Applied Physics: Wiacek Woods Work Party

Saturday we met to help continue work near the new Paugussett Trail bog walk at Wiacek Woods.  Bill Dyer got a work out with his twin crow bar trekking poles hiking into the work zone.  He'll probably want more at the next work party.  It was good to walk through all the improved sections of the Trail that we had worked on earlier in the year.  With all the fallen leaves you could hardly tell that there had been major trail construction there earlier.

 Teresa showed off the new bog walk sections to the volunteers.

Teresa Gallagher showed off the new bog walk to the volunteers.

Ellen, Bill & Tom trimmed out the Birch Tunnel section out to Meadow Street.  There were a lot of broken branches poking in at eye level.  It's now really inviting instead of a scary Halloween ride.

Matt and Aidan did a good job with moving rocks over for stepping stones.  

Rocks lines up to become stepping stones

Aidan and Matt also carried earth to cover eroded sections of the trail with a lot of roots that were sticking up.  This made the footing a lot nicer.

We had a lot of lessons in applied physics.  

• rolling a big rock is easier than lifting one,
• lift with your legs, not with your back,
• rock nets and teamwork make it a lot easier to move heavy rocks,
• a crow bar with a fulcrum to lever up rocks can be your friend,
• hand tracks also are good back saving devices for moving heavy rocks,
• keep your fingers and toes out from under rocks while being picked up with a bar in case the bar slips,
• wear leather work boots rather than sneakers, if possible, while doing rock work

Tom cleared out sight lines along the Meadow St. pull-off opposite Mayflower Lane.  The Paugussett Trail exits the Birch Tunnel at Meadow St. and becomes a short road walk to the cul-de-sac at the end of the road after that.

UI had people up in a bucket working on the new lines

Thanks to Tom, Matt, Aidan, Bill, Ellen, Teresa, and Terry for working on this section today.  This section of the Paugussett Trail has see a lot of improvements this year.