Sunday, August 10, 2008

Trail building is started.



This Saturday a group from COGS and the Forest Service began work on the Lake Howard Trail. The initial project was to hand build the section that will connect to the road across the watershed dam to the the machine build portion that will be created by Trails Unlimited. It was hard to visualize a trail there across that severe side slope with lots of bushy growth in the way. By peering through the growth I could see the tape and blue blazes that marked the path. As I made my way along the markers lopping off branches with Bob chopping in spots to help create a path to follow, I thought we may have underestimated the time it was going to take to get the trail open. But with everyone pitching in, the trail began to take shape quickly. By lunch break, the section we had laid out that morning could have been ridden.

Two more work days were tentatively scheduled for this week. It is great to finally be making progress.

COGS: Tim, Johnny, Billy, Mike, Dustin, Eric, Little Tim
USFS: Leslie, Ricky, Joe

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Workday.....

Hello Everyone!

First I would like to say thank you for allowing Joe Nicholson and I to
attend and participate in your meeting a couple of weeks ago!

We are excited about our first trail work day coming up this Saturday! As
we discussed, we will meet August 9th at 8:00am at the J. Craig Smith
Community Center located at the corner of Highway 21 (aka Broadway Ave) and
8th street in Sylacauga. From there, we will travel to the trail location
and begin work.

Please bring your personal protective equipment. This includes, eye
protection, hearing protection, hard hat, work boots, and gloves. We will
have some hard hats on hand if you do not have one. It is best to wear
long sleeves and pants. You may also want to bring bug spray, lunch and
plenty of water.

Those of you who have trail building tools, please bring them. This
includes shovels, rakes, pruning shears.

I only included those emails of the people who attended the July 23 meeting
so please help spread the word to other you know are interested.

If you have any questions please contact me by email or call me. My office
number is 256-463-2272 ext. 116.

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

Lesley

Lesley M. Hodge
Natural Resource Specialist
USDA- Talladega National Forest- Shoal Creek RD
45 Highway 281
Heflin, AL 36264
256/463-2273
256/463-5385 fax
Email: lhodge@fs.fed.us