KTA Trail Crew on the North Country National Scenic Trail

Breakneck Campground near Portersville served as base camp for the KTA trail crew work week on the North Country National Scenic Trail.

When I arrived on Tuesday afternoon with a trailer load of legal-to-transport-ash-bore-free firewood, Joe Healey and Joyce Appel were supervising the set-up of the cook tent. The Butler Outdoor Club had stored one of the 20’ x 10’ carports used for the “Outdoor Extravaganza” at the campground for the KTA to use. Dan Cheesman, the campground owner, allowed us to set up the carport on the gravel pad under the frame for his 40’ x 15’ carport. We put Joe’s big tarp over the larger carport frame and had a very nice cook/dining area.

None of us had ever met our camp cook, Ceci Ramsey. She arrived with home-baked bread, salad, dessert, and what may be the best stew I have ever eaten.

After dinner we all introduced ourselves. I gave everyone an overview of the trail improvements which we hoped to accomplish in the coming days. We gathered the tools which we would need for the next day, set up tents, and built a fire. I left my van and wood trailer with Joyce for the work crew and drove home in the small car which she had driven. My day job cuts into my volunteer time.

 

In the previous month, the McConnels Mill State Park area had experienced heavy rain, two flash floods and high winds. Fallen trees and washed-out areas had made the North Country National Scenic Trail along the gorge of Slippery Rock Creek nearly impassable.

The pouring rain on Wednesday eliminated any need for sunscreen and made the water problems easy to spot. First-time trail workers Andrew Zadnik (who is the Land Stewardship Coordinator for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy) and Lacy Smith (a kayaker who volunteered the previous Saturday when we spoke to her at the hiking trailhead/kayak take-out) joined Joe Healey, Joyce Appel, Kay Thompson, Ed Scurry, Joe Hardisky, Dave Maxwell, Dave Galbreath, Bill Dietrich, and Bill Majernick. The volunteers split into two work groups. One group repaired railings, stone steps and water damage starting on the northern end of the work area at the covered bridge by the gristmill. The other group started at Eckert Bridge where a culvert on the road had plugged and washed away the trail. Luckily the park staff had left 5 tons of gravel near the site when they unplugged the culvert. Unfortunately they had not left the backhoe.

Thursday’s weather allowed the crew to better enjoy the picture-postcard setting. By day’s end trees were cut, rocks were moved, steps and railings were repaired, water bars installed, a water crossing was rerouted and the 5 ton gravel pile had been reshaped into trail. The access to the west side of one of Pennsylvania’s premier whitewater runs was passable - making it safer for rescue personnel, kayakers, and hikers. About then the work crew didn’t care if they ever saw another pile of gravel, but little did they know…

Dan Mourer, Bill Stegman, and I were busy planning and getting materials in place for the trailwork Friday and Saturday. Bill had obtained a salvaged 10’ bridge and a section of 8” culvert pipe. Dan was fabricating a 16” bridge, tent pad timbers, and arranging for delivery of - you guessed i t- 4,000 pounds of pea gravel for the tent pad.

Dan had begged/borrowed a key to the access road, delivered pneumatic wheeled dollies, wheelbarrows, timbers, the preassembled 10’ bridge and materials for the 16’ bridge as he showed the gravel delivery truck where to dump the load.

I called Joyce’s cell phone on Thursday evening to let the trail work crew know what was in store for them. The work site for the next two days was an area of reclaimed surface mines over top of an underground mine now used as a secure government document storage facility. The gate key would be unavailable Friday so the crew would have to walk about 15 minutes, after a 38 minute drive from the campground, before getting to the area where the material had been stored. To get to the campsite required an additional 10 minute walk up the hill, down another hill, through the stream where the 16’ bridge was to be built, over the hill to the stream where the 10’ bridge was to be placed, and up the hill to where the tent pad was to be installed. The plan for Friday was to set the footings for the bridges and get some of the material near to where it needed to be. I suggested that the 10’ bridge might be used temporally to get material over the first stream, and reminded Joe (Joyce’s phone was on speaker) of the driving directions and maps I had left with him on Tuesday.

When I joined the campers on Friday after work, everyone was talking about the bear they saw while walking out from the worksite. Joe assured me that I would be pleased with what had been accomplished when we got to the site the next day.

Some of the faces changed, but about the same number of volunteers came out on Saturday as had been out on the weekdays. John Stehle, Dan Mourer, Jesse Mourer, Bill Stegman, Helen Coyne and Jacob Lauten joined in the effort.

Dan Mourer and Bill Stegman met us at the parking lot on Saturday. We transferred tools and people into two vehicles, unlocked the gate, and drove (no bear sightings) to where the material had been stored. Access to the gate key made for an earlier starting time.

 

We carried in as much as we could. Bill and Ed continued down the trail with the section of culvert pipe as the rest of us turned back the connector trail toward the campsite. Jake started clearing the area for the tent pad as we started to assemble the components of the 16’ bridge. The Friday crew had the bridge footings in place, the 10’ bridge was complete, and they had even started to transport pea gravel to a tarp beside the tent site.

Some of us ate lunch on the 16’ bridge, others on the nearly completed tent pad.

After lunch the focus shifted to getting the remainder of the gravel to the tent pad and improving the muddy and overgrown hill at the end of the access road.

The 10 minute walk from the pile of pea gravel to the tent pad took quite a bit more time when pushing a loaded wheelbarrow. The muddy, overgrown hill was becoming rutted and slippery.

A foray into the sea of poison ivy on the south side of the trail revealed no easy way to keep an intermittent watercourse from sometimes spilling over onto the trail. While digging for a water bar to drain the trail to the north side, I encountered what appeared to be 1” crushed limestone. Probing through the snarl of crabapple trees, grapevines and poison ivy revealed the partial remains of a mining road just 6 feet from and parallel to the muddy hill.

Joe had to refuel the chainsaw at about the same time that the pile of brush could have concealed an Airstream trailer. The reroute opened to traffic as the three empty wheelbarrows made their last trip down the no longer muddy hill.

The efforts of Jake Lauten, who found out about the trail crew on something called “Facebook”, did not go unnoticed. I will make efforts to recruit Jake, Lacey, Andrew, Ceci, and Tim for KTA, NCTA and other upcoming trailwork.

Back at Breakneck Campground, after we wrung out sweat-soaked clothes and showered, dinner was served. Ceci and her husband Tim had chilled watermelon, a Caesar salad with ramen noodles, and steaks on the grill.

Sunday morning we packed some of the camp gear then headed to Eckert Bridge. Joe H. and Joe S. headed south to cut a large tree more than two miles down the gorge. The rest of us concentrated on some rock steps and water problems we didn’t get to when the KTA crew worked on that area last fall.

Thanks to all of the volunteers who endured downpours, mud, searing heat with high humidity, poison ivy, crab apple thorns, and the gazes of passing hikers who assume that we are non-violent offenders doing mandated public service.

Special thanks to KTA for coordinating and bankrolling our efforts. Please pat yourselves on the back as you enjoy the splendor of McConnells Mill State Park and set your tent on the new tent pad north of Glade Dam Lake.