Hiking Trail Cleanup

[unclemoustache]

Yup, lots of people think that way about "trail crew". Then they find out that they are not just going to work on the sunny, nice days. You'd be working on the nasty days and getting wet and muddy and cold. In fact that's the whole thing about our outdoor work. You see the nice pictures of clean, smiling people on a sunny day in a park tossing a few sticks off a trail. The reality is that it's just like any other work. There are expectations and quotas and you have to go out into some unpleasant weather.

I shall quote a hooktender. We were climbing up a steep ridge (no trail) to pick out tail trees for downhill yarding. I'd had to already cut a tree that had blown across a road just to get there. The wind was blowing and the rain was slamming in hard. He said that we had to embrace the weather to work that day. So, could you embrace the kind of weather that keeps you chilly and damp and camp out in it?

I do that quite often already, but the older I get, the more I prefer to stay clean and dry. Still, I was hot, sweaty, and covered in sawdust most of today. No big deal. I'd just love to be back west among the mountains. Too stinkin' flat out here.

 

[aokpops]

Any hiking trails in northwest Ohio that need help , just call

 

[svk]

After a day and a half of running the brush saw I can tell you it certainly works different muscles than cutting or splitting firewood. I fell like the day after the first day of a weight lifting regiment back in high school.

Trails are looking nice though.

Both of my blades were dull so I dropped them off to be sharpened and bought one more blade from the fleet supply. I was cutting up on a rock outcropping for most of yesterday so dings were inevitable.

 

[sledge&wedge]

I used to, but then realized it made easy access for the bad guys to sneak into the property on ATVS, etc for nefarious purposes.

I have this problem on neighbor's properties that I hunt and maintain for them... I always leave the last blowdown or brushpile in the way so I can get all the way through from my end but nobody can get in from the other side (without leaving trails).

 

[svk]

Just finished up pitching brush and clearing windfalls off the last section of trail this morning. Used the Fiskars X15 as folks are out in the woods deer hunting and probably wouldn't appreciate the "mountain music" of my saws.

Brushed about two miles of trails this year thst had almost grown in. These trails have been established for well over 50 years so it would be a shame to have let them close off.

 

[svk]

Walked my loop today which is the first time since last fall. Only a few trees and some brush that got leaned over during a wet snow storm we got this spring. I had my Fiskars axe with and made short work of the trees.

The loop is 4 miles from start to finish with about a mile of logging road and the other three on my trails.

According to my Fitbit I walked almost 11 miles today as I've spent nearly 12 hours in the woods.