Fall mud trail clearing adventure

On Saturday morning the dog truck was loaded with tools and we headed SW to our favorite North Country Trail parking area at Gardner Road. We wanted to do an end-of-season trail check and clear off fallen trees which always appear by now.

We found snow here!  Trails mutts do love snow.

We finally head out.

The trails are so wet, the two legged ones found it was  slippery.

But it sure is pretty out.

No new beaver activity seen here but Tank Creek was up.

We love when there's both fall colors and beautiful white snow.

With cool temps like this, even old dogs can move right along.

Then we found water. This 2-track that the trail crosses
leads to a hunting camp. It looked more like a river!

Lots and lots of water everywhere. Yes, this is the trail.

It's deep and some areas were over the two legged ones boots,
 so they stepped very carefully.

Many stretches of standing water plus lots of mud were found.

Ya this is fall.  We hiked west nearly to the Ont river,
then we came back removing the trees we'd found.

Sandy is standing in water.  This location is commonly wet and we
hope to add a punceon board walk here some day.

Now we're on our way back.

Who says these pole saws aren't all that good for trail work?

I recommend them.

This creek is usually a trickle in the fall.

Arly cut a path through this one too.

Oh, here's a larger one that's across.

100 ft later, another big one.
We'll come back later with the BIG saw to clear them.

Arly, you'll get that one off won't you?

Ya!

Rubber boots are in style today.

We removed at least 10 trees today that fell across the trail
 in the later part of the summer.

Here's another...

...it will double as an ATV block.

Last year some hunters used the trail a short ways to get closer to their
kill which is understandable but it was wet then too,
and they did leave ruts.

At least everything was easy to work with, like this one.
No popple crowns or old balsam!

A limb had fallen off of a dying hemlock here at our favorite rest stop.

Check before you step!

Almost back. It was a good thing me and Wally are water dogs!