On Saturday, September 25, 2010 the AMC and a number of dedicated volunteers celebrated National Public Lands Day by doing trail work on the Around-the-Lake Trail in Crawford Notch.
The trail travels around Ammonoosuc Lake in the White Mountain National Forest and is a popular hike for AMC Highland Center guests. Because if its varied use by a wide range of age and abilities we decided to work on this trail for our NPLD Service Project. Much of this trail traverses a slope, called Side-hilling. Over time the trail has become narrow and is starting to fall away down the slope. The narrow path, steep slopes, and exposed roots and rocks can be challenging footing.
We focused our efforts on widening the trail, flattening and smoothing out the walking surface by removing large rocks and roots. We could see the fruits of our labor nearly instantly; the treadway was dramatically improved. In all we reconstructed 283 feet of trail. Not all of the loop, or even half, was reconstructed but this is a great start for this trail. We will continue our efforts on this trail through the fall and into Spring of 2011.
Thanks to all of the volunteers that joined in celebration of NPLD this year. We hope to see you on other AMC Trails volunteer Programs int he future.
Photos: Alex Delucia
