Pictures by Roger Richard
Story by Larry Gomes
A crew of three club members traveled out to Nay Pond to finish installing the last bridge on the trail. This bridge replaces an old box culvert that had failed last year. Since this section of the trail is used by vehicles, the bridge had to be sturdy enough to support vehicle traffic as well as our grooming equipment. The crew used heavy duty 6" x 6" PT wood beams and then decked the bridge with PT decking and runners. Finally they built dirt ramps on either side of the bridge so vehicles could easily get up and over the bridge.
Bryan MacDonald, the WMRR
Trailmaster used his heavy duty trailer to transport
the lumber from the clubhouse to the bridge site. He then had to go get
his grub
hoe because a surprise was waiting in the river.
It had only been a week since
the old box culvert was removed, but already someone
had thrown a bunch of trash lumber into the river so they could cross. The
WMRR
crew fished out all of this trash lumber before they started building the new
bridge.
The crew has set all of the
beams so they are level and placed the decking.
Eric Johnson nails down the deck while Bryan MacDonald taps in any nails
that misfired using a 10lb sledge. What's that old rule about using a
bigger hammer?
With the bridge built, the crew
uses picks and shovels to build a dirt ramp on each side
of the bridge. Matt our excavator operator had left piles of dirt for this
purpose last week.
The ramps are built and the bridge is complete. The crew tested it and
decided
it needed some additional runners to handle narrow vehicles. So 4 more
runners
were added after this picture was taken. The bridge surface is now almost
completely covered by runners giving it a 3" thick wood surface. Corner
markers
will be added before the snow flies.
On Sunday, the crew returned to another section of the Nay
Pond Trail to take remove several trees that had blown down over the trail.
They also picked up wood that was cut and stacked last year. This wood was
generously donated to the club by the landowner and will be used to heat the
WMRR clubhouse this winter.
The wood was picked up from
along the trail using ATV's and small trailers.
Here Eric Johnson and Bryan
MacDonald transfer the wood from one of the small trailers into
a dump truck donated by Matt Godbout. The crew ended up filling up the
dump
truck twice.
With the first trailer loaded, its time to
move on to the second trailer.
We would like extend a sincere "Thank You" to Eric, Roger and Bryan for finishing off the work on the Nay Pond Trail and to the landowners who made this trail possible.
This was a complex project that involved 9 different landowners, an easement holder and a variety of challenging terrain. The result is a win-win for everyone. The landowners got trails trimmed back, washouts repaired, rivers cleaned up and new bridges built. Also, several new gates and rock barriers were installed to protect their property from illegal wheeled vehicle activity, These same protection measures also helped the easement holder protect a sensitive eco-system in the easement area.
In return, local Milan residents and other riders got a new trail through some beautiful territory connecting the WMRR trail system to Nay Pond, which is certainly the most picturesque of the 3 lakes in Milan.
If you did not get a chance to ride the Nay Pond Trail last year, be sure to do so this winter. It can be accessed off PT109, about a mile north of the Jericho parking lot trail.