and cleared Backbone trail (1 mile)
Brushed and cleared South Slope trail (.5 miles)
Brushed and cleared George trail (.25 miles)
Brushed and cleared Finger Lakes trail (.5 miles)
Installed Drain Dips (2)
Prepped turnpike materials
Cut rebar (70 pcs.), landscape fabric (140 feet)
Carried turnpike materials to worksite (20 6X6’s .5 miles)

We spent our first day setting up base camp, meeting the USFS staff, and scouting worksites. Rebecca Wright, our agency contact pointed out some trouble spots where horse users were complaining they could not get through the trail. We spent the first few days brushing and clearing these trouble spots on the Interloken and Backbone trails. Scott used the chainsaw to clear a large (14 inch) tree that had fallen across the north end of the Interloken trail blocking access to horseback riders. Both the north end of the Interloken trail and the Backbone trail were completely overgrown with multi-flora rose. We were all pretty scratched up by the rose thorns by the end, but we managed to cut back the multi flora rose off the trail.

After taking care of the trouble areas we moved on to one of our top priorities, the southern end of the Interloken trail to the Burnt Hill trail. The trail runs through mature forest so brushing and clearing the corridor was fairly easy. There wasn’t much underbrush like on the Backbone and the north end of the Interloken, and thankfully no multi flora rose. On Saturday the 5th of June we started building two uphill-side ditches to help dry up so very muddy areas on the Interloken trail. We have not finished them because it rained for the rest of the hitch and the soil became too muddy to work with.

We spent the rest of the hitch brushing and clearing the Southslope trail, the Gorge trail, and prepping turnpiking materials for future projects. The crew spent about a day and a half on the Southslope and Gorge trails. Scott left one afternoon to pick up 6X6’s for turnpiking. On the 7th and 8th day of the hitch we carried 20 6X6’s up the Gorge trail and the Interloken trail to our turnpiking sites. We had to do the half-mile trek 10 times to get all the 6X6’s in. It was hard work. We had to climb some pretty steep hills and navigate some narrow trails to get them in. Everybody was exhausted. We couldn’t even stay awake long enough to watch the sun go down on those nights.