Saturday December 7^th is our final FMST workday of 2024. We will be at meeting at 9AM-2PM at Penny’s Bend, 3706 Snow Hill Rd in Durham, at the junction of Snow Hill Road and Old Oxford Road.

We will Start off by walking a future potential reroute of the MST. Currently the trail leaves the woods at the Penny’s Bend parking area, then crosses the Eno on the rather narrow bridge, then heads back in the woods. For me my top three trail building priorities are building trail at Eno River State Park to close the two gaps in the MST; my third highest priority is to move the trail off the road at Old Oxford Road.

The plan is to route the trail under Old Oxford Road, walk down the north side of the river, and cross the river on the old bridge on the old Lynchburg and Durham Road, a rail line that has not been used for decades. We currently cannot do this as the 100+ year old bridge is currently owned by Norfolk Southern, but there are plans to acquire the rail line for a rails-to-trails project, which may make this reroute possible.

If you have not crossed the river before on that railroad bridge, you are in for an experience.

After the walk, the plan is an invasive species removal workday, pulling privet along the MST where the trail follows the river at Penny’s Bend. Ten years ago, one of the main trail maintenance tasks at Penny’s Bend was cutting back the privet and multiflora rose that continuously grew over the trail. Getting rid of the privet has fixed that problem. It is also allowing native plants to grow back. Some of you have helped on the privet removal in the past. This year it is a follow up, pulling out mostly small privet growing up from seeds. We will be hand pulling and using the weed wrenches.

We have been making great progress reducing the amount of invasives along the Eno River and the MST and hopefully we can continue this progress in December and next year.

We are also negotiating with State Parks over plans to take on trail maintenance and hopefully building of new trail at Eno River State Park. We are hoping to resume trail maintenance there in January.

For this workday you will need to wear work clothes you can get dirty, boots or solid shoes, and bring water. Bring lunch if you plan to work into the afternoon. In the event of adverse weather, the workday will be canceled or postponed, and an email to this effect will be sent out.

Tools will be provided.

See you on the trail!
Fred

For more information or to RSVP email to fred.dietrich@duke.edu