On Sunday, August 21st, a crew of eight assembled at 8:00 am at the upper parking area on Beaver Meadow Road, near Tucker Hill Road, to perform miscellaneous work on the Converse Loop Trail, a scenic loop parallel to the Ballard Trail.
The crew hiked into an area where ferns were covering up rocks, creating an unstable tread way for trail users. There, they broke into squads, each assigned with a different task.
Some dug out the embedded rocks that seemed to have rolled down from a nearby stone wall.
Good golf form was essential to taking out impinging ferns!
Further down the trail, a substantial tree lay across the tread way, which required safe, expert removal, section by section.
When those tasks were accomplished, two squads went onto the Ballard Trail to address a muddy section of trail and to emplace a larger stone at the crossing of the Grand Canyon.
The October 2021 augmentation of the stepping stones at the Grand Canyon crossing was subject to high water flows and ice forces during spring thaw, which moved at least one stone. The squad found a larger, heavier quartzite stone to substitute and embedded it in the gravel, surrounded by flat stones to armor the spillway.
The squads were done by 10:00 and packed their tools out to the parking area.
The participants were:
- Jim Faughnan (work co-leader)
- Stephen Flanders
- Peter Griggs
- Nick Krembs (work co-leader)
- John McCormick
- Gerry Plummer
- Cathie Redpath
- Cody Williams
Story and photos by Stephen Flanders
Norwich Trails 