Today was the day we really had to pull the guns out. Today we fixed bog bridges down at Manchester Cedar Swamp. Bog bridges are those awesome two-plank wide bridges which exist in watery areas to help keep hikers' feet nice and warm (and not covered in mud). What I didn't realize before today is that these bridges are all made manually. People carry in the lumber, remove the broken pieces, and nail in the new pieces. In hindsight this makes sense, I just never thought about it when crossing the bridges.
Anyway, today these people who made the bog bridges were us!
We started our morning carrying in the heaviest piece of wood, a nice 2x12 (actually, we got kind of ambitious and tried carrying both a 2x12 and a 2x10, but it didn't go too well - these pieces of lumber weighed at least 300 pounds a piece). The 2x12 which was broken was also the hardest to remove because it was the least dilapidated, and the previous group had installed two 2x6's.
After that job was done (we also had to haul in the tools that round), we headed back to the trailhead to pick up another 2x10. We were joined by our good friend Len, whose lifting skills put ours to shame. We installed the 2x10 much easier than the 2x12, and split for lunch.
Our lunch furthered our discussion on the native plants in the area. Before we installed the 2x12, we took a tour around the swamp and learned about some of the plants. The American white cedar was the crown jewel of the swamp. It's a slightly endangered species due to the fact that it's super water resistant wood. We also saw a black gum tree. Unlike the cedar, it has no practical use besides making buttons (thanks to Len for that tidbit). So all the black gums are around 400 years old, while the cedars are less than 100--generally speaking--because the black gums were never logged.
We also learned that blueberry plants and rhododendron plants are in the same family, which is pretty neat. Our lunches also tasted great after all that hauling (plus Len brought cherries again!)
After lunch, we repeated the process with the remaining 2x10, and then got both of the 2x8's in a single trip! By the end, we all knew we'd wake up sore in the morning. But the hikes were super beautiful. We probably hiked 3 or 4 miles total, and it was quite scenic. We definitely earned our weekend. Our weekend should be super interesting. Saturday we're spending the day in Boston, visiting Harvard and the science museum. Sunday's still undecided... then Monday we're back at Manchester Cedar Swamp installing fences. More on that in a few days.
Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Sincerely, your 2015 LEAF Crew
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