Woodstock
When I moved from eastern Massachusetts to the Upper Valley 10 years ago this month, the opportunity to cover sports for a friendly hippie, since-retired Valley News sports editor Don Mahler, wasn’t the only thing luring me here.
The job helped, but equally appealing was the bountiful nature the Upper Valley offers — especially its ample trail networks.
While many boast of backpacking excursions to high summits in the White Mountain National Forest and elsewhere, I’d always been content to simply saunter contemplatively through lower-lying patches of woods, enjoying nearby forests without the urge to become a member of the 4,000-footer club.
A decade later, I do find myself seeking more challenging outings, aiming often for hikes offering at least 1,000 feet of elevation gain and five miles or more of walking. Yet I’ll always admire the smaller community trail networks, places built and maintained by volunteers allowing easy access to natural settings.
For the last seven years or so, being the sports section’s outdoors and recreation beat reporter has helped me appreciate aspects of community trail building and maintenance I’d previously taken for granted. The cooperation of landowners, grassroots groups and non-profit organizations in making the trails we enjoy possible often requires much more devotion than I’d realized. Once the trails are physically built — a whole other area of expertise I’d gone years without fully understanding — it’s no easy task to keep them maintained for continued public use.
Storm blowdowns across hiking paths are only the beginning. Water diversion is a constant concern in order to keep trails walkable and to mitigate the damages of erosion. Invasive species removal is increasingly important as fast-reproducing plants such as Japanese honeysuckle, knotweed and barberry threaten to crowd out and overtake native flora.
After 10 years of using community trails as a hiker, I realized it was time to try my hand at maintenance. (I’d volunteered previously once, but did little more than rake).
For this I joined the Upper Valley High School Trail Corps, a group of a dozen or so ninth- through-12th-graders who perform all kinds of important trail work throughout the region as part of the Upper Valley Trails Alliance’s Outdoor Odyssey Program.
Last year, I met the Trail Corps for a story about its diligent work removing rail ties from Lebanon’s Mascoma River Greenway. This year, I’d be grunting and sweating right along with its members.
Long pants and gloves in the summer? You bet. An early start, with barely enough time to finish the day’s first cup of coffee before lugging tools into the woods? Indeed. These are the sacrifices people make to keep our trails clean.
With the guidance of UVTA staff and members of the National Parks Service, we were on high on the trails of Woodstock’s Mount Peg by 9:30 a.m.
Over the years covering trail work, I’ve often described the use of tools such as Pulaskis (a combination axe and adze) and McLeods (heavy duty rakes with deep teeth). Would I finally be able to use one of these mysterious tools? Sadly, no; both are primarily used for trail building, and this morning we’d be focused on invasive species removal. I did, however, enjoy access to another bulky tool I hadn’t been familiar with, the weed wrench.
Standing about four feet tall, the bright orange weed wrench clamps onto the base of plants, allowing the use of strength and leverage to uproot pesky invasives where they stand. If you think popping a pimple is satisfying, wait until you’ve heard the craggy popping and snapping of malignant roots, dirt whooshing as you free them from the ground.
Invasives are everywhere on Mount Peg, especially honeysuckle, lining the paths of the trail and extending far into the woods. Some of it can be removed easily by hand, some easily by wrench. Some of the more stubbornly entrenched clusters require significant teamwork, one person fussing at the roots with the wrench while others pull fiercely upward.
By 10 a.m., my bare arms are caked with dirt and sweat, and – I’d known this moment would come – I’m questioning whether all of this botanical destruction is truly necessary. Are these plants really so bad?
I’m assured by Jacodie Cato, who’s spending the summer at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park on a natural resources internship. She reiterates what I’ve already been told numerous times, that invasives harm ecosystems by colonizing habitats and decreasing biodiversity by taxing space and food supplies.
“They’re a big problem pretty much everywhere in the country, even in deserts,” says Cato, who’s celebrating her 22nd birthday on a pristine summer day. (Did I mention the sacrifices involved with trail maintenance?)
“It’s kind of tough, being able to identify so many of them, because now I see them everywhere. I haven’t had nightmares about them yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I do.”
After a lunch break at the base of Mount Peg, UVTA executive director Russell Hirschler and summer staffer Victoria Pipas lead the afternoon portion of the work day back on the trails. For this we’ll be focused on water diversion, involving the use of hoes and shovels, but not close in labor intensity to the invasive species removal.
Water bar digging does, however, require teamwork and problem-solving. Mountain rainwater must travel somewhere, after all, so where to send it in order to cause the least erosion, especially on land that’s already been disrupted by the creation of trails?
For Hirschler, an aquatic mentality helps.
“Think about where you would be going if you were a drop of water coming down a trail,” he says. “You want water bars to be built at 45- (to) 60-degree angles. If they’re straight across, rushing water is going to flow right over the top.”
Sometimes, it’s as much about diverting people as it is water. Pipas, a Lebanon native and Middlebury College sophomore, leads a group of Trail Corps members on an effort to encourage hikers to high ground above a potentially soggy area, filling in the lower section with leaves, dirt and sticks.
When I arrive, I unintentionally walk where they’d intended. “Yay, it worked,” Pipas says.
After a couple more hours of brainstorming and digging, the work day is over – but not the fun. The Trail Corps ends each day with an activity, and today’s is wall climbing at the Green Mountain Rock Climbing Center.
I do alright as the belay for Trail Corps student Liam Curtis, but when it comes my turn to climb, tying the correct knots to fasten the harness proves inordinately difficult.
“You’re surprisingly bad at this,” quips Laura Romig, UVTA’s program coordinator.
I guess I should stick to the trails.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.