Let me count the immeasurable ways. Is it the work? The Cadillac Crew’s Blackburn Trail Center long weekend work trip was split between trail center and trail tasks.

Heading up the trail center work, Barbara Cook and John Kittridge managed a list of continuing maintenance with Cat Randall and Janet Arici giving the new front entrance stairs two coats of paint blending them in beautifully with the dark brown of the porch. Janet and Cat, along with Ellen Shaw and Erica Glembocki, scraped and touched up some of the weathered paint on the carriage house siding. Jonathan Robertson,Steve Barber, and John installed trim casing on a new window on the ridge runner apartment. Steve, John and Jonathan also installed a new hiker cell phone charging station on the porch, including a new set of electrical outlets and a shelf for the phones (since most hikers approaching the trail center ask first for water and then for a place to charge their devices!). They also addressed modifying non-closing porch and privy doors.



JT Tucker took on the replacement of a set of deteriorating log steps behind the carriage house, using repurposed lumber that John Corwith had rescued from a neighborhood playground rebuild. Assisted by Marty Martin (an experienced Hoodlum who was joining us for the first time), John, Barbara, and others, JT installed the new steps and enhanced the surface drainage to provide erosion protection.

Yard mission members (JT, Barbara, Dan Feer, Aidan Badwhar, Sandi Marra, Chris Brunton, Lynn Olsen, and Chris Glembocki) tackled raking accumulated leaves off the roof, removing vines from porch screens, trimming low-hanging tree branches, hedge-trimming of overgrown shrubs, dead-heading of blooming bushes, removing leaves packed against the hiker cabin foundation, clearing of leaves and debris from a road culvert to help control erosion of the road, and excavation and partial reconstruction of a collapsed low rock retaining wall along the driveway.

Ellen S. and Erica spent an entire morning manually regrading some of the erosion damage on the access road. Marty prepared the lawn furniture by scrubbing all of the chairs/ bench/lounge and arranging them on the lawn, and Janet did touch-up painting on the memorial bench. Aiden and Dan split and stacked wood in the woodshed to replenish the supply depleted by winter renters. Lastly, the crew cleaned the trail center, which is always beneficial after the winter rental season. Huge thanks to Chris B., Sandi, and Blackburn caretaker Lauren for hosting the crew.

Is it the people that make the work trip memorable? Tackling the trail tasks (installing rolling grade dips) this weekend was: (new) Marty Martin, (returning) Kirsten Elowsky, Alice DeCarlo, Steve Phillips, Bill Greenan, Maria de la Torre, Dan Feer, Ellen Feer, Robert Fina, Ellen Shaw, Martha Becton, Karen Brown, Cat Randall, Chris Glembocki, Aidan Badhwar, Don Oellerich, Chris Brunton (Co-District Manager), Rob Lamar (Co-district manager) and Dave Jordahl.

Starting with the safety round robin orchestrated by crew co-leader Dan Feer (ensuring we stayed safe), and the distribution of tools by Robert Fina (counting the correct amount), the crew tackled thirteen rolling grade dips over the two workdays. Having Chris B. and Rob L. (co-district managers) with the crew helped us know that our most difficult aspect for the weekend would be finding mineral soil for the berms as the area was very rocky and the few blowdown root balls had little to no mineral soil attached. Their keen local knowledge was invaluable. So, to our great fortune, the crew discovered mineral dirt just below the duff in the path of the dip’s ditches. As each team cleared the outflowing trench, a hole was dug only a few feet from the final destination of the berm, saving time and less forest floor disruption.

These ingenious and sustainable water diversion trail features take time to construct and fine tune. Each one, in Kirsten’s opinion, is a masterful work of trail construction. “I appreciated Martha working on my team, at one point, because she has the eye to ensure the “dip” part of the rolling grade dip has the gradual slope and curve needed for optimal water diversion. I am still learning how to master this technique,” she admitted. 

Is it the weekend’s great selection of food that keeps us coming back? Our longer work trips require potluck meals and happy hour snacks. Starting with Saturday’s dinner main entrée of Porchetta cooked by Sandi Marra (the ATC president) which fed not only the crew but several fortunate thru hikers and continuing with the Sunday’s main dinner vegetarian entrée of Butternut Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole cooked by Ellen Shaw (and assisted by her returning college student son, Aidan), the crew members highlighted their culinary skills in the well-appointed Blackburn kitchen.  Even Karen treated us to her grilling expertise to provide the group grilled sausages. Cat keeps track of the member’s monthly birthdays and treats us to our favorite dessert in celebration of this milestone. It also didn’t hurt that we were treated to spectacular views at Raven Rocks for Sunday lunch.

So if this article piques your interest and if you would like to join the crew, please contact the Cadillac Crew leaders at ccrewpatc@gmail.com for the next fourth weekend of each month’s work trip. I promise it will be memorable.