Sat 9/21: Workday on Winslow Trail, Mount Kearsarge
Last Saturday saw five of us 0.4 miles up Winslow Trail, .where we built 1 12-rock staircase in 2021 and a
safer brook crossing with rock steps in 2022. We are continuing down the inventory from the last day we
built there, 8/19/2023 (see HERE).
We met at 0900, signed the waiver, took tools and hiked on up. Onsite by 1020, we looked at the first job: remove a large old birch leaner that was hung up on a spruce downhill of the trail, chopping with axes and pulling it down with a 40' length of webbing. We decided we could not do that job safely, so we went downhill and soon started on the next items.
Chuck and TM Craig added two rock steps and a paver to a slope of bare earth being scoured away by hikers' boots and the occasional rainstorm. Probing the soil uphill of the trail yielded an angular slabby piece of ledge, which they pried up and flipped carefully down to the trail. The photo to the right shows them with a loop of webbing around each end, walking it down to its new home.
The other photo from that site is from downhill, with the bigger rock and a thinner one tucked behind it spanning the entire width of the trail. Hikers cannot wear a herd path around them, and the rise to the lower one is less than the rise to several built 2015 by another crew just downhill.
Meanwhile Dave, Jose, and TL Scott built a rock waterbar uphill of the 2015 work. Sand eroded from the bare mineral slope uphill of it was carried onto the steps. With a ditch and 3-rock waterbar that sand is caught and can be thrown back onto the trail in a more controlled way in future. They added a step to help hikers step over the bar.
Monday morning I stopped at DNCR HQ in Concord (Dept. of Natural & Cultural Resources), showed a photo of the birch leaner to my boss, the manager of volunteers, and asked him to chainsaw the old birch leaner. He said he will before October.
That lets us Cardigan Highlanders re-open 20 yards of trail probably built by Trailwrights in 1987 that bypassed a steep ledge of fine-grained smooth granite that has flow ice six months a year. SO, in October we'll work a day there, also finishing remaining items from the 2023 inventory.
Life is good.
Craig Sanborn, CHVTC
Trailmaster