Wednesday, May 29:
Bill Duffy, Jude Eldridge, and their dog Trip were taken to the Lunksoos Lean-to by Dave Rand on his ATV, with Bart DeWolf following on his bicycle. The crew cleared a few blow-downs on the Old Telos Tote Road, added new tags to the former Forestland Group section and cut back recent alder growth in several locations. Dave also dropped off 2×2 posts at four logging road intersections on the Messer Pond Road. After arriving at the Lunksoos Lean-to and before settling in for the night, Bill, Jude, and Bart brushed around the campsite, cleaned up three rolls of mouse-chewed TP from the privy, cleared the area around fireplace ring of vegetation, and re-erected three IAT guide posts (knocked over by moose?).
Herb Hartman, Will Richard (chainsaw), and Bob Ellis (chainsaw), with his ATV (winch), headed north, clearing numerous trees fallen across the trail. Don Hudson and Earl Raymond headed north to consider a possible route to avoid wet trail sections north of the “Pines”. The two parties met at the “field”, an intersection with old logging road and site of the bear-gnawed IAT sign post and agree that although the trail has wet areas, especially following several days of torrential downpour, experienced hikers should be able to walk around them and would not be bothered by a little water. Strategic drainage ditching of the wet spots was deemed a better alternative than trail reroute.
Don Hudson
Dave returned to Bowlin from Lunksoos Lean-to.
After drinks, Walter Anderson, food provider extraordinaire, served salad, heated Dick Anderson’s very tasty clam chowder (“raise your hand if you find a piece of clam.”), and provided brownies for desert.
Thursday, May 30, 2013:
Walter woke everybody at 5:00 a.m., by singing Shubert’s “Der Tod und Das Madchen” and announcing that scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, coffee, were ready.
Bob took Will and Herb by way of the K Road to the intersection of the trail and Little Messer Pond Road. Numerous blow-downs were cleared to Grand Pitch, the lean-to swept (one section of broken floorboard noted), the area around the fireplace hoed to mineral soil, the privy swept and new TP provided. Herb and Will cleared blow-downs on a wet trail from the Grand Pitch lean-to to the “field”.
Don and Earl successfully dug drainage ditches at several of the wet areas between “the Pines” and the “field”.
Walter drove from Bowlin up to the Matagamon Road and the north end of the trail–the Messer Pond/Orin Falls and Haskell Deadwater roads –checked signs and post s, all of which were in place.
Bill, Jude, Bart and Trip headed up the trail to Lunksoos Mtn. at 7:00 AM clearing several small blow-downs along the way and adding tags and arrows at several confusing turns in the trail. After reaching the summit, the crew continued trail clearing down into the col between Lunksoos and Deasey. Bart then led Bill and Jude to the last reported location of the rare Squirrel-corn (Dicentra canadensis) on the east-facing cliffs of Lunksoos in the hope of finding a blooming specimen. While the search turned up vast amounts of the very similar Dutchmen’s Breeches, no Squirrel-corn was found.
After returning to the col, Bill, Jude, and Bart continued towards Deasey, clearing several more blow-downs and rerouting a short section trail around a perpetually wet spot in the center of the col. The crew arrived at the Deasey Fire Lookout at 12:30 and had a quick lunch inside the ground cab to avoid the clouds of blackflies that swarmed outside. The crew then returned the way it had come, adding 30 to 40 new IAT tags along the way.
Meanwhile Dave and Bob Ellis returned to the Lunksoos Lean-to on their ATVs where Dave used his brush scythe to clear the shrubby undergrowth from the lower section of the trail up Lunksoos Mtn. Bob admired the fine set of moose antlers found by Jude the previous evening and precariously mounted on the side of the lean-to by Bill that morning. Bob headed back to Bowlin and Bill, Jude, Bart and Trip arrived back at the lean-to at around 3:30 meeting with Dave. After loading their gear into the newly reinforced ATV trailer, Dave, Bill, Jude and Trip headed back towards Bowlin on the ATV with Bart once again following on his bicycle. Unfortunately, due to a lack of IAT tags, the directional posts dropped off the previous day at the intersections of old logging roads with the Messer Pond-Orin falls Road could not be erected and will have to wait until next year. It was agreed that all the other necessary trail work had been completed between Deasey summit and Matagamon.
Bob left the work crews to relax in the cabin at Bowlin and headed off to a “special spot” with his fishing gear, returning at around 6:30 PM with his limit of brook trout for breakfast.
Dinner consists of salad and Dick’s chop suey.
Friday, May 31, 2013:
Early breakfast featured a taste of trout followed by clean-up and departure. A successful trip.
Herb Hartman/ Bill Duffy
