Working on The Precipice

As most of you may remember from last year's blog, Mother Nature had a major falling-out here back in October and really put the hurt on some of our trails -- The Precipice, in particular. This is a shot from our earthquake assessment tour we went on the next day, as we traverse the heavily-hammered bridge section of the trail. You can see quite clearly what can happen when a huge boulder meets a mere 2"x10" plank of wood. Our job -- my YCC crew and I -- was to haul 22 of these 3' planks almost a mile up what is considered a non-technical climbing trail and put this to rights. Some fun, let me tell you, as it took us four or five trips. Ugh!


This is the scene Thursday morning as we ascended the trail, looking out at what should be Frenchman Bay. It looked more like a scene out of a movie shot in the rain forests of Venezuela.


Welcome to the Boulderfield. This is a tricky little section to navigate on a regular hike, but just try it with a couple of 3' planks on your shoulder or hauling tools and whatnot on your back and in your hands on your way to your worksite. And, yes, you're seeing it right -- the trail goes in the hole. There's another one just on the other side of this one. Yee-ha!


At the worksite at last, we take a look out over Frenchman Bay once more (now that we're above the fog) and can espy Schoodic Peninsula sitting lazily on a bed of cotton on the other side. Still looking good.


And here are my kids (two out of the three, as Felicia was sick this day) working diligently. While Alex removes the nails from the old planks, Zach is sawing a piece of plywood into strips for use as shims under some of the planks, since the stringer underneath is at varying depths and we try to keep each plank level with the next. You don't want a misstep here, folks. You can barely see one of the new planks at the bottom of the shot as we move closer to the next old one, knocking it up a bit with a hammer, then prying it the rest of the way with a crowbar. The string line is used to keep all the planks edges even along the course. Our crew leader, Keith, strung the rope between the railing supports to help keep us safe and secure while working, as it's a long way to the bottom.


And Viola! She is done. The finished product all nice and tidy and ready for foot traffic, although it may still be a while before that comes to pass -- at least for the visitors -- as there's still much work to do up here. At least now the crew working just behind us can move themselves and their tools (I'm sure we'll be in on that!) on up to the next project site safely when the time comes. Check out the plank in the foreground. I not only had to cut a corner off to fit against the piece of ledge, I had to bevel the cut as well. Pretty nice work, if I do say so myself.

Tools dropped over the side but fetched by Yours Truly (yikes!):
Crowbar (once)
6' folding ruler (twice)
Hammer (once, but fortunately it stopped on the small ledge just under the bridge and was easily retrieved.)

End of Report