This weekend, a couple NETTers decided after all the dirt they've taken off the trails (and tracked into their cars, yards and living rooms), they should spend a day fixing them up a bit. Here's Mary's report:
"Saturday the Needy Little Man (aka Crazy Dave) proved that he's truly very generous. Dave and Mary joined the Friends of the Blue Hills in their organized trail maintenance day. The work days were started as a way for avid Blue Hills users to give-back, and help maintain the network of trails. Work days happen one Saturday a month (during Spring, Summer, and Fall), and include clearing brush and downed trees, digging ditches to re-route water and minimize trail erosion, and other small projects.
There were over 30 volunteers lined up at the Houghton's Pond parking lot. The core group of organizers (a bunch of guys named Bob) gave a brief description of the scheduled projects and then organized all the volunteers into smaller groups. Mary & Dave joined the "Brushing Group" which involved clearing downed trees that were making the trails impassable. The trees had been down since Hurricane Irene blew threw New England. The destruction from Irene was incredible. There were rows of huge downed trees, that fell like domino's in Irene's wrath. Some were so large, they looked like baby Red Woods! However, that did not deter Mary, Dave, and the 3 other's in the group. They worked diligently to clear the downed trees using only a hand saw and pruning sheers. The 3 guys in the group did all the sawing, while the gals worked with the pruning sheers and then used their pure brute strength and determination to move all monstrous logs (that the guys cut up).
The trail work day wrapped up around noon. The amount of work that done with 5 people, a saw, pruning sheers, and a whole lot of determination was absolutely amazing!! The next scheduled work day is November 12th.
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