The trail-building team at work:  In the distance, Bob Jones (orange shirt) marked and started the edge of the revised benching and cut out roots using a cutter mattock.  The second worker (in this case the Webmaster, who paused to take this picture) worked with a McLeod tool to complete the initial benching and rough out the tread.  He was followed by more McLeod wielders.  Larry Hawkins refined and shaped the bench slope and the tread.  Finally Terry Meden did the fine shaping work, smoothing out the lumps and tamping it all down.

Ron Sootsman, our certified chain-sawyer, and Steve Hicks removed seven fallen trees from the John Gay section of trail today.

John Gay Workday #2:  What a gorgeous day for trail work.  As usual, several of us (Larry and Mick Hawkins, Bob Jones and Ron Sootsman) met at Big Boy in Hastings for breakfast.  We were surprised and delighted when John Rudnicki joined us for breakfast. 

Steve Hicks worked with a Pulaski tool removing roots from the trail tread.

You will all be happy to know that John has completed his rather extensive surgeries, survived his post-surgical complications and is largely recovered.  He is 45 pounds lighter now; so some of you may not recognize the newer, trimmer John.  He is back to work full time, but not yet ready to take on the rigors of trail work.

By various and sundry routes we all arrived at the work site (Ron’s GPS took him and the trailer by a different route than the rest of us).  Steve Hicks, Terry Meden and Larry Pio met us at the site.

Ron and Steve started their morning by clearing out several trees that had come down in the storms of August, and the rest of us started to extend the trail where we left off last month.  We extended the trail another 165 feet (by Mick's GPS calculation), and it really looks classy.  Larry Pio single-handedly re-benched another 35 feet of trail further south. 

Brenda Jones joined Terry and Bob later after bringing very welcome treats.  The Webmaster got so busy enjoying the succulent banana bread that he neglected to get a picture of the treat break.

We still have a significant amount of trail to refurbish in this beautiful wooded area and will likely keep working on it through future work days until it is completed.

Brenda Jones joined us late in the morning with banana bread, trail mix and cider.  Was she ever welcome!  She stayed on to do a little trail work after snacks.

Larry Pio busy at work with a McLeod tool on a section of the trail further south.

Ron, Steve, Mick and Larry had a little caucus after the trail work to discuss the trailer and tools situation.  We do have some needs and we will discuss these at the next chapter meeting.

If any trail adopters in the chapter have tools out from the trailer, could you please let Larry or Steve know?  We are missing some loppers and possibly other tools.  We need to inventory our tools and locate any that are being used by adopters.  We don't need them back -- we just need to know where they are.

Hope you can join us in October for the hike in Lost Nations and again for John Gay Workday #3.

Larry Hawkins