This nice piece on the Carr Mountain Cooperative trail build appeared in the latest issue of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation “Greenways and Trails Program E-News.”
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The Carr Mountain Trail nears completion
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 by Tom Johnson
In its fourth year of volunteer work, the six-mile Carr Mountain Trail– a critical piece of the Great Eastern Trail through Virginia– is nearing the first phase of completion.
On early April, 18 volunteers crowded around a Ditchwitch, to see how this machine could speed up the process of benching a new section of the trail on steep slopes. The operator stands behind the rubber-tracked machine and moves the blade into the hillside, scraping away a new, wide path. It is preceded by volunteers with loppers, chain saws and leaf blowers who clear the path for the operator. Behind the Ditchwitch, volunteers smooth the path with fire rakes and McCleods to make a smooth, level path.
The Ditchwitch, run by Brock Lowery of Ironwood Outdoors, was generously funded by the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition. The Carr Mountain Trail is a joint hiker-biker-equestrian project for a multi-use section of the Great Eastern Trail. It is being built in a remote corner of George Washington National Forest northwest of Harrisonburg. It will connect trails on Great North Mountain and Shenandoah Mountain.
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