(173) 8/11, 12, 13/2023
New York Long Path rehabilitation
on Tallman Mountain - Pauses

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Early Friday morning and the crew begins to assemble

Russ leads today‘s safety meeting

We are taking down one of the high-lines
Jack will be our polecat for today

Jack is all ready to climb
with his harness and safety belay attached

Here he is, at the top of the stick ladder,
now disassembling the ladder

Each section, has to be unstrapped from the tree
then disconnected from the next lower section

As he climbs down, he is disassembling the ladder
and lowering it to the ground using the haul-line

Over at the rock pile we are ready
to lift the first rock of the day

Away it goes with Marion on the belay

Zac gets to work moving buckets of gravel

It made it to the top of the pile
now just nudge it into place

Up next on the high-line,
is the custom made high-line ready, gravel moving tub

The tub helps us move a lot of gravel at once, up hill

And away it goes with Howie controlling the belay

Lunch break chatter

After lunch, the crew is wondering, What's next?

What's next, is another big rock

Oh boy, this is a big and heavy one

Jeff shows Zac the basics of the griphoist

Zac works hard to lift that big one

With four wraps on the portawrap
Howie has good control of the rock

This will be our big platform on top of the crib-wall

It's a big heavy one, with a built in step

Last rock for today is ready to go for a ride

Belay ready… Tension Hoist!

Marion and Jeff disconnect the block and sling

At the end of the day, the crew surveys the project

And this is what they see,
not very many rocks left to move

End of day crew meeting
but today, Jack needs to leave early

It's Saturday and at the current worksite,
1/2 of the crew moved gravel up the hill

And Jack kept the high-line moving

Looking uphill at what's next

Looking downhill, not too much left to move,
except for the gravel

The other 1/2 of the crew worked nearby
doing some Long Path bog-bridging repairs

Because we have several heavy boards
and 12 buckets of gravel,
we are trying to get as close as we can to the worksite

We will be building two support enclosures,
to raise and level the walkway

We are using the same Black Locust wood
that we used for the planks

First support enclosure built and filled with gravel

Second support enclosure built,
filled with gravel and walkway in place

Dr. Dave prepares a hole for a new support base

All finished, looks pretty nice
and will last for many years to come

It's Sunday morning and back at our current worksite
we need the generator uphill, so we can split big rocks

Erik, Russ and Dan
are preparing a site for the next rock

Looks good, but first we need to remove some bedrock

Meanwhile, to break this rock,
Marty is drilling 5/8" holes 2" apart

Marty shows new volunteer Sam
how to deploy the feathers and wedges

Sam does a little tappy tap
and like magic, the rock breaks in half

Next, Sam drills holes in the bedrock for Dan

He drills multiple vertical holes

And multiple horizontal holes

Dan uses a manual hammer and chisel
to clear out the unwanted bedrock

Erik measures the new space,
making sure the next rock will fit

Sam, Russ and Jeff get it ready for the high-line

Here it is boys, all ready to be put into place

To make it fit snug, Dan takes a little off the side

Dan and Erik try to nudge it into place

For a perfect and snug fit,
a little more trimming is necessary

Another big boulder getting fitted into place

This is the last big rock and we will be putting it
in the future work, storage area

It's a little off balance, so we need to flip it

Ok everyone, on Three. One…  Two… 

Three… now it is safe and secure to leave it here

We are finished here until we get more rocks

Our final crew meeting for this weekend



© Marty Costello-2023