This was one of the last two field work days for the spring semester; only a few of the students who worked these days had been here before so I think it was quite an eye opener for some; for the few who were here before, they stepped right up and did some fine work and made some fine choices about finishing what they had started;
Since we ran into that connection issue last week, on Friday Raelynne, Kevin, Ryan and Bianca started work in the reverse direction to connect up to where we had left off last week. That section of the trail wasn’t too heavy in terms of overgrowth so with a couple of grass whips for Phragmites and low brush and loppers for entangling vines and a good bit of sweat they made some quick progress; while we were taking a water break I walked ahead to see what we were up against; I could see where we needed to go so, in my mind I picked the shortest connecting route up a shallow slope; when the break was over and we were ready to start again I showed them where I wanted to go and Raelynne, very quietly and very politely, said “maybe we should take a look over here”? She had found something of a ‘desire path,’ partially hidden from view and not cut or trimmed, but definitely walkable and something that, by following a contour, avoided the worst of overgrowth; I was easily convinced and I just got out of their way as they opened up what they had stumbled upon.
They surprised me and they surprised themselves by how much they had done and how far they had come along the trail; they finished the connection and when I measured it in Google Earth it was roughly 1300+ feet; that is about as close to ¼ mile as you can get and they did it in ONE great afternoon;
It never ceases to amaze me when you have the right group of people working together on a mutually agreed upon goal how much they can do! thanks to all of them for a great outcome;
Since we ran into that connection issue last week, on Friday Raelynne, Kevin, Ryan and Bianca started work in the reverse direction to connect up to where we had left off last week. That section of the trail wasn’t too heavy in terms of overgrowth so with a couple of grass whips for Phragmites and low brush and loppers for entangling vines and a good bit of sweat they made some quick progress; while we were taking a water break I walked ahead to see what we were up against; I could see where we needed to go so, in my mind I picked the shortest connecting route up a shallow slope; when the break was over and we were ready to start again I showed them where I wanted to go and Raelynne, very quietly and very politely, said “maybe we should take a look over here”? She had found something of a ‘desire path,’ partially hidden from view and not cut or trimmed, but definitely walkable and something that, by following a contour, avoided the worst of overgrowth; I was easily convinced and I just got out of their way as they opened up what they had stumbled upon.
They surprised me and they surprised themselves by how much they had done and how far they had come along the trail; they finished the connection and when I measured it in Google Earth it was roughly 1300+ feet; that is about as close to ¼ mile as you can get and they did it in ONE great afternoon;
It never ceases to amaze me when you have the right group of people working together on a mutually agreed upon goal how much they can do! thanks to all of them for a great outcome;
the picture below shows the trail segment that we completed so far this spring;
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