Sorry its been so long!

Hi everyone again,

Sorry its been so long. Since I had been away for a few weeks, I had missed some happenings on Bear Mountain and wanted to have the other intern Dan write a post for you about them instead but we have just been too busy for me to have the time to fill him in on the working of this blog. I decided its been long enough that I'll just catch you up as best as I can.

Well, in the last month and a halfish, a LOT has been accomplished! There were a few workshops in September; Josh Ryan's stone cribbing workshops. I don't know everyone who was there since I wasn't but Dan got some good pictures of the days.

We had the Mahwah Boy Scout troop come out on Sept 23rd to complete their 50mile patch. They had done 50miles of paddling but to get their patch they also have to do 10 hours of service. They came out and got a lot accomplished! We had one group on corridor clearing- cutting through fallen logs, trimming branches etc, another group on digging a trench for cribbing and my group that I lead was on side hilling. Most of Bear Mountain is not "side hillable" because its just too steep for the effect we are going for, but there are a few small places where it is appropriate. My group did great! we got the whole section comepleted! Some of the other groups also got to dump some gravel down the short section of the culvert, which they greatly enjoyed.

The week later the ATC crew showed up. They worked on the section closest to the cul du sac. They got numerous base stones set and even more ground trenched. The West Hudson crew was also in on Saturday and they were working at the opposite end of the work site, setting steps and building up the walls over there. There was a forecast for rain so the ATC crew left a day early. It turns out the rain didn't happen all that much and the day got beautiful, but at least they accomplished a good deal on Friday and Saturday.
On sunday the 1st, Dan and I actually finally completed the shelves for the storage trailer! its been a long time coming from planning to finish, but its finally completed! Thanks to Brian and Christine for starting it, for Vic for helping with the plans and building, and Dan perservering when one of the shelves collapsed on you in prime sit-com follies.

The second week of the ATC crew was even more productive, as they stayed the whole time. Many rocks were split, highlined, shaped and set. The wall looks awesome and we've even started treading a little bit of it, which means is so close to complete trail. The amount of progess made since September is astounding and you all must get out and see it! (and bring some gloves, because you'll just have to work!) Thanks Casey and crew. Bob Reardon from the West Hudson crew showed up this past Saturday to help out, learning a little about the rock work and helping move lots of gravel for the backfill for the walls.

On Oct 5th we had Novartis come out for their corporate day of giving. I think I heard the count was 24 people came all the way from their headquarters in NJ up to bear mountain (there was also a group that went to work in Ringwood). Since it was such a big group that hadn't ever worked trail building before we needed to do something that would be relatively safe. We did corridor clearing on the south face of the mountain (down from the top of the mtn, away from the inn), hacking through the mountain laurel. There are so many overlooks over there, many bald faces coming out of the mountain with great views that you just don't get access to on the current AT. Be excited for this part to be completed. Once we finished this part of the work, we went over to the current work site and bucket-brigaded some of the fine gravel and dust down to the worksite. Thanks Novartis people, you did some good hard work! We were all very tired.

The SCA crew leaders come in later this week for their 4 week stay. Make sure you come out and work with us. This weekend is the rigging workshop and also upcoming this month is the Crib Wall apprenticeship and stone splitting workshop.

--Carol