As Mark put it, a bit like the Somme.
Luckily, we had a good turnout of enthusiastic volunteers yesterday, despite the horrible conditions before and during the building. I had to leave at 12.30 to go and tend to the sick at home, but from the pics, a lot of headway was made after I left – on top of buckets of work during the rest of the day.
The new fencing meant that part of the Tramway at the bottom of Summer Lightning disappeared, as well as the last two sections of SL itself.
As we walked down Summer Lightning from the top (we also started the day with a quick cleanup of the section into Waggledance / Crooked Furrow from the Loading Bay) we noticed a lot of berming – and not the good stuff, either.
The recent rains and wind meant a lot of pine needles on the ground, and these clogged up a load of drains off the first section, and also the fifth section. Elaine volunteered to clear the first bit, and the rest of us worked our way down the trail.
On getting to the Tramway, it immediately became clear that we were in for a drawn – out slog to get any semblance of a trail cut in time. A fortnight’s worth of rain coming off the hillside meant the bottom of the hill was a soggy morass, and cutting trail was more akin to cutting wet peat.
We’ll need to come back to this section soon to continue clearing, and try and get a better offslope for drainage sorted out, too. In the mean time, thanks to all who came out, and fingers crossed the new section will bear up to some heavy traffic this winter.
If you like pics of mud, there are more photos in this set.