Duncan Lennon and Corey Paradis walk over a new rock drainage with step stones
Each year, RMC undertakes one erosion control project on the more wild, remote trails– and one closer to home, often to one of the scenic spots around our mountain town. This year, that project is the Ledge Trail and Pasture Path, two trails that head towards Lookout Ledge. Eighty percent of the cost of the project is funded by the State of New Hampshire’s Recreation Trails Program.
So far, just a few hundred yards of trail have been worked on… but there’s a ton of work in that stretch! The lower section of Ledge Trail traverses some very wet areas, so there’s plenty of drainage work to be done.
Benzo Harris and Curtis Moore review work
Those rock waterbars you see on trails? What you’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. The rocks need to be mostly buried, to be stable over years of use and minimize shifting due to frost action, water, and hiker traffic.
Here, Field Supervisor Curtis Moore comes out to inspect work. Note the cable in the foreground– a Grip Hoist was used to move some of these rocks, from nearby rock quarries into the trail, where they can be used for rock waterbars, step stones and staircases.
Doing trail work definitely means getting down and dirty. In the photo below, Jake Deslauriers becomes one with the mud, as he constructs a rock waterbar.
Jake Deslauriers digs out around a rock
