We have taken a break from our project on West Mountain to work with the staff of Sam’s Point Preserve while rehabilitating a section of the Long Path / Verkeerder Kill Falls Foot Path
Sams Point, Minnewaska State Park Preserve, Kerhonkson, NY
The 2000+ acre fire that broke out on April 23, 2016 was fully contained on April 30, 2016.
Now that the fire is out and regrowth has begun, it is safe for LDTC to go in and rehabilitate sections of the Long Path / Verkeerderkill Falls trail. This area is still very sensitive and the trail remains closed to the public. We will be very careful.
Because of the topography, plant life and heavy hiker traffic, the trail through this area has been compacted down so much that a furrow has been created. Any heavy rain causes the trail/furrow to become a river. The more rain the more river and the harder it is to hike. On the steeper sections, this river effect has eroded the trail to a point that many large boulders stick up and out into the trail making for a very difficult and potentially dangerous hiking experience. That’s where LDTC comes in.
We know water will always be an issue so we wanted to build the trail in such a way as too coexist with the water movement but manage where the water will flow. In several places we put in water bars to shuttle water off the trail and slow the flow rate. In other sections we raised the trail using crib-walls and crush to make a dryer trail during wet weather.
This is our second crew outing (weekend) working on this project. We were here for one weekend last year Friday was a washout. Saturday, was I Love My Park Day so we had a large crew of volunteers. It was very foggy wet and cold but not too cold as the shuttle vehicle (dump truck) moved out going to the trail head. Once there we realized we were in a cloud and would be for most of the day. As we hiked along the trail getting to todays worksite, we couldn’t help but notice the amazing amount of regrowth happening all around us. Young blueberry bushes with pale green leaves were everywhere, Pine trees pushing out new branches with bright green needles from the base and all along their blackened trunks. We went to work where we left off last year and continued adding stepping stones in several wet areas . Each stepping stone would be surrounded by crush, lots of crush. That kept several of us very busy. By the end of the day we had several stepping stones in place and a lot of the crush.
Saturday night it rained, no it poured and the temperature dropped. By morning it was 45 degrees, very windy with light rain still falling.
Sunday wasn’t much better just colder with little promise of sunshine, but always the threat of rain Even with these conditions there was another great volunteer turnout. Todays goal was to build and rehabilitate more waterbars, more crush and continue on with the stepping stones. We head out and immediately started making crush to keep warm. There is a lot of heat generated swinging a big hammer.
Because we missed Friday several crew membrs stayed on and went back out on Monday. Monday was colder still with everyone putting on their thermals. The only thing we had to look forward to was the expections of sun shine now and again. When the sun was out it wasn’t too bad but when it wasn’t it was cold. Even with the wet and cold weather, we got a lot accomplished and look forward to our next outing. This project is not over, we will be returning again in two weeks.
The work wasn’t easy but the lunch time views were awesome. The contrasting colors of wet fire- blackened tree trunks and the sooty soil offset by massive fields of young blueberry bushes coming back to life. The Dwarf Pine sprouting bright green branches and needles. Couple that with the sky opening up and sun beams streaming everywhere, wow you have a scene to die for. Words nor even pictures can accurately convey the beautiful landscape we were again fortunate enough to be part of.
As you can tell from the pictures this project took a lot of effort mostly done by volunteers with help from Sams Point personnel.
Speaking of volunteers, not everyone could make it every time we went out and that’s OK with us. Some volunteers came out out all three days, others could only make it 1 or 2. Don’t feel that you have to commit to the entire project or even a weekend, join us whenever you can, any help is greatly appreciated and being a volunteer you can come and go as you see fit.
Hopefully our new volunteers learned something about crew life and about trail building, Despite the sometimes harsh conditions, I know everyone had a great time. We really appreciate their efforts and look forward to seeing them again.
Photos by Marty Costello and Dr. David Booth, LDTC crew members
If this looks like the kind of activity you want to be part of, contact us, we're a community of volunteers who build, protect and maintain hiking trails.
