DJ54
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- Carroll, Ohio
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The OTP is a group of folks that would include Hikers, Mountain Bikers, and Equestrians, that work cooperatively with the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, keeping various types of trails in State Parks & Forests maintained. I thought I'd post some pictures of what our group did last weekend.
The first picture is of my ole' Bud Richard taking a break after our 1 mile hike back to what is known as 21 Horse Cave. It's called 21 Horse Cave, because you can get 21 horses & riders in there.
The old trail to here was getting in pretty bad shape, so ODNR re-routed the trail with their small trail dozer where as it wouldn't wash so bad in the one area, then reconnected to the old trail further up the hill. Where it reconnected, we started the first day widening out about 300' of trail to 3-4' wide with hand tools. It's too narrow to get their trail dozer to the top, due to a crop of sandrock, and shear drop off to the right going up. That was the easy part...
Starting at the cave, we had a roll of geo-tech cut to 4' width, and started unrolling it down the hill in maybe 50' sections at a time, so as not to disturb it too much with people walking on it, other than the ones dumping/finishing the stone. We then started a bucket brigade, and hand carried #4 Limestone in 5 gallon buckets. After doing a large section, they brought us Limestone Screenings to choke it down, and create a hard pack trail.
We hand packed a total of 50 tons of stone up that hill by hand..!! This was done by about 20 of the volunteers. The other 6 or so, started working on the split rail fence alongside the trail. I noticed ODNR's little tracked trail dump had some sort of hydraulic leak at approx. 1:30 p.m. They found a line with a. o-ring leaking. They had an o-ring kit at the shop, but none the right size. Apparently they have a standard size kit, and guessing this was a metric o-ring. So..., we were done with the stone for the day. It is 1 mile back through the Forest to our work site.
The rest of the day was spent finishing the split rail fence, and some worked on reclaiming the old trail,and places where riders have short cut the trails, causing washes. The rest of us went to the creek, and gathered pieces of shale & sandstone, to be hauled up the hill in a UV, and placed in a washout area, and help stabilize the lower side of the trail there. 12 of us went back on Sunday, and gathered more rock and placed it.
I carried stone for about half the day on Sat., then gave one of the guy's a break shoveling stone in the buckets. I did get a short break when the fellow you see closest to me decided those #4 Limestone don't shovel nearly as easy, as I made it look to him. As near as I can figure, I shoveled close to 9-10 tons of the stone, about half & half on the 4's & screenings. Didn't have much trouble going to sleep Sat. evening. Yup, I was in bed by 8:30, LOL...
So the grand total for the weekend was 50 tons of stone, 300' of split rail fence, and approx. 20-25 lbs. of grass seed sown, and 20 or so bales of straw shook out on Sat., in about 7 hours. This was done with only 30 people..!! And the ages of the volunteers ranged from 18 to 73 years old. Not bad... Sunday we gathered about 8 loads of rock like you see in the back of the little UV, and placed in the washout area. The last picture is starting the 1 mile long trek back to the parking lot, heading for home.
We do a large project like this once a year, somewhere in the State of Ohio. Whether it's a County/State/National Park or Forest, one project is selected, and hopefully completed. On top of that, many chapters, as with our own, do smaller projects making various improvements, throughout the year.
It is has been estimated that Hocking State Forest Bridle Trails alone, has over 50,000 riders per year. It is considered the Jewel in the Crown of State Forests in SE Ohio. That's a lot of wear & tear on the trails, so we pitch in to keep them safe as possible.
All I know is, it sure makes me appreciate things I have with hydraulics after a weekend like this...!!
For those of you that live here in Ohio, and get the Country Living Magazine from your electric cooperative, there is a one page article, at the beginning of the back section about our County OHC Chapter doing trail maintenance, if you care to read it.
The first picture is of my ole' Bud Richard taking a break after our 1 mile hike back to what is known as 21 Horse Cave. It's called 21 Horse Cave, because you can get 21 horses & riders in there.
The old trail to here was getting in pretty bad shape, so ODNR re-routed the trail with their small trail dozer where as it wouldn't wash so bad in the one area, then reconnected to the old trail further up the hill. Where it reconnected, we started the first day widening out about 300' of trail to 3-4' wide with hand tools. It's too narrow to get their trail dozer to the top, due to a crop of sandrock, and shear drop off to the right going up. That was the easy part...
Starting at the cave, we had a roll of geo-tech cut to 4' width, and started unrolling it down the hill in maybe 50' sections at a time, so as not to disturb it too much with people walking on it, other than the ones dumping/finishing the stone. We then started a bucket brigade, and hand carried #4 Limestone in 5 gallon buckets. After doing a large section, they brought us Limestone Screenings to choke it down, and create a hard pack trail.
We hand packed a total of 50 tons of stone up that hill by hand..!! This was done by about 20 of the volunteers. The other 6 or so, started working on the split rail fence alongside the trail. I noticed ODNR's little tracked trail dump had some sort of hydraulic leak at approx. 1:30 p.m. They found a line with a. o-ring leaking. They had an o-ring kit at the shop, but none the right size. Apparently they have a standard size kit, and guessing this was a metric o-ring. So..., we were done with the stone for the day. It is 1 mile back through the Forest to our work site.
The rest of the day was spent finishing the split rail fence, and some worked on reclaiming the old trail,and places where riders have short cut the trails, causing washes. The rest of us went to the creek, and gathered pieces of shale & sandstone, to be hauled up the hill in a UV, and placed in a washout area, and help stabilize the lower side of the trail there. 12 of us went back on Sunday, and gathered more rock and placed it.
I carried stone for about half the day on Sat., then gave one of the guy's a break shoveling stone in the buckets. I did get a short break when the fellow you see closest to me decided those #4 Limestone don't shovel nearly as easy, as I made it look to him. As near as I can figure, I shoveled close to 9-10 tons of the stone, about half & half on the 4's & screenings. Didn't have much trouble going to sleep Sat. evening. Yup, I was in bed by 8:30, LOL...
So the grand total for the weekend was 50 tons of stone, 300' of split rail fence, and approx. 20-25 lbs. of grass seed sown, and 20 or so bales of straw shook out on Sat., in about 7 hours. This was done with only 30 people..!! And the ages of the volunteers ranged from 18 to 73 years old. Not bad... Sunday we gathered about 8 loads of rock like you see in the back of the little UV, and placed in the washout area. The last picture is starting the 1 mile long trek back to the parking lot, heading for home.
We do a large project like this once a year, somewhere in the State of Ohio. Whether it's a County/State/National Park or Forest, one project is selected, and hopefully completed. On top of that, many chapters, as with our own, do smaller projects making various improvements, throughout the year.
It is has been estimated that Hocking State Forest Bridle Trails alone, has over 50,000 riders per year. It is considered the Jewel in the Crown of State Forests in SE Ohio. That's a lot of wear & tear on the trails, so we pitch in to keep them safe as possible.
All I know is, it sure makes me appreciate things I have with hydraulics after a weekend like this...!!
For those of you that live here in Ohio, and get the Country Living Magazine from your electric cooperative, there is a one page article, at the beginning of the back section about our County OHC Chapter doing trail maintenance, if you care to read it.
