Under the heat of the unforgiving July sun, we toiled away, striking our shovels hopelessly against giant heaps of trap rocks that were taunting us, and filling up an endless line of wheel borrows driven by equally exhausted, aching workers. A chaingang for hardened felons? No, it was just another NEMBA maintenance day at Leominster State Forest. "You couldn't pay me to do this kind of work! That's why I do it for free!," says Cycle Loft racer Dave Leedberg!
With their beloved Philip "pit boss" Keyes and Richard "titanium head" Donoghue running the show, over twenty men and women, mostly of the local Wachusett chapter of NEMBA, met on July 18 for its second maintenance day of the year at the park. Little did they know at the start what awaited them.
The day began early for some of them at the back of Donoghue's construction company where Donogue, --AKA, Curly-- was seen waving his arms frantically over his freshly shaven head, frothing at the mouth, and cursing his workers for not cleaning out the truck from the day before. At 7 a.m., it was clear to those present where the temperature was going.
The hero of the day was Jim Amidon who secured a generous donation of 40 yards of trap rock from W.J. Graves Construction Company. He was presented with a special plaque designed by Jason Pare and some neat NEMBA swaggery. W. J. Graves even delivered the enormous piles of rock into the deep recesses of the park!
The industrious group managed to start three separate projects in one day. First, the original NEMBA bridge that runs through the central swamp land got extended to complete the path, and preserving much of the surrounding vegetation. The troublesome little spring that runs through it was unclogged further in hopes of minimizing the flooding and sludging. A snazzy new NEMBA map and application box made by Russell Burdett is now placed along the bridge.
The second and the third project involved laying down trap rock along some of the most infamous muddy trail in the park. Our concern from the start was that riders (and hikers) were widening and eroding the trails in efforts to avoid these swamps. On the worst of these swamps, we actually laid down fenestrated PVC pipes under the rocks to promote even more drainage. The challenge was bringing these rocks by wheel borrows down twisty, rooty, rocky single tracks - one at a time from the main fire roads where they were deposited. Each member took turns filling the barrows and painfully carrying them down the trails. Besides being fanatical about bikes, those present also shared one more thing in common: a maddening case of workaholism. They had to actually physically restrain each other from making any more "trips" with full barrows long after the pizza picnic, which was supposed to signify the end of the work for the day. "Just one more trip with four or five barrows should do it," was the most repeated (and erroneous) phrase throughout much of the six-plus hours spent working. The last section needs at least two to three more hours of work in August, or in the fall.
Ironically, when the work was done, most of us were too tired to go riding on the trails we just fixed up; however, like after any good hard ride, we all got into our cars dirty, exhausted, and happy - happy that we all share something special. This was the best event ever!
See you at the next maintenance day, October 18th!