Day Sixteen, Seventeen and Week Three Reflection, Final Thoughts

It seems like just a few days ago, I was finishing up classes and getting ready for this project, and now I am done with it. Even though it is the end we are going out with a bang, with lots of excitement on Sunday night and Monday morning. Around eight on Sunday evening I was in the Wise center and someone said that there was a forest fire, so we went outside and could see a plume of smoke rising from the woods. As it turned into the next day, I awoke early to see if there was any assistance need, as there had been around fifty firefighters there in the evening, and five of them had stayed overnight, and then they were all coming back the next morning.

A few minuets after this picture the whole lot was filled with emergency vehicles 

Luckily the night had not been windy, in stark contrast to the day, where it had been very windy, so the fire did not spread too far, and it was contained. We have not been allowed to go back up to the site with out an adult, and Dave Pilla has been taking kids up to check to make sure that nothing has sprung up. What can happen is the fire will burn into root systems, and it can spring up a few days after it seems a fire has been put out. It seem as though everything is good, but he will continue to check every so often. 

There is virtually no underbrush, and it is a bit strange walking around the site

I have been doing some work wrapping up my project, getting it to a point I feel comfortable leaving it. I think that I have left a fair amount of work, and that even though I did not get something laid out all the way up to balance rock, I think there is enough proposed trail to last a long while. 

Chris Rodgers donated his time and did a lot of chainsaw work

I am sad to be ending my project, but I think that it has been a good experience, and I need to move on to my next adventure. All of the trail centric stuff I have been doing has inspired me to do some long distance hiking, and I would like to do a section of the Appalachian trail, or the Long Trail in Vermont. And then college would also be an adventure I guess. 

I found more lady slippers

For a final reflection we had to write a little paper, so if someone desires to read it, here is a link. Final Reflection

Critter Cam

As a final critter cam, here is a little chipmunk I found today. 

Another small animal that was not too happy with my proximity to it

I have had a lot of fun writing and reflection on my exploits over these past few weeks, so thank you all for reading, and I hope you had as much fun reading these as I had writing them. 

-Ethan

Day Fifteen, Treelly Cool

In the ever constant construction of the pump track, David and I went to Boscawen and picked up a sugar maple to plant in the pump track. It was hard to pick the perfect tree, but after careful deliberation, we picked out a good one, loaded it up, and put it in the ground. 

It fit just fine in the back of the truck

It got a bit wind swept on one side, but that's ok, it looks great

I have had a lot of fun these past three weeks, and with only a few days left, it is a bit surreal, that everything is going to end in a little while, but I guess it is the beginning of bigger things, college and such. 

Critter Cam

At the nursery we were browsing trees, and then heard a sound, and found a little garder snake. 

 They are cute snakes

Day Fourteen, Holes

I like road trips as much as anyone else, but driving too and from Hookset two times in a day is a bit much for me. It is a nice time to talk to people, but the same road gets a bit old quickly. This all being said, I had a great time doing that drive with David. We also got to look around Home Depot, and find Milwaukee 12 volt sawzall. They are tiny and cute and what I never knew I wanted, but have now always wanted.

 Who would not want that?

We were going to Home Depot to rent a two man auger, to dig drainage holes for the pump track. It was a lot of fun, to use this really ridiculous looking machine. It did a great job though, and it has a twelve inch wide bit on it, so it looked fantastic. 

Action shot

The whole day was fun, even though we spent a fair amount of time driving, and we got lost, but found a cool farm. 

I-93N

Critter Cam

I will admit that I have not seen much wildlife lately, and have had to use several unconventional critter cams, deviating from the industry standard that I created. This is no exception to the deviation. But lucy is really cute. 

She's not a human, in case you were fooled by the stance

 

Day Thirteen, Half Rest, Half Hike

As we approach the one week till graduation mark, I have began to think about the people who have influenced me, especially this year. There are many teachers, but I almost feel that it is rather meaningful to have my friends around, and to do things with them. Today I went for a hike up Ragged with Lulu and Angus. There was initially a broad invitation, but with scheduling conflicts and such, it ended up being just the three of us. We started up the SRK Greenway, and stopped by balance rock, then traversed over to the top of the chairlift at the Ragged Mountain ski area. It was an area that I probably would never have hiked over to on my own, it being just a little out of what I would like to hike by myself. The three of us made it over and back down in little time, I think about a three hour round trip from the tennis courts. As well as it being the most fun hike I had been on so far on senior project, it was also the longest, clocking in at around seven miles. Over all it was fun to spend time with them, and to know that there are people who would be willing to put up with me for seven miles. 

View from the lift

The trail became a bit hard to follow at times, but there were some fun vistas to look over campus and over to Kearsarge. 

Campus, with Blackwater and Bradley Lake, and Mt. Kearsarge on the left

One of the really cool parts of being in the woods in the spring are the abundance of wildflowers. There are some that look a bit mundane, but some, such as trillium or lady's slippers, which are quite pretty. 

One of the many trillium flowers we saw

Critter Cam

In honor of their very kind invitation, here are two of my favorite critters with Balance Rock, which as of today was still balanced. 

Angus and Lulu

Day Twelve, Ethan's Project!

     I actually got some work done on my project today! After lunch, David, Josh and I hiked and did some planing, that I think will work well. Just looking at the terrain we need to go over, it is a bit daunting, but I think that I will be able to prepare for it. The hardest part is going to be preparing for the rather crushing feeling of just not being able to find a good path. When you are spending a long time trying to find a way around a cliff, or a ravine, it is not the best feeling to go back to a starting point and try something completely different, especially if there were sections of the proposed trail that would be really pretty or fun. You do not want to get in your own way is a good way to think about it. 

     I was thinking about going over to Franklin Falls this morning, but it was rather unpleasant, so I decided against it. 

 Blackwater in the clouds

     On the hike after lunch we did a lot of bush wacking, but we also found some cool stuff, like a lady slipper wild flower. 

They are very pretty flowers

     On the topic of cool things, that leads into the...

Critter Cam

     While we did not see the animal responsible, we found its den. 

There was bear poop inside, it looked rather cozy

Day Eleven, Pump Track Shmump Track

Today I, surprise, did more work on the pump track! I am happy to help though, it is great to see the progress that has been made. From the grading to mounds of dirt to the packed berms. It is cool to be able to see David happy and in his element. 

     Over the weekend Stu and I, as we normally do, went dumpster diving, and found a sweet rolling chair. We promptly attached it to his tricycle and drifted corners on it. This was a source of a few minuets of fun, until I found out that rolling chair casters don't work well on grass, and I took a roll. But two skinned elbows later, we were back on the chair, and narrowly avoiding cars. Parked ones, but it felt as intense as riding in the street.

Chair tied to the tricycle

View from the chair, set to Fleetwood Mac

Over all it was a fun day and fun weekend. Tomorrow Josh, David and I are going on a hike up to Wilsons Wonder Trail, to get some good work done, So I am happy to get more done on my project. Tomorrow I might go do some riding over at Franklin Falls. 

Critter Cam

As stated in the weekly reflection, by wildlife sitings have dwindled, but I saw a bug today. It had creepy long legs, and a inability to flip its self over if it was on its back. I did not like it, but still took a picture of it. 

I was not a fan of getting my phone this close to it

Weekly Reflection, Week Two

This week I have worked a lot with David. I have done some of my project, but also a lot with him. If there is one thing that I have noticed this week, it would be friendship. There have been many of his friends that have stopped by, even between classes, and have helped pack in a berm, or a roller. It is as if there have been workdays organized and people just show up and help out. Some one who has stopped by more often has been Stu. Even though his comments might not always be helpful, or constructive, he always helps out a little bit, in his own way. 

It can be hard to get a good picture of Stu, this was an exception

      I have had a blast working with David. I help him for a bit, he helps me out, it all balances out. This week I have finished up a bit of my work on the lower part of my trail, and done a bit of hiking and laying out on Wilsons Wonder Trail. On Tuesday, David, Josh and I are going to hike up and do hopefully a good amount of work on laying out new stuff. I am confident that we will be able to figure out something that works. Earlier in the week I referenced a trail building booklet from IMBA and the town of Castle Rock, CO, If anyone is interested to read it and see what some terminology means or just that sort of stuff, here it is. Sustainable Trail Development. 

     Shortly after taking that picture of David and Stu, this happened, which reminds me of the fun we have, I guess. 

I said to take a funny picture...

Critter Cam

As I have been working with David, my wildlife spotting have dwindled, so I found a picture I took in Colorado. 

It a really cute bunny

Day Ten, I Did Stuff Today

Today I began the day by going on a bike ride for Share Day at the Andover Elementary and Middle School. With a group of eight kids, Pete Southworth, Josh Norris, Mr. Martins, and Josh Gluck, we all went and biked around the ski area and some of the single track in the area. We also biked over to the sand pit and had fun trying to get up the sandy hills. It was great to see kids who were interested in biking and had a good time with it. 

Josh Gluck is in green, and the rest of the group is behind 

After getting back from the ride, I went over and helped David for the rest of the day. I am hesitant to do to much work on this part of my project, because there is a possibility that some of it might be for naught, and I do not want to waste time on something that would not be useful. I have found that helping out David is a better use of my time rather than messing around in the woods. which is fun too. 

Some rollers in the middle section of the track, David has put a tremendous amount of work into his project, it is terrific

Critter Cam

While I was helping David, Lulu Orne came up to visit and see how things were going. To our delight she had her dog, Otis, with her. He was very happy to roll around in the dirt. 

He's just so cute! I did not want to leave him, but I was hungry, so lunch might have been my priority 

Day Nine, The Hill

Ragged Mountain is a really cool place, from super neat rock formations to cliffs, and the many streams running down it. It is very daunting just hiking to sections of it to see if they would be suitable for a trail. Even just looking at maps it is intimidating. This plays into the next stage of my project heavily. I need to be able to think about the terrain over huge amounts of land, because if we start climbing one direction, but our goal is in another, there has to be a change of direction at some point. In building climbing trails, or just trails in general, there should not be a sustained grade of over 10% for much more than 20 feet. It gets too challenging and tiring. This roughly translates to a 10 foot over a run of 100 feet. This needs to be factored in trying to match up with section of the Wilsons Wonder Trail that are good and do not need to be redone. As there are other trails that branch off of the trail, there are spots that need to be preserved, as those are identified and factored in, it might get more difficult to layout the trail. All of this being thought about, I did more hiking and laying out today. 

Some trees that were not down a few days ago

I decide that today would be a bit more of a rest day, so I slept in and helped David a bit in the morning. His pump track is coming along nicely, the rollers and berms are shaping up, and there is a good section that is ridable. After lunch I headed up and began to do more laying out. I wandered a good bit through the woods, and found a cool old road, which I would assume was a skid road, but it seemed a bit wide and too nice to be a skid road. 

 Looking down the cool old road

I did find some cool stuff while aimlessly wandering, a rice cooker bowl, a pair of scissors, and a really cool tree. It was all bent and nifty. 

Nifty bent tree

As I find cool and weird stuff, I also find nice places. I have spent a fair amount of time sitting on rocks in streams, on small cliffs, little piles of pine cone bits from red squirrels having a snack. There are also a lot of wildflowers and cool plants. 

Kinda cool double layer plant

Critter Cam

I have been a bit sad that I have not seen many critters lately, so I have had to improvise. 

Here we see a wild Stewart in his natural habitat, watering the dirt. 

Wild Stews are routinely seen watering dirt or riding tricycles

Day Eight, Proctor Ravine

At Franklin Falls park there is a trail called Chicken Ravine, it goes up and down the sides of a ravine that runs through part of the park, and it is super fun to ride. You go up, then turn and go down super fast, it is a blast. We are always looking for areas in the woodlands that simulate this, and while it might not be as long as the ravine in Franklin, I found a little one that could have some fun stuff done, it possibly has potential is what I'm saying. 

This is looking down, it is a bit steeper in person, it also continues off the right side of the photo

In the morning I worked on benching and getting a nice bench in on a section of the lower trail. I found a interesting guide that was put out by IMBA, in association with the town of Castle Rock, Colarado. It goes over proper sustainable trail building technique, and there is a lot of stuff on grading and building retaining walls, all very interesting, but a lot of work. For benching you are suppose to have the hill gently slope into the flat benched spot, then slope away, not have a wall on one side then the hill on the other. Good stuff, but the soil has a few too many rocks to make it practical for my purposes. 

The wall should not be on the left side, but have the same grade as the hill after the flat bit

I have found that I am at a place with the switchback section that I am happy with, so I have decided that the best use of my time is going to be to work on laying out sections of trail farther up the mountain, which I began today. I did have a pleasant surprise when I ran into Moriah Keat, and had a great time catching up. After that I went to the hardware store and picked up some survey tape, and, after noticing a sale on loppers, a pair of loppers. I then started laying out little sections of trail up past where the Greenway turns onto Wilsons Wonder Trail. 

Survey tape

Critter Cam

I was disappointed that I did not get any pictures of wildlife today, so I looked back through my phone and found a good one from home. 

Some white tail deer chilling in my backyard

Day Seven, Balanced Bulkhead

There are several ways to get to Balance rock. A. Follow the trail. B. Go up to the Bulkhead and go on Tuckerman trail. C. Make a new trail. The logical one would be A, the fun one B, and the challenging and possibly infuriating one is C. After going on a hike up the greenway to just do some surveying of the area and terrain. The unfortunate reality is that this is going to be extremely inconvenient and a very, very long switchback trail. The image below illustrates roughly where the existing trail is, and the circle is Balance rock.

It is very steep and inconvenient

The hike I took was pleasant enough, it was pretty buggy, but not unbearable. 

Just looking down a nice bit of the trail

It soon got steep, about a 25º sustained grade. 

Looking uphill

Looking straight out over the hills, the ground is very, very steep

I took a lot of pictures on my hike. A lot. I got up to balance rock soon enough though, and then took Tuckerman trail over to the Bulkhead. 

Looming out of the forest 

Balance Rock

After some fun traversing and climbing over rocks, I soon arrived at the Bulkhead. 

Looking over the woods, with Elbow Pond in the background

The side of the Bulkhead, it was a pretty shear drop to the scree slope below

Mt. Kearsarge poking out of the clouds, with the ski hill and a tiny bit of the main campus below it

I managed to get a picture of my self after more tries than I care to admit, the black dots are bugs, this picture had the least amount of bugs in it, so it was the best. I guess...

Small ledge on the Bulkhead, prime spot for a fire

Found a cool tree on the hike down

Critter Cam

I was a bit sad that I did not see much wildlife on my hike I was pleasantly surprised when I found this little guy poking out of the water. 

I don't know anything about frogs, but he's green and can swim, so there's that going for him

After a long day, I walked out of the Wise, and looked up to see something that made everything feel small, but the good kind of small, humbled maybe.

There is something about the stars and night sky that are incredibly calming 

Over all it was a good, relaxing day.