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Springtime Trails: A Time to Tread Lightly
By Wes Tucker As with most things, spring is a time of transition for a hiking trail. So before you lace up your boots and rush off to the trailhead, please give a thought to the trail itself. Spring is a vulnerable time for a hiking trail. All winter long the treadways (the part of…
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Doctor Trail-love Or: How I Learned to Stop Postholing and Love My Snowshoes
By Wes Tucker I’ll grant you, the snow amounts so far this winter have been underwhelming. But it’s winter in New Hampshire, and that usually means snow… lots of snow. So when the snow does fall, and you plan to hike the trails, you’re going to need a pair of snowshoes. Many new winter hikers…
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2021: 37th Worklog Summary for Cardigan Highlanders Volunteer Trail Crew
“Volunteers don’t get paid,… they’re priceless.” -F. Magnette Seventeen volunteers turned out; 8 had and 2 earned their tartans. The 508 hrs on trails is 106% of the average of the last 5 years pre-covid: 476 hr. Admin hr is 146, outreach is 40 hr. Total CHVTC: 694 hr. Camp Coniston teen crew adds 112…
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10/24 Rollins Trail: Turning a jumbled mess into something helpful.
By Bob Humphrey On Sunday October 24th three Cardigan Highlanders, Craig, Scott, and Bob, attended a workday at Rollins Sate Park performing maintenance and construction on the Rollins Trail. The work for the day was to turn a jumbled mess of large rock into a more inviting staircase to help the hiker attain a large…
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Andrew Brook Waterbars, Oct. 10 & 19
by Craig Sanborn Four volunteers turned out and built two rock waterbars on the first slope uphill from the trailhead. One earned his tartan for 3 days’ work and is now a Cardigan Highlander. Sat 10/10 was overcast, cool, and dark under the tree canopy. We could still see well enough to choose a site…
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Sat 9/25 Winslow Trail: New Rock Stairs DONE
We did it. The stairway we built in a muddy gully last Aug 28 now has three more rock steps just uphill of it. To be honest, the top step was there since the last glacier left, but it was so well positioned that we just had to use it. The day started slowly. The…
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8/28: Stepping It Up On Mt. Kearsarge
On Saturday we were five at Winslow State Park at 0900. The weather was cooler, and drier after the week’s melting humidity, and we soon lugged bars, shovels, and pick up to where we stopped work on 7/31. We just carried on uphill, removing roots only as needed, digging a hole just uphill of the…
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Friday 8/27 South Ridge Trail
Today, two retired volunteers toted pick, bar, and shovel out on South Ridge Trail beyond the 9 drains we re-dug on 8/5. The trail is gradual on that stretch, but gullies enough to make for few places for a drain and its ditch to carry runoff. We warmed up by setting a rock of ~…
Read MoreSat 8/21/21: Andrew Brook Trail, but not from the top.
When we three volunteers met at the ski area parking at 0900, we gathered around the map to try to think of our next move. To wait for the chairlift ride at 1000, then hike 1.5 miles over to the top of the work area, meant starting at lunchtime. One of us had to depart…
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