Back to Andrew Brook
On Sunday July 14th Cardigan Highlanders Ben, Bob, Josh, and Scott met at the Andrew Brook trailhead to distribute tools among them for the 1.3-mile hike to our work site a short distance above the third brook crossing. Tools included 4 ten-pound bars, Rope winch and related hardware, two shovels, two picks, trail saws, caution tape, and signs. All told 80+ lbs. of gear. Sunday brought fair but very hot conditions which combined with the weight of our tools made for a rather slow ascent to our work site.
Upon arriving at the site, we scouted the area for a route to detour hikers around our work area. Once we found a suitable route, we marked it with orange surveyor’s tape and then blocked off the upper and lower ends of the trail with Caution tape and signs informing hikers of the detour and to follow the orange tape around our work area.
Once we had the trail blocked and detour set up, we commenced our work for the day which was to open and widen a troublesome drain that often fails sending water down the trail instead of off it.
In addition to the drainage problem was a relatively steep section of trail with a jumble of large rocks offering the hiker challenging footing with no easy way to ascend and no obvious route up through this spot.
Josh, Scott, and Ben worked on digging and prying out large rocks while Bob worked on digging and widening the drain. Once we had rocks loose and ready for placement, we commenced to build a twenty-five-to thirty-foot 16 step staircase to help hikers through what used to be a tough spot. There is now an obvious and much easier route for hikers to take!
The drain was dug a lot deeper and wider than it had been in hopes of taking all the water spring run-off spills out at this spot. Once the steps were completed, we added scree walls to the uphill side of the steps in hopes of keeping hikers from undermining the work and to help hold the banking in place. We also added barricade to another spot that might have been tempting to use instead of the new rock steps we’d just built. After we completed the new steps and drain work, we dismantled the detour and re-opened the trail for use.
All told we spent 8 hours performing this work which included our hike to and from the work area. We believe by the end of the workday we had improved this section of trail immensely. We will revisit the site during spring run-off to see how the new drain performs.
Bob Humphrey, CHVTC
Team Leader
