We are scheduling work days each Saturday during September to polish the finished trail for the dedication October 2. We will work on Saturdays September 4, 11, 18 and, if necessary, 25. The work will be weed eating, clipping and otherwise clearing the hikers' box and removal of debris.
We had 8 workers on Saturday August 29. Shaun, Paula, Gary, Gerry, John, Shclton, Tom, and Dianna. Tom was a new volunteer and drove up from Marion the spend the day on the trails in the high country. He found out about us on the WEB and thought it would be fun to volunteer.
Gary Paula Shaun and Shelton loaded into Gary's truck and headed down to Section 1. Paula got a gee whiz moment in the back of Gary's truck rounding curves on the parkway!
Shaun begins to find the tread with the weed eater. If there was minimal overgrowth there was minimal cutting done!
Volunteers, where would we be without them all? I am reminded of a Jefferson Airplane song, Volunteers to America ~ Many of us are fulfilling that dream albeit quite a few years post Airplane ;-)
In some places the trail can be completely obscured by 5-8 foot tall weeds.
After clearing the foot tread is revealed and clearance on the upper side is pushed back 5 feet to allow for upper weeds to lay down without being across the trail.
Even as we are clearing for safety we are alert to and protect beautiful plant specimens. I'm more than happy to skip a fern cluster like this beauty!
A passage through a mighty oak!
It was nice to see that the engineering we did on the cribbing and support for the steep stretch in Section one has held up and stabilized into a most excellent trail!
We finished up the section below Dr. Furman's home and south of his driveway, where there was a good bit of tread work that had to be done, especially around the little creek. It is now back to being one of the more beautiful sections of our trail. We then proceeded north and finished up half or more of the section just south of 421 and the section south of Osbourne Mountain Overlook. Workers will finish these sections during the week.
For Saturday, September 4, we will meet at 8:30 am at the old 421 connector near the Parkway School, MP 280.8. Hope to see you there.
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