Upper Babel tower trail 7-16-2011

Date of work : 7/16/2011
number of workers: 3 - Jim and Jared de Friess and Ken Toole
time spent: 6.5 hours each (includes commute)
Work done:  Shear, lopper, and Pulaski work as needed in the upper 1/4 of the trail.  We initially talked of walking to the bottom and cutting our way out, but soon discovered the trail had closed in somewhat, and our light clipping became full blown.  We worked our way to below the twin trees across the trail that I call the "gateway to the gorge".  One bigger trunk was across the trail around the corner below that.  People had found a bypass, and we just widened it.  Further down I saw yellow jackets swarming on the up hill side of the trail so I clipped mostly to the down hill side and just a little on the uphill side.  An old hornets nest was there above the swarm, so it seems to be a popular spot for stinging insects.  When we got to the place with the first good view we noticed a waist high tree across the trail, that had to be either awkwardly gone over or crawled under.  One cut later and Ken T was able to stand the lower trunk back up such that it is off the trail.  100 feet further another double tree was blocking the trail.  People were getting through, but could easily slide off trail down the trunk as it rotted.  The smaller tree was on top and we soon had it cut and laying on the downhill edge of the trail, and then notched out the stump of the bigger tree for a foot hold.  We clipped about another 100 feet or so and checked just a little further ahead for more trees across the trail, but didn't see any.  Two tricky places were either removed or made better.  We had clipped about 4 hours - which flew by so we were having a great time.

While clipping down multiple people passed us, and most of our clippings were landing in the trail to mulch it.  One commented that they thought the cuttings on the trail made it more slippery.  The day's weather consisted of a misty rain, 65F, and all the rocks were wet already, most were wonderfully appreciative as the trail was wide enough where we had worked, they weren't getting wet walking through the bushes.  On the way out we flung clippings out of the way in what we would consider the trickiest areas.  Coming up the hill was a little less slippery anyway. 

It was great working with Ken T, he got to see what we normally do, and worked cautiously.  I hope there are many other work trips.  Babel might be my work destination for a while until cooler temps come along.

Thanks Ken and Jared.

July 7th 2011 Brushy Ridge Trail

The wife and I hiked Brushy Ridge trail to the point where it starts descending steeply into the gorge, just before we did a little off trail exploring to the north.  On the way back we took the side route to reference rock where we took a break.  While on BRT and when I had the loppers I actively cut some of the briers and and lower hanging fauna to make the trail even a little more friendly.  Don't get me wrong it was easily discernible and had no major obstructions, I just lightly clipped as we went.

It was a good day in the woods, the gnats were bad initially, on the way out the nearby t-storm had caused more breezes and they were not noticeable.  We did not get rained on.