Roadside Trail, Rhododendron Campground, and Overlook Picnic Area

– Statistics & Discussion–

Roadside Trail tallies, and discussion:
*9 individual days when work occurred on the trail.
*179.75 Hours
*82 separate drainage features were raked out, and in most cases, re-dug and expanded.
These range in size from small dips with a 6’ ditch, to complicated drainage systems composed
of dips, a culvert, and many dozens of feet of drainage ditches. Each counts as one out of those
82. The number 82 doesn’t even include the northernmost half mile, where there are dozens
more drainage features. The total number on the entire trail is way over 100. All of them are
necessary.
*In the Conifer Section of the trail, on the hill between Reservoir Parking Lot and the water tank,
volunteer trailworkers used mineral soil high in shale and clay, from the adjacent quarry, to cover
some of the bumpy ‘washboard’ sections of the trail. This restored the original difficulty level for
ascending this part of the trail by mountain bike. More of the same work, which depends on a
volunteer group bucket brigade to bring the material from the adjacent quarry to the trail, will be
done in 2024.
*A short segment of roughly 350’ of trail was moved out of the field-like managed wildlife
opening, by Raven Rock Parking Lot, and rerouted 50’ to the north of the opening, so the trail

now goes around the open field, staying in the forest, instead of going straight through it. As a
byproduct of this reroute, a few hundred feet were added to the overall length of the trail,
bringing it very close to exactly 5 Kilometers.
*The southernmost 225’ of the trail, in the Overlook Picnic Area, was clarified and
re-emphasized, with the addition of many dozens of rocks ‘planted’ along the trail borders, and
the addition of off-white gravel all along the trail borders.
This year’s volunteers were wonderful and provided considerable essential labor to maintain
and also improve this key trail. I hope to do even better in 2024, especially with early November
drainage ditch clearing after leaf-fall and before Buck Season/Thanksgiving.
Rhododendron Campground tallies and tasks completed:
*7 individual days when work occurred in the campground
*121 Hours
Work performed included: installing 12 lantern posts, re-opening and rerouting a segment of
Restroom Trail, constructing a stone patio by a new water fountain, transplanting hemlock
saplings into privacy barriers in front of some campsites, digging postholes for a kiosk, and
digging a 50’ drainage ditch. In 2024, volunteers and I will focus on completing the remaining 13
lantern posts, painting all of them, and adding finishing touches to the stone patio.
Overlook Picnic Area tree saplings:
*3 work sessions were held, oriented around maintaining the tree saplings we’ve been planting
and maintaining in the Overlook Picnic Area since April 2012.
* 83.5 Hours were spent working on: replacing old green plastic fencing with new black wire
fencing around two of the enclosures, permanently removing fencing from around one of the
enclosures, fixing or replacing individual tree fencing cylinders around dozens of trees, weeding
three of the enclosures, mulching two of the enclosures, and planting a small number of oak
saplings. As of the end of 2023, I don’t know the precise number of living trees we’ve
established, but between 100 and 200 trees, all native species, are established and growing
inside the Overlook Picnic Area due to this ongoing effort. There is now a sufficient stockpile of
fencing, stakes, tools, and saplings, that our tree-planting efforts there and elsewhere are set up
to continue for several more years.