by Ed Lawrence, KTA Trail Care Chair
What does it take to put in 100 hours of solid work on one of Pennsylvania’s more remote trails? Answering that question on the first weekend in November were 8 volunteers who gathered at the Brooks Run Fire Tower Cabin, Cameron County, in Elk State Forest for the final Trail Care of 2015. Tasked with improving the treadway and corridor for a section of the Bucktail hugging the McNuff Branch of Hunts Run, the crew dug sidehill in several areas where the trail had collapsed down the sometimes steep slope. Digging in and rebenching the treadway gives future hikers a more secure footpath as they wend their way through a truly lovely valley marked by the past and current industriousness of beavers. Other work included lopping out the width of the trail corridor so that hikers could move back to the middle instead of having to walk the ragged edge. Evenings were spent in relaxed conviviality ringed around the fine old stone fireplace that makes the Brooks Run Fire Tower Cabin a pleasure to spend time in.
Thanks to Rick “Handlebar” Ostheimer, Tom Bastian, Tom O’Donnell, Tony Robbins, Wanda Shirk, Steve Nickerson, and leader Rick Hiemenz for their good work. These volunteers made it happen.
