The crews last week completed removing the rocks from the worse part of the east Skyline Trail and graveled about 400 feet of it.  The trails are still pretty dry but hopefully this week’s rain will help that.

This week we will continue working on the east Skyline Trail.  The work will be to remove a few more rocks near the lower road crossing, widen it out to 5 feet and then adding some new gravel.  The remaining rocks near the road are a little bigger so we will be using pick mattocks and pry bars.  Other than those few remaining rocks the trail in this area is mostly dirt and it is easy work to widen and smooth the trail out with McLeods and rakes and adding the new gravel.

When: Thursday through Sunday, November 14 to 17.

Time: 8 to noon

Meeting Place: the Badger Mountain Westgate parking lot off of Dallas Road.  We will then carpool to near the work site.

Last week the trailmaster had one helper on Thursday, five on Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday.  Potential schedule this week depending on help:  Thursday remove the last of the rocks.  Last week the crew had a blast getting out the large rocks.  It is teamwork and you don’t have to be strong to do it.  On Friday or Saturday the trailmaster would like to have at least five helpers lay down the gravel.  Hopefully on Sunday we can then finish this project with cleaning up the last of the trail.

The trailmaster will provide all the tools and even some homemade cookies at the mid-morning break.  Volunteers need to bring work gloves, water, and snacks with a small pack to carry them, and dress for the weather forecast.  There isn’t any work for preteens and younger – it is hard to keep them motivated for 4 hours.  You will need to sign-up so the trailmaster can plan the work and bake enough cookies.  Please let the trailmaster know that you are coming by sending an email to [email protected]

If you can’t make it this week, there will work parties on Thursday through Sunday, until around Thanksgiving.  We will see how the weather holds out.