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| Rock work on Pumpelly Trail (photo: W.Weisiger) |
Monadnock Trails Week was amazing this year, in many ways. We had an amazing number of individual volunteers (82), with between 20 and 40 people showing up for trail work each day. We worked on an amazing number of projects on an amazing number of different trails (15), and put in an amazing number of work hours on the mountain (over 1000- more than 400 over last year's record). Oh, and did I mention the heat and humidity? They were also amazing! Whatever week we choose for Monadnock Trails Week is guaranteed to be the hottest and stickiest of the year, but our volunteers work through almost anything, and even maintain their good humor. They are....you guessed it...amazing!
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| Gear shot on Fairy Springs Trail (photo: S. Merritz) |
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Volunteers getting ready to start the day (photo: J. Stetser)
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Highlights from this year included completion of two beautiful rock staircases, one on the Fairy Springs Trail, and another on the Pumpelly Trail which was a full-week project. In fact, there is further work to be done extending the Pumpelly staircase upwards in future years, taming this very steep and uneven rocky section of trail known locally as "Jacob's Ladder". We employed three grip hoists in the making of these two staircases, which I believe is a trails week first.
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| Working on the Fairy Springs staircase (photo: C. Deegan) |
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| Trailwrights volunteers survey their handiwork after day 2 (photo: C. Deegan) |
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| Moving big rocks on Fairy Springs Trail (photo: W. Weisiger) |
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| Roy Schweiker, Ed Scott, and Mike Zlogar (L to R) talk about rock placement (photo: W. Weisiger) |
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| Nate Preisendorfer (center) directs volunteers on the Pumpelly Trail (photo: W. Weisiger) |
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| Aaron Horner (center) wins the award for the most consecutive MTW days (10 and counting, 2012-13) (Photo: W. Weisiger) |
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| Staircase on Pumpelly Trail. The fact that this (and all these projects) were completed by volunteers just blows me away. We have amazing, amazing volunteers! (photo: P. Landers) |
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| Moving a rock in unison, Pumpelly Trail (photo: W. Weisiger) |
The week's effort also included construction of a new bridge over the Ainsworth Brook on the Parker Trail, and many new rock waterbars (Birchtoft, Sidefoot, Mossy Brook, Fairy Springs, and Hedgehog Trails). We also cleaned and scraped out existing drains, re-routed two trails, brushed in bootleg side trails, maintained clearings, and cleared out stream blockages that threaten to wash out trails during high water. It was a tiring week, but also immensely satisfying to see all the coordination and hard work yield real improvements on the ground. Mount Monadnock thanks you all!
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| Girls from Camp Wa-Klo in Jaffrey helped out on two days (photo: C.Deegan) |
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| Len Martin (L) and Wendy Weisiger (R) strip a spruce for use as a waterbar on the Sidefoot Trail (photo: C.Deegan) |
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Moving a large spruce log, not as easy as it looks! (photo: W.Weisiger)
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| Work on the bridge over the Ainsworth Brook, Parker Trail (photo: J. Bigl) |
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| Nailing deck boards, Parker Trail (photo: J. Stetser) |
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| Crew on the completed bridge, Parker Trail (photo: J. Bigl) |
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| John Bigl working on a trail re-route, Parker Trail (photo: J. Stetser) |
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| Carrying in lumber for the Parker Trail bridge (photo: J. Stetser) |
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| Finished rock drain on Mossy Brook Trail (photo: M. Kresge) |
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| Mark Kresge with a rock for his waterbar, Fairy Springs Trail (photo: W. Weisiger) |
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