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"Cutting trail" in most places in our country involves laborious digging with Pulaskis and other tools, but in Florida it means running the DR All Terrain Mower through the thick underbrush. In this photo we are creating a new trail section to bypass a lowland area that often floods. Billy, one of the officers of the trail club, makes the second of four passes through the new trail corridor. Then other volunteers clip back encroaching foliage, chop out roots and tree stumps that could trip hikers or re-grow, and blaze trees with the Florida Trail's orange painted rectangle to mark the new trail. I would then walk the old trail section and scrape off the old orange blazes. Of course, since Florida has a lengthy growing season, trail volunteers must frequently mow the Florida Trail to keep the trail from returning to a wild state, so constant maintenance in required.
Another project we were assigned was construction of this 32 foot long bridge that is 11 feet above the gully bottom and eliminates a detour around the ravine.
Now hikers can cross the ravine without the detour down into it and back up the other side, and hikers also are spared hiking through mud when the bottom of the ravine was wet and muddy.
The construction crew finished the bridge project so quickly that the hosts had to find additional projects for us, including constructing a picnic table and three rest benches for hikers and then installing them in locations affording nice views of the Suwannee River. We also constructed two fence lines to keep ATVs out of prohibited areas.
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