New Harold Parker Boardwalks  - September 15, 2007
Completed boardwalk above Bear Pond.  Photo By Tom Greene. Holding Pick Mattocks: Frank & Tom, Left to Right: Lee, Steve, Joe, James, Dave, & Kirk. Photo by Reenie Greene.
On September 15th, North Shore NEMBA resumed our participation in the NEMBA / Merlin Trail Care Series after taking a break during July and August for summer.  This event was held on the West side of Harold Parker State Forest where we performed some brushing back and built two new boardwalks.  An approximately 70 foot, 2 plank boardwalk was built along a muddy section of the fire road that is just North of Bear Pond.   This stretch of fire road is normally very muddy with many braids that trail users have created while trying to avoid the mud.  Fortunately, it was only moderately muddy during our trail care event due to the lack of rain this past summer.  Although, as can be seen in the photos, it did manage to rain on us pretty good during the event.

The second boardwalk was built just West of Jenkins Rd.  This second boardwalk replaced a crossing that consisted of some old tires and a couple of planks.  Although many riders probably enjoyed the technical nature of the original crossing, North Shore NEMBA replaced it with a more stable and permanent boardwalk at the request of the forest ranger.  Unfortunately, no photos were taken at the site of the second boardwalk.  My apologies, especially to the volunteers that worked on the second boardwalk.

After the boardwalks were completed, we returned to parking lot where our president, Frank Lane, served up some hot food, drinks, and snacks.  Ok, so the hot food was just hot dogs, but it doesn't take much to please a bunch of tired, hungry, and wet trail workers.  Normally, many of us go out for a post trail work ride.  However, due to the dreary weather, nearly all of us decided to call it a day after lunch.  Only Lee Hollenbeck was ambitious enough to go out for a ride.  Hope you had a nice ride Lee!  Many thanks to all of the volunteers that showed up on a wet Saturday morning to help out with this event.

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