The photos in this first section are from the Spring 2000 trips.

Here's what the the trailhead looked like before we began working.  It was still fairly open since it was only January; but once the bushes and trees began to come out in the spring, you could hardly see in here.  This looks as much like a trail as it does because it is a short cut to the other parking lot from this one.

Compare the first picture and this one to the picture 3 below... it really is the same place!

The newly installed trailhead from off of the parking lot.  This staircase began the relocation which replaced a badly eroded 'herd path' which went directly up the hill.  Much more inviting and much less likely to wash away with use and weather.

Many hands and some old fire hose make this 400 pound railroad tie almost portable! (We used over 50 of them!!)  They are recovered ties, mostly hardwood, all treated for the ages.  

This is where most of those railroad ties ended up.  While this isn't very 'rustic' as trails go, the level of usage is so high along here that the sandy clay that makes up the hillside would have just been eroded away in no time.  With cribbed steps like this, the hundreds of people a day that use this trail in the summer will have a safe, easy way to go that will last for many, many years.

Great work, people!  You are right to be proud of the job.

A view back down those beautiful stairs.  And this is only the first 300 yards of the relocation and restoration!  The overall job is just about 2 miles long.  This part is where you first come off the Dunfield Creek parking lot, and is the most concentrated traffic area on the trail.

 It's not all staircases.  These terraces and side hill work make the ascent to the top of the plateau pleasant, durable, and still give the hiker a sense of being on a trail.  This photo shows what happens at the top of the staircase above.  The hiker is now walking up a series of terraces which angle up the side of the hill, curving with the general topology to reach the top.  The result is a trail that is easy to walk on and yet 'gets the job done'; while at the same time preserves the normal flow of water off the hill as much as possible.

And this shows how it got to look that way.  Plenty of skilled, hard work - done with care and an eye for keeping the footing comfortable while keeping just enough out-slope to shed the water off the trail.  Keeping the water moving along it's normal path down the side of the hill is far better than letting it collect and gutter down the trail, causing ruts and eroding out the steps and trail.  [ Someone once said the three most important things in trail work is "Drainage, Drainage, Drainage" ]

A practiced eye for keeping the drainage working, a lot of digging and moving rocks (and more of those railroad ties).  

Members of the all-volunteer crew working away on 'side hilling' the top of the approach to the plateau.  By cutting down on the inner (up hill) edge, they are carving a sort of shelf for the trail to be on.  With just enough out slope, the rain will continue to run across and off the side of the trail, rather than down the walkway - which would create an eroded ditch.

And did we say rocks?  This one ended up as a foundation for one of the staircase landings.  Wouldn't you know it... it's completely dug into the dirt, so only the top shows!  The saying goes, if you can move the rock by yourself, by hand, it is way too small.  Ideally, rocks should be 'planted'; but in any event, they should stay where they are put because they want to.

The photos in the next section are from the Fall 2000 trips.  While the fallen leaves hide some of our earlier work (as intended), the open canopy makes for better lighting...

After crossing the top of the plateau above the parking lot, the trail's path used to follow a shoulder of the hill around and on up.  Over the years, this section, which was the same sandy clay soil, had become pounded down into a ditch.  And, as happens with any ditch on a hillside, it became a runoff path.  The runoff had washed a pretty nasty gully, but hurricane Floyd finished the job - in places the ditch was waist deep.  The answer was to re-locate the trail all together and to fill in the damaged area and let it heal.  This stone staircase is how the trail now gets up to the ridge spine.  These rocks are all placed and fitted into a natural defile in the ledge face.  With water bars above, very little water will flow over them; what does will flow over the large rocks and be dispersed through the gravel underneath. 

Just after the top of the stairs, the new trail re-joins the old trail.  (It comes in from the left in this photo; the washout began just off the edge from here.)  More large (300-400 pound) rocks were dug in and placed to act as both terraces and a staircase at this point.  The leaves and branches are hiding the half ton of rip-rap (little rocks and broken up bigger rocks) to the immediate right edge of the steps.  This spot was the 'headwater' for the washout gully and had to be made as 'hard' and water proof as possible.

And this is part of it's support system.  These steps were created to form another terrace and water deterrent.  They tie in to the boulders which were already there.  Now, instead of a sluice, there is a broader, rock surface for the water to sheet over.  You can also see in the background the downhill face of one of the many, many waterbars on this project. 

This waterbar is over 12 feet long and is constructed of very large rocks, buried in a trench.  Like an iceberg they are mostly underground.  The purpose of a waterbar is to direct flowing water off the trail, presumably back to the normal pattern of flow for the hillside, and this one a beauty!

This is the business side of one of the waterbars - the uphill side.  As you can see, it provides a major influence for any water flowing on the trail to make other plans.  The real trick with waterbars is to not make them so tall that people trip over them, but tall enough to do the job.  Also, making the outflow as diffused as possible will help avoid downhill damage.

Here you see a couple of the ladies at work on another waterbar.  In this case, she was lucky that is was only some small roots in her way.  Its pretty much inevitable that you will have to fight to dig a 1.5 - 2 foot deep slot to place the rocks, you just hope you don't discover something really big.

The uphill side of their work of art just before the finishing touches were applied.  Notice the broad, step-stone in the center.  Getting the 'right' rocks placed correctly is what makes for a successful waterbar.  Also, getting the right angle helps... too steep and they wash themselves out, too shallow and the water doesn't flow. 

And the stairs just keep on coming.  This time, it was a 3-step job, around an existing boulder.  Again, the steps are to 'harden' the walking surface in an area where water and footsteps are making an erosion pattern.  The waterbar which ended up just above here took most of the water away, now these steps will correct what already had happened, and help to prevent any further damage.

After the steps are completed, rip-rap and little 'junk' rocks are used to scree in the side of the construction.  This helps to define the intended walkway, and to help drain water off the steps.  The water flows between the rocks and thus is slowed down, minimizing the erosion of the area.  In many cases, we will scree in an area such as this with really 'ugly' rocks - specifically to keep hikers on the trail.  If there was enough of an erosion problem to warrant the steps in the first place, having folks detour around them would only create new problems 'over there'.

And here you have a view down a section of the newly revamped trail.  While we didn't place the fallen tree in the background, we did place the waterbars and terraces.  Hopefully, we will have done our job well and helped to preserve the trail bed, and to help it heal - all while not being too intrusive to the hiking experience.

The photos in this next section are from the 2001 & 2002 trips.  The work time over these two seasons was limited since the crew's efforts (and those of most of the Trail Conference's NJ contingent) were focused on the Pochuck wetlands relocation project on the Appalachian Trail.)

About a mile up from the parking lots, the trail makes a 'jump' up onto a small ledge.  Twenty years ago, the trail used to just go straight up or down the 20' cliff face, before continuing on up to the top.  About 10 years ago, that was moved to a 30' high rock scramble about 200' to the south.  The only problem was that there were several seeps in the hill above which turned the whole thing into an ice cube jumble in the winter.  Even in summer, it had a tendency to be wet and slippery - just generally unpleasant to do business with.  

So, as an offshoot of hosting an ATC workshop on rockwork, the crew built an extensive re-route around the rock scramble.  It begins here with several stone steps up to a 'crushed' rock tread way, which turns left at the top of this photo.

In this picture, Jack is cutting the the tread for the lower section of the switchback in the rocky ledges of the area.  It's a great way to work out your frustrations...

When this was all done, the old rock-hop scramble was closed off, and the new route blazed open.  Not bad for 4 days' work.