We will have an extra workday tomorrow, Saturday May 16^th, 9AM meeting at Penny’s Bend, at the corner of Old Oxford Road and Snow Hill Road in Durham.

The main task will be the removal of graffiti that has been recently sprayed on the very nice picnic rock overlooking the river at Penny’s Bend.

How will we do this? We will use a biodegradable product called “elephant snot”

We will follow the elephant snot instructions for use. Wearing protective gloves and safety glasses we will use a brush to paint the elephant snot onto the graffiti. Wait 15-20 minutes.

We will then scrub the graffiti  with stiff brushes, and wipe up most of the paint/elephant snot with rags, and wash the rags in a bucket of water.

We will then use a battery powered power washer on the areas treated, using water from the river. If needed, we will repeat treatment for spots missed/not removed.

I will take home the buckets with the water/elephant snot/paint mixture and dispose of it.  In this way much of the paint and elephant snot will be removed and disposed of elsewhere. As always, I am committed to working in a safe and responsible way. I think removing the graffiti soon is preferable, as graffiti seems to have an undesirable property of encouraging more graffiti. That is why I want to do this as an extra workday, not wait weeks or months to do it.

This will take several people.

If we have more than enough people for the graffitti, then we will also work on rolling a tire out of the woods to the road where it can be picked up.

This large heavy tractor tire was pulled out of the river at our May 2^nd workday. It is now up on the flood plain, and I think we will be able to role it up the trail and out of the woods. This will take, however, at least 4-6 people.

For our upcoming June 6^th National Trails Day workday, we will meet at 9AM at 4404 Guess Road and continue trail repair work.

For these workdays you will want to wear boots or solid shoes and dress accordingly for the weather, and bring water, work gloves.

Tools will be provided.

RSVP to fred.dietrich@duke.edu

Thank you all for your great work on the trail!
See you on the trail
Fred