Volunteer Trail-Work Days

Volunteer Trail-Work Days


Our sixth annual volunteer trail-work day in the Pierce Pond watershed was held on Saturday, July 29, 2023. This year we performed routine maintenance and selected improvements on our existing trails, including a combination of clearing, blazing, and signing trails.

With the help of our volunteers, we work to maintain the high quality of our watershed trail system, which is getting more popular with each passing year.

Information on 2024 trail-work volunteer opportunities will be posted in the spring of 2024.

2022 Trail Volunteers Complete Gale Trail and New Loop Trail

 
 

Another successful Volunteer Trail-Work Day was held on the last Saturday of July (July 30, 2022). Our projects for the day were all concerned with finishing the Gale Trail and the Thoroughfare Loop—both of which are described as “in planning stages” on our new watershed maps.

The Gale Trail, named after long-time PPWT supporter and Director Ben Gale, provides a short, easy way to walk from Middle to Upper Pierce Pond. It can be used in low water to allow boats to unload passengers, making for simpler passage through the Thoroughfare. Ben suggested the idea for this trail at his very last board meeting.

The Thoroughfare Loop Trail provides an easy, short loop hike by connecting into the Three-Ponds Loop Trail.

Our intrepid trail volunteers completed the following:

  1. Clearing, leveling, and placing bog bridges along the length of the Gale Trail

  2. Clearing connector trails to the north end of the Gale Trail (.35 mile) and south end of the Gale Trail (.16 mile) to link it up with the Three Ponds Loop Trail (blue dashed lines on above map)

  3. Transporting and setting a “Ben Gale Trail” marker stone in Ben’s honor.

Now the Gale Trail is complet and a new loop trail is ready for hikers! Our deepest thanks go to the following volunteers for their energy, enthusiasm and hard work:

Dennis Barrow, Dylan Barrow, Beth Ekstrom, Steve Estes, Chas Gill, Norm Kalloch, Frank Leigner, Gene McKenna, Jane Cleaves McKenna, Jim Norris, Teresa Price, David Price, Cory Price, Paul Schmidle, Wendy Schmidle

For those who would have liked to help out, but weren’t able to participate, fear not! There will be other opportunities to help out this fall and next spring.  E-mail info@piercepondwatershed.org if you want to know more!