Last summer, heavy rain triggered a massive landslide on Mount Colden in the Adirondacks. The landslide dumped downed trees, rocks, and mud into Avalanche Pass. Since then, the trail through Avalanche Pass has been closed to hikers.
State and volunteer crews have been working this summer to clean up and rebuild the trail. Michele McCall is a trail leader with the Adirondack 46ers. Last month, she and dozens of volunteers helped rebuild a section of the Avalanche Pass trail. She shared details of the backbreaking work and the landslide's impact on Avalanche Pass with Emily Russell.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
McCall: Had there been no work done at all, I would describe it as if a bomb had hit. So you look up the hill, and it's a slab of clear rock, and then the valley leading to Avalanche Lake is just filled with all kinds of rock debris, trees, tree roots, water in strange places. Like I said, it's like a bomb had gone off.
Russell: So you helped coordinate a trail work weekend up there for the Adirondack 46ers. What kind of physical work was the crew doing?
McCall: Well, luckily, there had been other crews up there, and there was a wonderful bridge going over a big bog that was quite deep, 5-6 ft deep. So luckily that part was already done. So once we arrived, there were multiple jobs. Lumber had been flown in, so we moved a lot of lumber to the places they were going to use it to build.
We actually did some of the building of what they call bog bridging over either muddy areas or over areas that would dip down; they would put it on there. We did a tremendous amount of breaking of rocks. So what you do is you take a small sledge or a big sledgehammer, and other people were delivering the rocks, and then people were breaking the rocks up, and then we had a crew carrying the shards of rocks to the various locations.
The idea is you build up the trail, or you build up any of the bog bridging that you're building; you want to put rocks under to stabilize it and to keep it from just sinking in the mud.
The other primary huge job that we did besides the bog bridging and the breaking of the rocks was we were digging a really long drainage ditch. As you can imagine, when all of the trees and debris and dirt and rocks were dumped into this area, there's no clear way for the water to drain. So there was one drain that had already been dug, and then we were digging another one so that the water could come down through there.
Russell: What was it like coordinating volunteers for a project like this?
McCall: Well, that was actually one of the biggest challenges because as you can imagine, we had to divide up into multiple small groups to be working in different areas and just keep everyone busy and everybody is really anxious to contribute so making sure that everybody has a job to do, that took a lot of coordinating and we have a lot of experience, so we relied on not only trail masters but our experienced lead workers to help with that so we could keep everyone going.
The other challenge was it was incredibly hot, and we were working in a very sunny area, so we were making sure everybody was staying hydrated, that we were rotating the jobs, and making sure everybody could rotate around.
Russell: Why is it important for the Adirondack 46ers to volunteer and be part of repairing this trail?
McCall: Well, we really like to give back, and we have a lot of knowledge in this group. The reality is that the DEC, like any other organization, doesn't always have the people power. They have the knowledge and their leadership is fantastic, and then we can provide that power, that energy, that enthusiasm to do the work under the guidance of the DEC and Tate Connor.
Russell: Avalanche Pass is a very popular trail year-round. What would you want folks to know about the work that goes into rebuilding this trail when people are back on the trail this fall or winter?
McCall: I guess just enjoy what is there, try to stay on the trails instead of making them wider, follow the trails as is, and if you see somebody out working on the trails, say thank you. And my experience is people do that. It's been really, really nice when people walk by and say, "Hey, who are you?" and we let them know, and they say, "Thank you so much for doing the work." It really makes you feel appreciated.