We're winding down

Well, folks, its been awhile. I apologize. I've been spending more of my office time working on the next installment of the newsletter. It will have a wrap up of the year, and a sundry other announcements. I have also been working on an exciting development of our web presence.

we have...pictures!

I signed us up for free web hosting of pictures so that they are accessible for you all to see. We've taken many pictures, but were not really able to get them up onto the NYNJTC website, so I found us a site that has some great features.

The best part is that you can email us any pictures you've taken and send them to us at the email: Bear_Mountain_Trails@pickle.com and we can upload them directly. Also, you can leave comments too! The website to see the albums at is: http://www.pickle.com/bear_mountain_trails Be sure to go!

Anyway, updates on the work done. A large contigous piece of trail is completed, with all the steps placed. We even had treading put down in many places, all it needs now is a little bit of native mineral soil put down on top to hide the blue color of the imported gravel and dust and it is 100% completed. If you haven't been out in awhile, you will see just how much was completed this year. We still have this weekend and then whenever the weather is good this winter to get a bit more done, but still, its impressive. We will have a count out for you with the newsletter.

On Nov 11th, we had a womens work trip. The hosts of this work trip were Sarah, Erin, me (Carol), and Liz (half day, her dad was visiting and working on the other side for the frist half) hosting with Leslie and Deb volunteering. Instead of kicking the usual co-ed work trip off the mountain, we went to the south face of the mountain and did some good old fashioned side hilling trail building. This is how most trail building is done, for more backcountry hiking. What you do is use a hoe to dig out the flat bench for the hiking trail, compared to what we are doing on the East face, where we build the bench out of crib wall. The south face is used generally only by through hikers and other more serious hikers out for long hikes, compared to people's shorter hikes up to the top of the mountain and back. I really enjoyed the side hilling. It can be tiring work, but it is fun because its safe to just chit chat as you hack at the dirt. It was a beautiful warm day for November, and since we were on the south face we had sunlight all day, on top of the gorgeous views.

Also on that day, we had a large number of other volunteers on the main project area, including 4 women from the Mass Parks trail building SCA crew, plus Liz's dad, Job (his first day out I think), Mike and Owen Garrison, Andy Helck and Richard Lynch. I wasn't there when they were working but I know that they got a lot of work done!

On Friday the 17th, we had a group of 9 students and 2 teachers from Peekskill HS come out and do some hard work and get dirty. The were Jasmine, Angie, Shannon, Pira, Anthony, Jacqueline, Rob, Billy and the teachers Mr Benvenga and Ms Day. They day started out interesting enough. They had been promised a 15 person van to bring them on this field trip, and that was all the 9 of them needed. The problem is they got a full sized bus. While for most trips, this is probably not a problem, if only excessive, for this trip it was. It meant they had to hike up. Oh the groaning and complaining about the steep hike! They were assured that it was the hardest work of the day. Once they got to the worksite they were down to work. A few of the volunteers went and helped fly some rocks down the mountain, and a few brave boys helped with using rock bars to get some heavy rocks moved over to the wall area for them to be set. Other volunteers helped shovel and move the fine gravel to cover the trail. One of the volunteers, Anthony, was using our canycom powered "wheelbarrow" and loved it. He wanted to come back just to drive the thing again. It is kind of fun, but I find the noise to eventually become tiresome. A few more students went up to the road top to shovel the gravel into the carrier. At the end of the day, they all had to walk back down. Some of the student, instead of walking, fell the whole way down and probably took half the mountain home on their clothes. They did have fun though! I hope more HS groups come out to work on the project.

The next weekend we had a womens workshop. Hosting the workshop were Erin, Sarah, Denise Vitale and me, and attendees were Liz Mellen, Cal Rizzuto, Joan James, Eileen O'Reilly and Vicki Rubino. We focused on a smattering of basic rock work to get everyone acquainted with the work that happens on the mountain. We spent much of Saturday flying rocks down to the wall site, as well as using our rock moving skills with rock bars. On Sunday, we completed flying the rocks down, and then Sarah was teaching crib wall building, while a few of us dug a trench to make sure the water flowing down the old logging road actually all goes over the stone paving built a few weeks earlier and not over some other part of the trail.

Last weekend we had a college day work trip. It wasn't hugely attended but we had fun. Our workers were Dan, Me, and Jon, with volunteers Andy (not a college student) and Job and new volunteer and Job's friend Annalisa. We primarily focussed on moving the small gravel down the mountain for tread topping. Andy brought his electric belay machine that pulled the carrier of gravel up and down the mountain: Success! We can finally move this stuff! See, the bigger gravel goes down the chute quite efficiently, but the smaller stuff would just get stuck, especially the fine rock dust. We had the idea for the carrier a long time ago, but getting the logistics to cooperate is what took awhile. Finally, we got a metal tripod that held the cable up high enough to clear the hillside completely. Of course, Andy and Eddie have now decided that this is too slow a process but its certainly faster then never. They have started scheming and problem solving again. Still, its great to have the material down at the site finally. At the end of the day, we went down to the inn area and had a picnic with BBQ and pasta salad and chips and cake etc.

The next day was even quieter, with just me, Jon, Dan, Liz and a volunteer, Bill Linhart. We worked at a further down section of the trail, rocks were flown, a few rocks were set by Liz and Bill, and then we made crush. It was a nice day though.

Carol

Ps- I can't seem to get the photo uploader to work properly, and editting the photo away also doesn't seem to be working. I apologize for the bugs!