With rain predicted for the afternoon, Carol and I headed down to Waterville Valley for a fall morning work trip on the Kettles Path, a WVAIA trail that I adopted this year.
The forest was golden around the Kettles.
There were several new blowdowns that had fallen since we came through here on 9/23.
Cleared.
Carol clips back some of the beech saplings that line parts of the trail.
Perhaps these came down during the big rainstorm a few days earlier.
Thank you, Silky!
Ascending towards The Scaur.
Waterbar before.
After. Cleaning the drainages is one of the most important tasks of the trail adopter. There are only 15 of them on this one-mile trail, but other trails have many more.
By the time I got to The Scaur, high clouds had blotted out the sun, but there was still some nice late color down below. Sandwich Dome and Jennings Peak are seen in the distance.
Looking towards Middle & South Tripyramid and Lost Pass.
Mt. Tecumseh and Mt. Osceola frame Thornton Gap. I'll take this opportunity to put in a plug for adopting a trail, in which one assumes responsibility for basic maintenance: cleaning drainages, brushing, blazing (if appropriate) and removing blowdowns. It's a very rewarding endeavor and normally only requires two to three days a year. This link to the NH Trail Workers Facebook page leads to a list of trails available for adoption through the WMNF:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/274962652876067/permalink/1326559107716411
Information on the AMC Adopt-a-Trail program, including an informative manual, is here:
https://www.outdoors.org/get-involved/trail-stewardship/adopt-a-trail/
Thanks for helping out!
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