Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Tool Shed Maintenance

September 15, 2012

Tool Shed Maintenance


As the end of the season draws near, Jim, Steve, Sim, Cosmo and Jack met on a somewhat cool and blustery morning to clean the summer's accumulation of trash, mouse droppings and damaged or broken tools out of the shed.  Jack sharpened some of our axes and gave a couple of impromptu lessons on the finer points of ax design and maintenance.  Jack's primary haunt is the Blue Hills Reservation near Boston, but he occasionally is able to get out to the Berkshires and give us a hand.
How many AT volunteers does it take to....


We also managed to get a fresh coat of stain on the tool shed--the west and south sides were getting pretty bare after more than 20 years out in the weather.  In addition, we trimmed back some small tree branches that were starting to scrape on the roof.


Jim gets the high points











We were assisted by some delicious fresh-baked treats from Julie.  We made a pretty good dent in the supply, but we couldn't quite finish them off.

Volunteer Fuel
Lunchtime












Sim trims out the windows

Jack finishes up the east side












The Tool Shed is an important resource for the AT Committee.  Built by AT volunteers and located on DCR property near the Mt Greylock Visitor's Center, it's a good central repository for tools and equipment that are accessible to trail volunteers 24/7.  Without a place to store and maintain this stuff, we'd be operating out of people's basements and garages.  Volunteers can pick up a wide variety of specialized trail tools such as McLeods, pulaskis, pick-mattocks and hazel hoes--specialized tools for digging in root-filled and rocky soil, not usually found in your local home and garden center.  We are also able to store power equipment such as field mowers and the power wheelbarrow (used in the installation of the bear box at Crystal Mountain Campsite, detailed in an earlier posting).  Next to the tool shed we have outdoor storage for raw materials for bog bridges and other trail structures.   Photos for this page by Cosmo, Jim and Steve.

As our season draws to a close, we hope you've enjoyed this look at what AT volunteers do.  You can do it too!  Our remaining projects are to complete the bog bridges near Shays on Sept 29th and finish the footbridge near Race Brook Falls campsite.  Then, on "AT Day" October 6th, we'll lead 8 hikes on the best AT sections in Massachusetts--followed by a free cookout at Pleasant Valley.  Finally, we'll end the season by closing Upper Goose Pond Cabin for the season on October 21.  To join us for any of these activities, or just to get more info contact us here: <at@amcberkshire.org>  and we'll get right back to you.

Thanks for reading!

Cosmo

1 comment:

  1. This warms my heart. Ran into Jim at the Goose Pond Parking a month ago or so. I was Becky's ridgerunner in 2008 with Dave. I'm back in the area after knee surgery. Good to see Sim photos! He had cool caving stories about Chesire.

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