Trail Trip to New Quarter Park
Tuesday 26 October 2010
by Phyllis
Rain the night before and morning of our planned maintenance trip to New Quarter Park did little to dampen our trail trimming spirits. The weather report promised a mostly sunny day with a curiously high probability of rain between 11am and 12pm. Fourteen of us met bright and early at the New Quarter Park parking lot and were greeted by park superintendent, Molly Nealer. Collecting shovels, loppers, fire rakes and bowsaws were: Bill B., James, Sandy, Sandra, Steve, Marti, Mark C., Mark F., Brian, John, Bill R., Dick, Dottie and Phyllis. Bruce, Dewey and Margaret had been there the day before to conduct repairs to flooded drainage sites on Loop 9. We were there to clear overgrown trails. And clear we did! Loops 2 and 4 were massively overgrown with young American Beauty Berry trees. Aggressive lopping of limbs was necessary to reopen the trails, sometimes as much as 3 to 4 feet on either side of the current tread. We had nearly finished Loop 4 when it started to sprinkle. Work continued until the sprinkle turned to drizzle and the drizzle to a driving rain. Right on time at 11:30am! We sought cover in a nearby shelter and took advantage of the time and weather to eat lunch. Shortly after noon the rain stopped and the sun started to appear. The weatherman was right again! Returning to work, some of us finished Loop 4 while the rest headed for Loop 5. There was also some trimming on 5 in spots where the sun penetrated the canopy though not nearly as much. We took a short break at the overlook to view the changing colors of the marsh along Queen’s Creek before heading on to the final three loops. Loops 7-9 had plenty to trim as well and we stayed busy for the next couple of hours. We took time to pause at some of the sites where cannon had watched for the enemy years and years before. We also saw lots of neat fungi, a result of the wet weather we’ve recently had.
Back at the parking lot, we put the tools back in the truck and headed for the next job...ice cream! This was an especially gratifying reward after a full day of trail work! Some folks said this was some of the toughest trail work they’d done in a while. We can be very proud of our trails at New Quarter!