Spent yesterday doing some trail maintenance up on the Appalachian Trail in the Carry Ponds area with my good buddy Dana. Dana is a volunteer trail maintainer for the Maine Appalachian Trail Club (MATC) , and has maintained a pretty 3-mile section of the AT from West Carry Pond to Arnold's Bog since 1995. I've spent a fair amount of time over the years helping out with brush clipping, cleaning water bars and building bog bridges. It's sweaty work but very satisfying when it's done.

Last spring I decided to become an MATC volunteer too, and adopt my own section of the AT. Incredibly, the section just north of Dana's was available so I grabbed it. It's a beautiful 2-mile stretch of trail that extends from near Middle Carry Pond to the north end of East Carry Pond. There's quiet woods, loons, eagles, a sand beach and some of the clearest, cleanest water in Maine.

On this trip, Dana loaded up his chainsaw and headed south on his section to drop some trees for future bog bridges. I took a pair of clippers and a bucksaw and headed north on my section. Spent the next four very peaceful hours alone, clearing the trail of encroaching brush and overhead branches. Stopped for lunch on East Carry Pond and watched two fishermen out in their boat lazily casting rods. Loons cried while I dozed.

With my trail chores complete for the day, I hiked over to meet Dana near Arnold's Point on West Carry Pond. His chainsaw was acting up so productivity had been pretty minimal. I stood and watched while his saw smoked and sputtered and eventually quit for good right in the middle of a big cut through a cedar tree. That pretty much put an end to our work day. Tired and hungry, we hiked back to the truck bound for a good meal and cold beer.