President Franklin Roosevelt purchased 48,000 acres of farm land that had been despoiled by overuse and had become badly eroded into gullies by the 1930s. The Civilian Conservation Corps reclaimed the land and planted countless trees, and the Works Progress Administration constructed many of the existing buildings and facilities. The park is now a hilly, forested beauty with four lakes, the largest of which is 690 acres.
We were assigned to work on the The Red Leaves/Cub Lake Trail in an area where it runs along a creek. Beavers had built a dam and created a wetlands that flooded the trail. The park tried to solve the problem with portable boardwalk-like structures seen below, but the best solution was to re-route the trail to higher ground on the adjacent hillside.
The hillside had been clearcut years ago and was in the process of naturally re-growing with a mix of trees. Ranger Greg determined the best route for the new trail segment to follow, flagged it, and a crew of local trail volunteers removed trees to create this rough new trail corridor.
Then our American Hiking Society crew of 12 arrived and dug the new trail tread following Ranger Greg's instructions. He demonstrated how to remove the top layer of organic material (residue from disintegrated leaves, branches, roots, etc.) until we reached the mineral material composed of soil and clay, and how to make the tread slightly at an angle to facilitate water to drain off the trail. Our work surpassed the expectations of the rangers and we pretty much completed the entire trail, including installing drain tile in four particularly wet areas shown a few photos below.
When it was time for a break or lunch, we had our choice of many lovely spots to relax and eat...
Here's a photo of a nearly finished section of trail...
Several days, groups of hikers passed by us as we worked, and all complimented us on the new trail's progress and thanked us for our efforts.
At the beginning of the new trail, we encountered a very unusual situation. Apparently a spring in the hillside was continuously leaching water onto what was to be the new trail, turning it into a messy and impassable quagmire. Every effort they had made in the prior weeks had failed to solve the drainage problem. So after thought and consultations, a plan was devised to capture the flowing water in a drainage pipe and send it under the trail tread in two long lengths of buried drainage pipe.
Eighteen inch deep trenches were dug and water permeable geotextile fabric was placed in the trenches...
...and then the pipe was placed in the fabric and gravel added all around it. The water would pass through the fabric and into the slotted piping, but soil would be unable to penetrate the fabric and thus couldn't clog the tubing. Here's the gravel being added...
A layer of the fabric was then placed on the actual trail corridor and several inches of additional gravel was placed over the fabric to serve as the trail tread. (Mike decided to take a rest break on our newly finished trail segment.)
We had gravel, drain pipe, fabric, and rocks left over, so we also installed drain tile on three smaller sections of trail that were also constantly wet...
Mike, Robert, Joe, and Chuck then built a rest bench using large rocks that were not needed for the trail construction, and here they are trying it out. It provides a lovely view of the creek and the bridge.
Our work was ably supervised by Rangers Greg and Jeff who were with us all week and working right alongside us at all times...
...and here is the entire stalwart crew of volunteers...
Left to right, front row: Bonnie, Betty, Tina (our crew chief), Jylann, Brittany, and Robyn
Back row: Ranger Jeff, Tom, Ed, Mike, Chuck, Joe, Robert, and Ranger Greg
Additional photos are available for viewing and downloading here.
Here's a brief video of our week's work:
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