Sandy Clean-Up Continues

A crack crew of trail volunteers swung into action Saturday morning clearing blowdowns and other storm damage from Sandy & the Wednesday nor'easter.  We concentrated on cleaning up the blue-blazed Paugussett Trail extension behind Hope Lake.  The trail was hard hit with numerous pine trees snapped and toppled across the trail.

Here's a victory photo with Jim, Luis, Bill, Sandie, Rich, and Lynn after we cleared out the worst of the blow-downs.


The morning didn't start out smooth.  The RecPath had been cleared of blowdowns last weekend, however the nor'easter this week took down even more pine trees.  Rich had to clear branches off this tree just so we could scootch the Gator under the tree just to get the tools to the work site.









This spot had about 6 pines snapped and jumbled together.  Clearing this type of storm damage is tricky because everything is under tension and the trees are hung up.  We gradually whittled this mess down though.   At the end I said "What's that sound".  It was the quiet of the lake without the chainsaws.

This is one of the finished sections after the trees were cleared.  Lynn and Luis worked hard at cleaning up the trail so it's easy to follow.  If any scout groups need some White Pine logs for benches, bird houses, or derby cars we can hook them up.

Frankenstorm Sandy took down a lot of pines.  This one over by Silent Waters was laying down almost perfectly E-W.

Next Up; The Turkey Trot Trail along Rt 108.  The pines there are even worse, if that's possible, then the mess along Hope Lake.  We'll try to give advance notice for volunteers but this is an area where all help is really, really welcome.  Enjoy the trails and please do what you can to help with the storm restoration.