Lopping the Day Away: A Weekend of Trail Maintenance

This past Saturday, Emma and I woke up at the Hyner Run State Park Campground in Pennsylvania. This was the first day that we began doing trail work with KTA (Keystone Trails Association) and we had little idea as to what to expect. At 7:30am we walked from our campsite over to the picnic table where the rest of the volunteer crew had gathered around a map to discuss the plan for the day.

It seemed like many of the volunteers were already friends, and we soon learned that a number of them had known each other from previous trail work. Being the only "youngsters" made it so that we didn't exactly fit in with the crew, but that didn't stop them from making jokes about newfangled technology and Justin Bieber. They were definitely a pleasant group of people, seeming to always have an upbeat and positive outlook.

Before heading out, it was time to approach the mysterious green trailer that held all of the trail maintenance tools...

Aha! It looks as if the loppers will be our trail maintenance helpers! (Loppers are basically giant scissors that we used to cut down small branches/trees/plants that were beginning to grow onto the trails)

By 8:00am it was time to head out to the trail!

Emma and I spent the majority of the weekend perfecting our lopping skills since we were not allowed to operate any machinery. Some people painted trail blazes, others chainsawed, but Emma and I were essentially designated loppers. It became quite a little tiring after doing it for hours on end, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

As you can see, some of the people did a bit more of heavy duty work by using machines to clear out the trail in one fell swoop. 

 Here you can see Emma using her special wide-armed lopping technique...

More lopping...