Maine Trail Crew

MAINE APPALACHIAN TRAIL CLUB
MAINE CONSERVATION CORPS
THE MAINE TRAIL CREW
END OF SEASON REPORT
(10/13/2007)

      Lester C. Kenway writes:

      This was the second year of collaboration between the MATC and MCC to operate the Maine Trail Crew Program. The program supported three MCC teams of five people each. Two of the teams, based in Garland, Maine, were supplemented by an average of two ATC volunteers each week for the three-month season. The third team was based in Augusta, and was comprised primarily of Maine people. Half of the projects were funded through the ATC-NPS-MATC partnership, and the other half were funded by grants from the Public Lands Corps program of NPS. A total of 36 weeks of crew time was committed to the projects.

      The crews worked on six different projects located along 194 miles of the Appalachian Trail between Grafton Notch and Nesuntabunt Mountain. The two teams in Garland started projects during the first week of June. The third team started two weeks later.

2007 STAFF:

Crew Coordinator - Margaret Snell, Old Town, Maine

MCC Members:

Steve Gaffney - Bar Harbor, Maine (STL2)
Karl Gifford - Andover, Maine (STL)
Beth Doyle - Augusta, Maine (STL)
Brandon Bragg - Gray, Tennessee (TL)
Megan Lashmet - Scottsdale, Arizona (TL)
Nick Scott - Bridgewater, Vermont (TL)
Aaron Robinson - Dover Foxcroft, Maine
Chris Cromwell - Wiscasset, Maine (ATL)
Chris Bartlett - Bridgton, Maine
Jared Ozga - Chicago, Illinois
Myra Miller - Atlanta, Georgia
Colin Speer - Land of Lakes, Florida
Mollie Puskar - Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Jay Beveridge - Kenduskeag, Maine
Sarah Lackner - Scio, Oregon
Erika Brown - Portland, Maine
Andrew Federman - Southampton, Massachusetts
Jonathan Sevigny - Sanford, Maine
Duy Lyford - South China, Maine
Brian Vasa - Sharon, Massachusetts
Todd Knowlton - Thomaston, Maine
Peter Goodwin - Lewiston, Maine
Daniel Miller - Sidney, Maine
Mark Benson - Springfield, Missouri
Nathan Soler - Fort Collins, Colorado
Jessica MacDonald - Oakland, Maine
Matthew Spinner - Waterville, Maine
Taylor Flynn - Windsor, Maine
Lindsay Scholl - Putney, Vermont

Note: Half of MCC'ers on the Maine Trail Crew were from Maine

ATC Volunteers:

La Rae Sprow - Bowling Green, Ohio
Lee Morgan - Upton, Wirral, United Kingdom
Neil Sauter - Blissfield, Michigan
Nathaniel Reuter - Atlanta, Georgia
Matuszewski - E Dekalb, Illinois
Estelle Spradling - Dallas, Texas
Shawna Miller - Republic, Missouri
Brian Scrabeck - Manchester, Connecticut
Craig Rightmire - Laudon, Tennessee
Maria Peddy - Medford, Massachusetts
Virginia Evans - Athens, Georgia
Angela Meyer - Lexington, Kentucky
Rick Ostheimer - Youngstown, Ohio
Heather Stone - La Jolla, California
Janice Clain - Levant, Maine
Jim Young - Bangor, Maine
Billy Hunter -Savsbury, Maryland
Bob Cressy - Brunswick, Maine
Nathan Soler - Fort Collins, Colorado

Note: Sixteen percent of ATC volunteers were from Maine.

WORK PROJECTS:

Whitecap - North Slope:
June 19 to August 15
This project has been ongoing since the mid 1990's. Two teams worked on this section for a total of nine weeks. There is one eroded section that will need about 50 steps close to tree line. When this staircase is built, the focus will be on some areas closer to Logan Brook Lean-to. This was the third season where hikers stole food or gear from the crew at this site. The crew improved two tent pads to help ease the crowding at the lean-to. Step building goes more slowly in this area due to the difficulty of finding rocks. The teams spent considerable time drilling and breaking large and very hard boulders down to a usable size. More work is planned in 2008.
Structures:	Units:	Total:
Rock Steps	(each)	137
Waterbars Built	(each)	2
West Peak of Whitecap:
July 31 to August 15
The Maine Trail Crew returned to this location, which was first worked on in 2004. The team continued to build steps and waterbars along the steep southwestern slope of the mountain. The Team Leader reported that Sidney Tappan Campsite is a busy place, and it was a challenge to set up a long-term camp without competing with hikers for space. Access to this area, and to Gulf Hagas Mountain has become more difficult with the deterioration of a bridge adjacent to the White Brook Road. The team used a pair of large yard carts to haul gear and tools up the woods roads formerly driven by truck. This project will be continued in future seasons.
Structures:	Units:	Total:
Rock Steps	(each)	91
Water Bars Built	(each)	8
South Side of Gulf Hagas Mountain:
June 5 to July 28
MTC relocated the trail on the western flank of Gulf Hagas Mt. in 2004. The trail had ended up out of the corridor, so a relocation was sited to bring the trail back into NPS land. In doing so, some very steep and rough terrain was encountered. The crew pulled stumps, built waterbars, and many steps to make the trail more pleasant to hike. This crew also used the yard carts, and camped in an old woods camp yard on the south side of Gulf Hagas Brook. This project will be continued next season.
Structures:	Units:	Total:
Rock Steps	(each)	160
Water Bars Built	(each)	11
Round Top Mountain:
June 5 to June 17
Maine Trail Crew took on this project after another project was cancelled. When we visited the trail in May we found substantial water flow following the trail. More than 30 waterbars and drainage dips/ditches were laid out along less than a mile of trail. A large AmeriCorps volunteer group joined the team for a day in June. This trail should be monitored through next spring to see if additional drainage work is needed.
Structures:	Units:	Total:
Drainage Dips	(each)	22
Waterbars Built	(each)	7
Upper Firewarden's Trail:
August 7 - August 15
Work continued on the steep upper portion of the Firewarden's Trail. Stone steps were built in three different areas, helping to complete repairs on most of the problem area. We were able to work on the trail for only two weeks, due to a shortage of crew members. The team found stones plentiful enough that they did not use the Griphoist gear this year. This year's work brings to a close a major project started in 2001. More than 400 rock steps and 38 waterbars have been built during the past seven seasons. No further requests have been made for MTC to work on the Firewarden's Trail. Although the uppermost section has been stabilized, there is still important work that could be done between Moose Falls and the upper staircases. MCC scheduled an additional week on West Baldpate to ensure that MATC received all the effort promised by MCC.
Structures:	Units:	Total:
Rock Steps	(each)	52
West Baldpate:
June 19 - July 8, July 31 to August 15, and August 28 to September 23
Work was continued building trail along a new, more gently meandering route where all parts of the trail will be constructed with stone before being opened to foot traffic. The crew continued to build rock steps and waterbars on the relocation. The relocation is close to being half completed. MCC was short of people early in the season, so work was delayed on this project. A very strong and experienced team worked on the trail in late August and early September, making up for lost time earlier in the season. The team improved two additional tent pads to ease the crowding at the Baldpate Lean-to site. ATC volunteers were not scheduled for the West Baldpate project. This location is physically demanding, and less attractive for shorter-term volunteers. We also noted that it would diminish the number of volunteers available for the other two crews.
Structures:	Units:	Total:
Rock Steps	(each)	110
Waterbar	(each)	8
Total Work Accomplished:
Structures:	Units:	Total:
Drainage Dips	(each)	22
Rock Steps	(each)	550
Waterbars	(each)	30

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:

STAFFING
Coordinator - Margaret Snell returned to MTC for a third season. Margaret noted that she could do a better job provisioning and coordinating two teams instead of the three that were at the base camp in 2006. Margaret handled recruiting and coordinating ATC volunteers, provisioning crews, providing meals at the beginning and end of each session, managing base camp, and providing detail report information.

Senior Team Leaders - Overall Support to the three AT teams was provided by Steve Gaffney, Karl Gifford, and Beth Doyle. These Senior Team leaders would typically join the teams for two or three days at a time and offer assistance and skills training. Senior Team Leaders visited each team at least twice.

Team Leader - Brandon Bragg - returned to MCC after serving as a crewmember in 2002. Brandon is long distance hiker, having through-hiked the A.T. and the Pacific Coast Trail. Brandon's teams were very productive, achieving or exceeding their goals. Brandon was also very helpful with maintaining tools and equipment at base camp.

Team Leader -Megan Lashmet - served as an Assistant Team Leader with MCC in 2005. She attended MCC's trail training program in the spring of this year, and did a fine job with some challenging assignments. She plans to through-hike the AT in 2008.

Other Team Leaders - Nick Scott and Aaron Robinson led teams on Baldpate Mt. and the Firewarden's Trail. Aaron's team helped by working on the Firewarden's Trail since Nick's team had too few people. Both Leaders had previously served with MCC and provided good service.

MCC TEAM MEMBERS
MCC provided 29 Corps members to the AT projects. Two team members quit early in the season and three members were assigned to other projects after having difficulty with the Baldpate project. MCC struggled with recruitment and was not able to have more than five members in the AT teams during the season, except for the fall team on Baldpate which had six. Seven of the 36 weeks had only four people, and one week had only three, when a member left for a family emergency. MCC has pro-rated the MATC invoice to reflect the shortfall, and ATC volunteers filled out the teams so there was no noticeable loss of productivity. Fifty-five percent of the MCC'ers were from Maine.

Maine Conservation Corps was challenged to fill teams with six people this past season. This problem visited many similar Corps throughout the country during 2007. Despite this difficult, MCC succeeded in replacing four of the five people who left the AT teams. Since MCC continually recruits people for projects throughout the year, the field team program is in a much stronger position to fill vacancies than the MATC would be alone.

VOLUNTEER ENROLLMENT
Since the MCC teams were going to form the core of our MTC crews, with at least five MCC members present on every team, our target for volunteers was lowered to two people per team per week. MTC succeeded in enrolling 19 people into 36 weeklong slots yielding 90% occupancy. This was less than 2006, where 25 people joined MTC for 94% occupancy.

MATC PARTICIPATION
Five MATC members joined the MTC for a week or more, in addition to a total 17 people who helped set up and take down the Basecamp. Three MATC members joined the teams for pack-ins or a day of work. We would like to improve MATC participation. Starting the projects on Saturday has helped, but we have discovered that some club members still think projects start on Tuesday. This is an area that the MTC committee should work on this winter.

VEHICLES
The MATC van was not used this season. The MTC committee recommends that we sell the van and rely on MCC vehicles. Two new 5 x 8 cargo trailers continued to provide good service. MCC provided a 9-passenger Suburban, a GMC 12-passenger van, and a Dodge 4-door pickup, and one cargo trailer to the program. The van suffered minor body damage when it hit a tree in Baxter State Park, but only minor problems came about with the MCC vehicles.

BASE CAMP
MTC continued to lease space at a sheep farm in Garland.

We made some improvements:

• Improvements were made to the electrical system, including outdoor service via a utility pole to the shop trailer, improved ground lines, light switches, and GFI outlets in the kitchen and bathroom areas.
  
• Two new wall tents on platforms.
  
• 14 new mattresses to replace the Byer cots.
  
• Volleyball set, games, TV-VCR.
  
• Disposed of quite a bit of junk.
  
• Spread gravel near the tool trailers.
  
• Marked parking spaces with white lines near the road.
  

Updates on some of last season's challenges:

• This season was much drier, with few mud problems.
  
• Base camp was much quieter with fewer people around.
  
• Coordinating chores and shopping/showers trips was easier, but the team leaders still did all of the shower trips.
  
• The coordinator's days off were Saturday afternoon to Tuesday morning, which worked much better with the team working Saturday to Wednesday.
  
• The roof did not leak this season.
  
• The coordinator posted the computer off limits to downloads. This prevented people from bringing in games and harmful things that disabled the computer last year.
  
• Verizon DSL became available in July. Since we did not have the computer and hardware needed to get set up, we were not able to take advantage of this service.
  
• Base Camp residents who wanted to consume alcohol during the season did so off-site during their time off, in compliance with MCC rules. There were no reported incidents.
  
• Most likely due to the grain storage, there are a lot of rodents around the base camp.
  

The Maine Trail Crew Committee plans to discuss and make further improvements before the start of next season.

COMMUNICATIONS
People continued to complain that one phone line is not enough. Verizon DSL will help next season, because it allows telephone and Internet access simultaneously.The computer was slow on dial-up. Improvement will come next season. We plan to provide a wireless router so anyone can access the service with a laptop. I continued to make calls to the Coordinator/Team Leaders' personal cell phones when I needed to communicate with the base camp. The flatbed scanner-copier continues to be helpful.

CONCLUSIONS
This season saw slight decline in the level of volunteers we experienced in 2006. The strategy of involving MCC teams resulted in having an average of six to seven people on every project every week of the season.

The combination of Maine Trail Crew and Public Lands Corps has contributed to productivity much greater than previous seasons. Teams made good progress on the long-term projects on the Firewarden's Trail, West Baldpate and White Cap. The total number of crew weeks declined from 42 in 2006 to 36 (-15%) in 2007. Productivity declined by about 15% as well.

One goal of having MATC partner with MCC is to introduce local young people to the trail. We have been successful with this already. Four MCC members/alumni are currently maintaining sections of trail, and another is serving as a District Overseer.

Thanks for making this a successful year is due to the Trail Crew Committee, The Maine Conservation Corps, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, National Park Service, and all the people who worked on the crews.

Sincerely,

Lester C. Kenway
Maine Appalachian Trail Club
Maine Conservation Corps