The Path to Eagle
Article and photos by Lee Howard
The Path to Eagle
Article and Photos by Lee Howard
On Saturday morning, May 30th, 17 Scouts and three adults from Troop 33 in Takoma Park, Md. assembled under the leadership of Eagle Scout candidate Aldan Peterson to complete a trail maintenance project. The Scouts and Scouters were greeted by seasoned Trail Maintainer
Ken Ferebee near an entrance to a section of the Glover Archbold Trail in the Cathedral Heights neighborhood of Northwest D.C. The foot path is one of many maintained by the club within the National Park Service Rock Creek Park trail system.
Peterson’s goal for the day was to replace all of the decking, a couple of stringers, and one step of a 50-foot boardwalk within the stream valley of the 183-acre Glover Archbold Park. After a continental breakfast of donuts and coffee, and a tailgate safety discussion led by Peterson and Ferebee, the morning shift was ready to get to work.
The Scouts set about the demolition, removing deck boards with crowbars, claw hammers, sledge hammers, and even a rock bar for extra leverage. A bucket brigade of youth and adults took away the damaged and worn lumber, neatly stacking it near the trailhead in the public right-of-way for the Park Service to pick up later. Once the two decayed stringers were removed, Ferebee discovered that the underlying sills were also in bad shape. That was about the time PATC’s D.C. Rock Creek Park (RCP) Trails Deputy District Manager
Josh Wolny showed up to help, and agreed that the sills needed replacing.
After a few Scouts removed the rotten timbers, Ferebee made short work of leveling out the ground with his trusty McLeod. He discovered that the sills were resting on top of what was likely the original trail bed, which had been surfaced with back run gravel. Foundry Branch runs through the valley, and this area is prone to flooding. Years of stormwater runoff and flooding buried the old tread with mud and silt. One of the Scouts had never seen a McLeod before and said it looked like a Pac-Man ghost.
With all of the demolition complete, the crew took a break and enjoyed a lunch of pizza and snacks. While it was a beautiful, breezy day with a high of 65, the crew stayed hydrated during the morning shift and celebrated three and a half hours of work with no accidents or injuries. During the break, Ferebee entertained the other adults with stories about his career with the Park Service, and Wolny recalled that their club trail crew had given Ferebee the McLeod as a retirement gift when he left the Park Service in 2022.
During the break, several Scouts from the morning shift left to attend birthday parties and sporting tournaments, and were replaced by substitutes who were eager to start driving nails. D.C. RCP Trails District Manager
Alex Sanders substituted for Ferebee for the afternoon shift to supervise the installation of the stringers and deck boards. Sanders remarked that he didn’t know that the sills needed replacing, or he would have assigned this project to his trail crew. Peterson and the Troop 33 Scouts didn’t back down from the challenge, though, and successfully completed the job by late afternoon.
While the Scouts were finishing the boardwalk, Sanders remarked that he is regularly approached by Eagle Scout candidates looking for projects. The volume of requests became so great that he created a spreadsheet to keep track of them all. Eagle Scout service projects often focus construction and conservation and could be opportunities for cabin and trail maintainers to engage with Scouting America units close to where the projects are.
The founder of Scouting, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, had a concept of the movement as a “school of the woods.” Many Scouting America troops have strong outdoors programs, and service is a cornerstone of the organization. Eagle Scout candidates have to lead their projects, and think through the questions of scope, required materials and supplies, and level of effort with the help of an advisor. They work closely with a project beneficiary, for example a trails maintainer, who assists in identifying the deliverables of the project and approves the results when it’s finished. Not every maintenance project, whether cabins, lands, or trails, will be appropriate for an Eagle candidate, but some may be great opportunites for collaboration. Scouting units can be searched by location using the tool on the
BeAScout website.