Trail Maintenance with Walt Cook, August 5, Sat., Athens GA.

[Tha Wookie]

Anyone in ATL or Athens area want to help and learn about trail maintentance this weekend? Come dig in the dirt with Walt Cook, one of the most knowledgable trail constructors/maintainers alive, this Saturday morning in Athens, GA.

This weekend we will be building steps and shaping trail.
respond here or PM me for details.

[SGT Rock]

Man Wookie, I would love too but already had a trip planned. I would love to meet you and Mr. Cook. Any possibility for November?

[MOWGLI]

Walt is a great guy! Please tell him I said hello.

Like Wookie said, Walt has forgotten more about trail building than most of us know. I hope some of y'all take the opportunity to get out on Saturday and learn from Professor Cook. Yeah - he taught at UGA for many many years, so you'll definitely learn something. I'll bet you have some fun too.

By the way, the 5th is a Friday. I assume you mean Saturday the 6th?

[Tha Wookie]

Rock,

I think there will be stuff going on in November for sure. Walt is always building new trails. At 73, he can still put us young bucks to shame. He is an energizing person to say the least.

Mowgi,

You're right, that's this Saturday, August 6th. Thanks. After we work, I might hike the trail a bit and then grab some lunch at the new Community Supported Agriculture farm restaurant (http://www.farm255.com/) in downtown Athens, if anyone is interested in the area.


"After a drive into the mountains, Walt Cook, 73, a retired professor from UGA's Warnell School of Forest Resources and a BMTA member since 1980, gives final instructions: "We need more Pulaski [axes] and fewer swing blades. Most of this job is going to be digging — digging in the dirt." -Atlanta Journal Constitution, 6/4/05


"Volunteer work is really play," MacKaye wrote more than 80 years ago." -same story as above, full version at: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/arch...hp/t-9154.html

So who's in?

[Ridge]

Anyone in ATL or Athens area want to help and learn about trail maintentance this weekend? Come dig in the dirt with Walt Cook, one of the most knowledgable trail constructors/maintainers alive, this Saturday morning in Athens, GA.

This weekend we will be building steps and shaping trail.
respond here or PM me for details.

OK, whats the itinerary?

[Tha Wookie]

Walt called and said that on Saturday we will be working on the new Oxbow Lake Trail, a loop off Cook's Trail (yes it's named after Walt) in between the Sandy Creek Nature Center and Oconee Park. We will be clearing new trail, learning native/exotic plant species while we work, and applying Walt's techniques, including his simplified sidehill construction. It is a very pretty place.

Since I will have to guide everyone to the site to meet Walt and another volunteer who's getting there early, we will meet at 9am.

We will wait up to 9:15 and no later before going to the site. This is a hidden trail until it is completed. You must be there by 9:15am to find it! I don't know when he wanted to finish, but you can leave whenever. I plan to work up to 1pm or so, depending on the heat.

Bring: water, a snack, bug repellant, money for lunch afterwards, trail tools if you have them. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! Come to learn and relax.... ...lunch at Farm 255 afterwards....


Map to Sandy Creek Nature Center:
http://www.sandycreeknaturecenter.co...directions.php

Map of exactly where we meet -parking available (printable pdf): http://www.sandycreeknaturecenter.com/scnc/scncmap.pdf (see you at the
YOU ARE HERE arrow!)
If you want to help build steps tomorrow morning, pm me immediately!

[SGT Rock]

...and applying Walt's techniques, including his simplified sidehill construction...

So what is this simplified construction technique? Inquiring minds want to know? I might have to do some sidehill on my trail this weekend.

[Tha Wookie]

So what is this simplified construction technique? Inquiring minds want to know? I might have to do some sidehill on my trail this weekend.

Going to dinner right now but..... quickly...

The components are basically the same. Except some people prefer a slanted cut while he prefers a straight 90 degrees cut to the tread surface (x-axis). but the flow of his work is the innovation. He is really effective. it is nearly a continual process. I hope you can join him one day and see him work.....

[Tha Wookie]

Hey folks,

Already a few people have mentioned that they will come help and learn Saturday. It would help to know who is coming, to ensure we have enough tools.

On Saturday, we will not be doing steps, but rather new trail construction on the Oxbow Lake Trail.

Please PM me or respond here to say if you are "in".