The Trails Group meets on Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m. Each of us has a section of trail that we monitor.  We report on whether there is something on our trail that needs group attention - jobs we can't handle on our own. 

John Caughey and Gordon Clift seem to be out on the trails every day.  And so it was no surprise that on the Tuesday after Hurricane Irene they already knew where the trails needed group attention. 

John Caughey told us that a bridge where Yellow Trail #4 crosses Sandy Run had been dislocated and the group might put it back in position.   Sandy Run was flooded, the bridge was out.  So to accomplish the task, two members of the group went one way, three went the other.   With people on both sides of Sandy Run, we might be able to reset the bridge.

Walking toward Sandy Run.  This one would be a job for Landscaping

As it turned out, we need not have approached the bridge from different directions.   Sandy Run was no longer flooded. John H was able to walk across the shifted plank bridge and join Ruth and John on the other side.

The five-person group continued clockwise on the Orange Trail then to the east, clockwise around Yellow Trail #7 to the second junction of the Orange and Yellow Trail #7 - the junction next to the bank of the Rancocas Creek.

Then things got interesting.  

With a little bush whacking it was possible to get around the combination of branches and roots that formed the barricade. On the left are the top branches of the broken tree with the yellow blaze on its trunk.  The trunk of the uprooted tree is more than 3 feet in diameter.

On Community Day, a month later, I was here again, but without my camera.  Landscaping had cleared the path which earlier was blocked by the broken tree with the yellow blaze on the stump.  The sliced pieces of trunk can be seen beside the trail.    

The uprooted tree was a Spanish Oak and it had fallen across the Rancocas Creek.  It was large enough that had we been 60 years younger we would have used it as a bridge across the creek.

The Spanish Oak was still across the creek on Community Day and I saw it again from Camp Dark Waters a week later during Witmer Weekend.    Ruth B. was told by a member of the Dark Waters staff that they would soon be removing the tree from the creek. 

Upper right, the photo taken from Medford Leas shows branches of the tree across the creek at Camp Dark Waters.

Continuing clockwise on the Orange Trail towards Woods Cottage, John and Ruth, ahead of me, have already ducked under the fallen tree. 

Another tree across the trail.

But wait, there's more! 

After the trail group disbanded on August 30 I went to "my" trail.    I mean Trail 16, the one I monitor.   A fallen tree covered with vines was blocking Trail 16 near the Tennis Court entrance. First I "untied" the tree (removed the vines), then I lopped as much as I could with my loppers.  The trail was passable, one could walk under the remaining arch.  I thought it was pretty, like a Japanese gate. Counting the photography time, this took me 45 minutes. Landscaping would have removed the whole thing in five minutes. Photos documenting my work on Trail 16, and other blog reports about the post-Irene trail work are at http://medfordleasarboretum.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

Two weeks later Carol, Ruth, and I went to Trail 16. They didn't think the gate was beautiful. Oh well. Carol used a bow saw and finished the job that I'd started with my loppers on August 30.   A couple of weeks after that I had my camera with me and took some photos of the remains of the tree that had barricaded Trail 16.

Sawing by Carol

Those dead leaves were green on August 30 when the tree had been barricading Trail 16.

Trail 16 is once again clear - this photo is looking east, back toward the Tennis Court entrance.