Most folks met at 8:30 in Richmond, then headed to the Stevensville trailhead in Underhill to meet a few others around 9. It was cool, in the low 50s F, with a mix of sun and clouds for our work trip. But after about 1.25 to 1.5 inches of rain the day before all the trails were very wet, making it a great day to clear waterbars! We split into 4 groups.

Group1: Paul Beliveau took a group of four with John Kowalski, Steve Titcomb and Steve Mattera. They took the Frost Trail to Rock Garden Trail then returned via Butler Lodge Trail.

Group 2: David Hathaway took a group of 4 with Ted Albers, John Pennucci and Mike Authur. We headed up Nebraska Notch, along the Long Trail to Taylor Lodge (around 11:30), back along Clara Bow to the Nebraska Notch junction (around 1 PM), and north on the Long Trail to Twin Brooks. We used the chainsaw about 6 times, but there were also lots of small branches and uprooted trees to clear. We left one large tree on Clara Bow that was easy enough to walk under and looked like it might be tricky to remove safely. We only had one long handled trenching tool for waterbar clearing, though John had a very short-handled tool he also used some. We saw some patches of snow on Clara Bow. Just north of the southern Clara Bow junction the trail was pretty much indistinguishable from the stream into the beaver pond. We built up a bit of a dam between them and reduced the flow on the trail a bit; hopefully this will help more when things dry up a bit. The hobblebush seemed particularly healthy on the Long Trail north of Nebraska Notch,and required a lot of clipping. The second Nebraska Notch group caught up with us just after we got to Twin Brooks, around 3 PM. There we found a freshly cut blowdown next to the kiosk, so we assumed the Butler Lodge group had come and gone. We left a note in case we were wrong (we weren’t), then headed down the ski trail and forest road to reach the cars around 3:40, where the rest of the work groups had already gotten back.

Group 3: Carol Irish, the Nebraska Notch adoptee, took a group of four with Tucker Tirey, Peter Smith and Peter Kassel. They extensive water bar and clipping until they reached the LT and then returned to the cars. She was very pleased with the work done.

Group 4: John Sharp took a group of five with Phil Hazen, Scott Albertson, Machaela Wentz and Mike Donaruma. Mike did an excellent job clearing water bars while Machaela and I clipped. Scott carried the saw which Phil used, they also clipped some. There was one major blowdown plus several smaller ones on Butler Trail, all cleared. Trail very wet but in good shape. Joined with Paul’s group at Butler where they helped clear some trees that were obstructing the view. Ran into snow just below Butler. From Wallace Cutoff to about 3/4 mile down LT there was a significant amount of snow. From there to tent platforms normal trail work with 4 blow downs. Bushed wacked from there to parking area.