10/12/24: Andrew Brook Trail Drain & Step Work
On Saturday October 12th Highlander’s Bob, Josh, Scott, Ben, and Craig ascended Andrew Brook Trail armed with shovels, picks, 10 lb. rock bars, caution tape, and surveyors tape to a drainage area a short distance above the third brook crossing.
We created a detour route around our work area using safety orange surveyors’ tape to mark the detour route, installed caution tape across the trail above and below the work area to block it off, and added detour signs to route hikers around the work area. Once that was completed work could begin.
This was a site we had visited on July 14th building rock steps and working on the drain. But we ran out of time for completing the job to our satisfaction. Our trip on October 12th was to revisit this site to complete what we had started.
We added two new rock steps and did extensive rock work with stone mason’s extraordinaire Josh and Ben who built a beautiful rock drain area while other crew members found good rock for them to work with and did more extensive widening and digging of the drain.
Historically this spot has had an inadequate drain for handling millions of gallons of water from flowing off the trail instead of down it. It was far too shallow, narrow and had too many obstacles where leaves and other debris could easily clog it, sending all that water down the trail instead of off it.
We believe we have remedied this situation by digging the drain a lot wider and deeper. We added a lot of rock for water to flow over and under, removed obstacles that could possibly cause clogs, built rock side bars to protect the trail tread, added a lot of scree to slow the flow of spring run-off and added a couple of rock steps for crossing the drain and making the trip up the steep bank a little easier for hikers. This was a job well done and a vast improvement for the trail and drain!
On our trip out we stopped to evaluate an area where, in the future, we may construct some new steps to aid hikers ascend this particularly steep section of trail.
Also, on our descent we removed an old rotting large log step over that made travel up and down the trail a bit difficult. The log had rotted enough so work with our rock bars and shovels broke it up and allowed us to move it off the trail. This log had been an impediment for many years but had finally reached a stage of decomposition which allowed us to finally remove it. Good riddance!
Also, on the descent we removed one blow down and trimmed branches from another that were extending into the trail.
All in all, quite a productive day for our team. We met at the trailhead at 8:30 and were back by 2:30. Good work everyone thanks for attending this day!
Respectfully submitted by:
Bob Humphrey
CHVTC Team Leader
