Copy/Repost Hike

It’s a sunny spring morning on National Trails Day, and seven GayOutdoors.org members are performing trail maintenance on its’ adopted trail, the Mt. Osceola Trail in Waterville Valley, NH. We are preparing the trail for the summer season.

It’s the perfect wooded scene with a canopy of towering trees, white trillium, and a choir of birds.

Mike Boisvert and Jon Normand were the crew leaders. We had assistance from Rob, Tim, Steve, James and Anthony.

We cleaned 30 drains on this day, making sure hikers have clear, dry paths to hike through.

Many were hidden because they filled up with dirt since the last time we did trail maintenance.

“This is the most important job of a spring patrol,” Mike says. “We rake the drains and re-dig the drains to carry away the water.”

It’s hard, physical work – raking, clipping, sawing the trunks of fallen trees, and then lifting those trunks to clear the paths. And then there are other challenges to deal with.

“The black fly regards you as their personal smorgasbord,” Mike says. “And here we are looking rather tasty to them.”

These annoying, small flies swarm all around.

But we were prepared, as all of us applied insect repellent.

Everyone who joined us, plans on returning next year.

It gives us an opportunity to be out in the beautiful New Hampshire forest, which is always a great excuse.

Many of our volunteers are not necessarily avid hikers who spend countless days on trails all throughout the state. Our volunteers do this because it's an opportunity to keep them well maintained.

We credit the trails for maintaining our physical and mental health. So being able to give back is just part of it, because it is fun. It’s getting to work out here with people who have similar values around the trails and how important it is.

There are some paid trail crews, but there are very, very few.

It’s difficult to find people who are willing to help out. For the amount of people using the trails, not enough of them are pitching in.

If everyone that hikes would put in one day of trail work a year, the trails would be beautiful. But that’s not happening. We at GayOutdoors are finding fewer members helping out each year.

When we reached 2 miles into the trail, we came across a fallen trees across the trail stretching for .25 miles. There were giant trees, some 10-15” in diameter!

We worked together to saw and axe over 15 of these trees and taking down a number of smaller ones. We clipped back the branches on a couple of larger trees that were too big for us to handle.  

And that’s just one example of the teamwork it takes to keep these trails clear. It’s really rewarding to be able to look back and see the work we do together. And throughout the day, we received a multitude of thanks.  

It’s a great feeling of accomplishment. We noticed thanks posted on this Facebook page, and on a trail conditions report.

Afterwards, we all gathered back at Mike and Jon’s house [Mad River Lodge] for some appetizers/beverages on the deck and a hiker BBQ feast prepared by Jon:

• Grilled Chicken Breast, Mozzarella Garlic Chicken Sausage, Lemon Shrimp Kabobs
• Garden Tossed Salad, Pesto Pasta Salad, Turmeric Infused Rice
• Home Made Lemon Pound Cake with fresh berries and ice cream.

This is a free meal paid for by GO for our volunteers. Additionally, we provide lodging for the weekend! 

 We finished the evening with a massive bonfire followed by fireworks.

Jon and I want to thank everyone who helped out. We cannot even begin to say how much fun we had working with you all. Thank you all so much, for everything.

We hope more GO members help us next year!

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