BSP Trail Project #1

National Trails Day

Trail Stewards Training

June 1 (Rain date June 2)

Come help the BSP Trail Crew on National Trails Day!  Learn general maintenance skills such as waterbar maintenance, corridor definition and blazing. Use lopping pruners and hand saws to define the corridor back to navigable trail standards. Clean out waterbars with rakes and shovels.  Learn basic GPS operations.  Meet trail friends and decide if you would like to take a Trail Steward maintenance assignment for 2013.

Space is limited, so sign up today! Individuals, groups, and outing clubs are encouraged to participate.  A BBQ supper will be provided following completion of the project. Camping/overnight accommodations provided at the Abol Narrows Area for the nights of May 31st and June 1st . 

Challenge Level - Easy to Moderate

Waterbar maintenance on the first half mile of the Abol Trail with corridor definition and blazing on Kidney Pond area trails.

Volunteer application

BSP Trail Team #2

Trail Skills Week

Abol Narrows Base Camp

June 9 – 13, 2013

Join our crews for the week to carry out a variety of projects on various trails. Build deck/stringer bridges on the Chimney Pond Trail, dig ditches and drains with check steps on the Hunt Trail, construct bog bridges on the Sandy Stream Pond Trail and maintain waterbars on the Chimney Pond Trail. Participants will have the opportunity to rotate into a new project site each day.

We have room for twelve (12) additional volunteers

Challenge Level = Moderate

These project will require the lifting and handling of heavy loads.

Volunteer application

BSP Trail Team #3

Alpine Trail Reconstruction – Hunt Trail - Three Dates

This project involves repairing and reconstructing erosion damaged areas and trail delineation in the Thoreau Spring area of the Hunt Trail. Use of cable winches, crowbars, picks, and shovels to transport rock materials to the affected areas will be necessary. Dry stone masonry skills will be utilized to place stone in the trail to arrest erosion and stabilize the treadway. The most difficult aspect of this project is hiking to and from the work site. Each day we’ll hike up to the worksite from Chimney Pond. There will be a gain of 2,000 vertical feet, within a 6 mile round trip.

All participants must be in very good physical condition and be able to climb Katahdin three (3) days in a row.

Day one of the project will be a travel day that includes a pack-in hike of 3.2 miles to the base camp at Chimney Pond Campground. Everyone must be able to carry their own food and gear.

There is room for four (4) people for each set of dates.

Challenge Level = Most Difficult

Volunteer application

BSP Trail Team #4

Bridge Construction on the Chimney Pond Trail – Two Dates

TAssist our Trail Crews with replacing sections of the 225 foot, “Long Bridge”, located just above the Basin Ponds on the Chimney Pond Trail. Our crews will use block and tackle, ropes and rigging to transport bridge stringers and cribbing materials to the site. Saws, drills, hammers and spikes will be used to fasten and anchor bridge components on this challenging project.

Hike approximately 2 miles (4 miles roundtrip) daily, to the worksite from Roaring Brook Campground. Camping accommodations are located at the Abol Narrows Volunteer Site.

There is room for four (4) people for each set of dates.

Challenge Level = Modertate

Volunteer application

BSP Trail Team #5

Katahdin Lake Trail Extension – New Trail Construction

July 14 – 18, 2013

Join our Trail Crew for a week of trail pioneering and construction, as we link the Katahdin Lake Trail to the International Appalachian Trail on our eastern boundary with Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. conservation land.

We’ll hike 3.5 miles to Katahdin Lake, where we’ll be based for the duration of the project. Our efforts will connect the Katahdin Lake Trail from the Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps along the outlet of the lake and will meander eastward around Rocky Pond to connect hikers with the IAT Lean-to along Katahdin Brook.

The jobs you can choose from are swamping logs and brush, which our sawyers will cut, to clipping branches back on the newly established trail corridor, to painting blazes along the route. The new route is approximately just over a mile in length.

Everyone must be able to carry their own food and gear.

There is room for six (6) volunteers for this project.

Challenge Level = Moderate

Volunteer application

BSP Trail Team #6

BSP Trail Team # 6 – Sandy Stream Pond Trail – Bog Bridge Construction

Help the BSP Trail Crew reconstruct and replace bog bridges on the Sandy Stream Pond Trail. Due to the popularity and volume of visitors that hike into this pond, the park installed bog bridges (puncheon) in an effort to reduce braiding of the trail in wet conditions and to prevent soil compaction. As with all wooden structures, they have to be replaced from time.

Volunteers can choose from an assortment of tasks, such as digging in base logs, drilling pilot holes to accept spikes, pounding spikes to attach cedar decking to base logs and carrying components to lay out the assembly line.

Camping accommodations are located at the Abol Narrows Volunteer Site. Crews and volunteers will commute to Roaring Brook Campground daily (11 miles). The hike from Roaring Brook to the worksite is approximately a half mile (0.5 mile).

There is room for four (4) people for each set of dates.

Challenge Level = Modertate

Volunteer application