Jingle Bell Beaver Day 2009

We arrived at Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation early enough to enjoy a donut and coffee or 2 before moving on to our assigned service project. This year, Ranger Dave asked if we would work on the Red Trail. Since I'd been through there earlier in the year, I knew about where to go and what needed to be done.

We outfitted ourselves with loppers, shears, grass whips and pruning saws, as well as a bow saw or two. In hindsight we should have double checked the tool sharpness, and brought at least one axe.

The first leg in the morning was the area east of the "police" range in Camp Finney. The gate was locked, so we parked outside and walked around the fence.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/30519764




The large tree to the left needs a better blue blaze.

We cleared the sticker bushes as best we could. Since this is where the trail turns away from the fence, the blazes and path need to show the turn. After working east for about 30-40 minutes, we reached a service road that did not need any maintenance, so turned back west.

On the other side of the range is a pine tree "plantation" - laid out in straight rows, all around the same age. Unfortunately, parts of it are dying, and the lower sections of the healthy part are very fragile.

From Scouts - general

Above you can see Troop 350 clearing the few weeds; below you can see the trail crew relocating one of the dead trunks from the trail tread.

From Scouts - general

One last obstacle removal before the Camp Finney Road is posted to Flickr as a composite photo:




After an awesome lunch at Camp Spencer, we picked up where we left off, parking a bit farther west on the Camp Finney Road to cut down on travel time to the trail.

The Red Trail follows the road south for a bit, then turns west into the wood. That trailhead is overgrown, so we worked on clearing it.

From Scouts - general

Later that day it looked a lot better:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/30519914




The area I noted earlier in 2009 as needing more blazes is still undermarked.

See this (also in Google Earth):

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/25183738

Further on the trail we cleared a leaning pine tree.

From Scouts - general

...

From Scouts - general

It looks like our SPL grew a moustache while we worked.

This one needs axe or chain saw so we'll need to come back:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/30520260

Near the end of our day we found another large trunk across the trail, as well as a vague direction for the tread due to the amount of leaves down.

From Scouts - general

I put the "after" picture in Panaramio, which has already been selected for Google Earth.



Now I just need to verify those GPS coordinates.

Does 39° 42' 11.76" N 76° 15' 36.15" W sound right?

Waypoint #20 on my ETrex was:

N 39 42.199 39.70332
W 76 15.552 76.25920