John Morton, left, and Joe Deffner, both of Thetford, Vt. look over work to be done on the Woods Trail, Thetford Academy's cross country trail on July 7, 2018 in Thetford. Morton designed the trail circa 1991, Deffner is the co-cross country coach at Thetford Academy. Once or twice a year a work day is organized for the trail. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
John Morton, left, and Joe Deffner, both of Thetford, Vt. look over work to be done on the Woods Trail, Thetford Academy's cross country trail on July 7, 2018 in Thetford. Morton designed the trail circa 1991, Deffner is the co-cross country coach at Thetford Academy. Once or twice a year a work day is organized for the trail. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News — Jennifer Hauck

Thetford — Those who frequent the Dan Grossman Woods Trail, whether by foot or by ski, are familiar with the quiet, tranquil beauty of Thetford Academy’s public-access cross country trail. But on Saturday morning, the primary sounds in the forest weren’t rustling foliage or chattering birds, or even the persistent whine of mosquitoes.

It was the grinding roar of machinery — chainsaws and a wood chipper, to be exact — respectively manned by John Morton and Joe Deffner.

The volunteers, both of Thetford, were two of a small group who showed up for Saturday’s trail-clearing project, an event the Woods Trail Committee holds about once a summer.

Though the trail conditions appeared to be “excellent” when they arrived at the scene, Morton said, there still was work to do — including cleaning up the mess left behind in October when a powerful windstorm blew down a number of mature pine trees, the trunks and limbs of which needed to be cut to length. On the other side of the small clearing, Deffner was feeding brush into the wood-chipper.

Because the trail sees so much use, maintenance is both an important and time-consuming duty, said Morton, a trail-builder who designed the Woods Trail in the early 1990s.

“I don’t think any of us anticipated this (volume of use) from the outset,” he added, taking a break from cutting fallen trunks and limbs into manageable segments, some of which may go toward the Thetford Academy industrial arts program. “There are a lot of unforeseen benefits of the trail. … It pulls people together.”

The independent secondary school covers grades seven through 12.

In fact, since its inception in 1991, the Woods Trail has fostered a sort of community of its own.

“It’s become a real community resource,” said Deffner, who coaches the Thetford Academy cross country team. Within the TA sphere alone, “I see faculty and staff taking their lunches here. I see students running here, and not just in practice.” And the school’s outdoor classroom and industrial arts program also take advantage of what the trail can offer.

The cross country trail was the brainchild of TA parent Dan Grossman, whose daughter, Emily, was a runner and who aspired to see Thetford host major cross country events. With much elbow grease from Grossman, and other volunteers, that vision became a reality: For more than 25 years in a row, TA has hosted both the Vermont State Cross Country Running Championship, a race of more than 1,000 runners, as well as the annual Woods Trail Run, which sees about 2,400 runners from up and down the East Coast.

These races have become major events for the town, often garnering well over 100 volunteers “who all pretty much have their jobs now, and take them seriously,” Morton said.

He recalled that when the New England championship fell on the opening day of deer-hunting season — “which is a big deal around here” — even enthusiastic hunters opted to help out at the race instead, directing cars in the Thetford Academy parking lot, for example, or breaking down the course when it was over.

Add to that the weekly “fun runs” Deffner leads in the summer, and the many community members who use the trail to hike, jog, walk dogs and cross country ski, and one begins to appreciate the sheer number of feet, paws and ski poles that have trod the trail over the decades.

Two members of the Woods Trail community, Heinz and Inge Trebitz, happened to be out for a stroll on Saturday morning during the maintenance project.

The Thetford couple are skilled cross country skiers who take advantage of Woods Trail’s central location in town about once a week during the winter, and said they have long valued the Thetford Academy resource for its beauty and accessibility.

“Thetford has such a wealth of trails,” Inge Trebitz said, but noted that “this one is right in the center of Thetford.”

“Oh, we’ve been using it for so long,” Heinz Trebitz said. An experienced trail-clearer himself, Heinz said he had recently cleared a portion of the Woods Trail deeper into the woods, and wanted to check on the trail conditions while he and Inge were enjoying the mild summer morning, a treat after the recent heat wave.

Though volunteer turnout tends to be high when it comes to the Woods Trail, this year’s cadre of trail-clearers was a bit sparse, Morton and Deffner acknowledged. But they hastened to add that that was OK — it meant they could get into a good flow, and that Deffner didn’t have to compete with anyone over the wood chipper.

They shared a laugh before getting back to work. Once again, the woods resounded with the noises of maintaining a community fixture: the chainsaw revving, and the chipper belching out the remains of its latest meal.

EmmaJean Holley can be reached at ejholley@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.

Correction

Heinz and Inge Trebitz were taking a walk on Thetford Academy’s Woods Trail during a trail-clearing project on Saturday. An earlier version of this story misspelled the couple’s last name.