Volunteers Take on a Mountain of Improvements during Monadnock Trails Week

1,000 hours given in week-long event

jseredejko

July 28, 2017

Volunteers come for the fun, camaraderie and purpose. Photo by Mike Zlogar

Volunteers for Monadnock Trails Week just completed the 12th year of trail improvements on Mt. Monadnock. Volunteers worked with Forest Society staff and trailwork professionals to accomplish projects that make hiking the mountain safer, easier, and less impactful to the surrounding forest.

Photo by Carrie Deegan

And with hiking destinations like Monadnock becoming increasingly popular, there is a literal mountain of work still ahead to improve the routes all the way to the 3,165-foot summit.

Each morning the group would circle-up over coffee and donuts to hear about the day’s projects before choosing how they’d spend the day. There is always a project on one of the main trails; White Dot and White Cross, because of how much hiker traffic hits those trails. But this year hard-working volunteers spread out over seven different trails.

Photo by Carrie Deegan

Some of the volunteers take this opportunity to give back to the mountain they love and grew up climbing. Others want to learn from the pros while spending time outside with a good group of people. And the most rugged of the bunch come to sweat off the morning’s donuts while crushing rock and building a methodically constructed stone staircase.

This year, perhaps the biggest Monadnock Trails Week in terms of attendance, accomplished nine projects in only five days. How do we do it? With a lot of rocks, sweat,and dirt.

Scroll down for a list of project accomplishments and photos.