Davy Crockett National Forest, Texas - by George Boemerman
On Thursday 17 February, George Boemerman, David Justice, Steve Baker, and Rocky Nelson rendezvoused at Davy Crockett N.F. and planned the weekend schedule with Forest reps Merlinda Schory and Pearlie Greene. Yes, Pearlie's back from her tour of duty with the Army Reserves where she had an assignment readying personnel prior to deployment to Iraq, and she had been promoted to Master Sergeant!
Early Friday morning Ray Fore and Chuck Lundstedt arrived and off we went to saw bridge lumber and pre-position it for the weekend tasks. In the meantime, we were able to repair two bridges that had been damaged due to heavy rainfalls. On Friday evening Mitch Drummond, Terence Donovan, and Mary Zeitler arrived. We had set up our campsite at the overflow area to take advantage of the large covered pavilion in case of the forecasted rain. Fortunately, the weekend weather ended up perfect for working.
Early Saturday morning, Jim Pendergast and Randy Rogers arrived in time to start our major work projects. We split up into three crews to spread the work more efficiently. As usual, Ray Fore and Rocky Nelson provided the technical expertise. For those who are not familiar with it, the Davy Crockett work is quite different from our regular trail work. There are no rocks to manipulate, no water bars, just big heavy timbered trail bridges to repair. Three bridges were repaired that day. Saturday night, we had our usual Davy Crockett group feast. Rocky Nelson fried up a delicious turkey, Ray Fore made the coleslaw, and Pearlie boiled the cobs of corn. Mary Zeitler provided her sinful chocolate chip cookies and Merlinda forced her Mississippi Mud Pie on us. Rocky was overheard saying, "I can't believe I ate three pieces".
Sunday, after groaning over all the food we devoured, we headed out to the trails again. Merlinda took one crew and worked in the immediate area, while Pearlie took another crew up to the north end of the Forest (about 30 miles). Merlinda's crew, headed by Ray Fore, ran into some problems. They found the bridge decayed beyond repair and they proceeded with a complete rebuild.
Pearlie’s crew, headed by Rocky Nelson, was confronted with moving and repairing a bridge that had slipped off it base due to rains. The bridge was built on 12X12 railroad timbers and it was a good thing we brought along the tractor. There was some heavy timber cutting to do and the Forest's chain saw broke down. However Randy Rogers saved the day with his trusty chain saw. He never leaves home without it!
Sunday night, we were all exhausted, rightfully. We had completed major repairs on 7 bridges and had completely rebuilt another, and the rebuild involved a span over 40 feet. We provided Davy Crockett National Forest with 226 man-hours of heavy and technical work. Merlinda Schory stated that the Forest could not maintain the trail bridges at an acceptable level without the yearly volunteer work provided by the Central Texas Trail Tamers. Since Monday was a holiday for the Forest personnel, we packed up early and headed home.
No comments:
Post a Comment