We have a big project planned! We will be meeting at 9AM Saturdays November 25^th, December 2^nd, and December 9^th at the Fews Ford area, Eno River State Park to work on major repairs to the Eno Trace Trail. This will be our second workday working on the future MST, the segment of trail from the Pleasant Green Road parking area to the Cox Mountain Trail. These trail repairs are a fundamental part of closing this trail gap in the MST. Last I heard plans are still on track for NCDOT to replace the Pleasant Green Road road bridge in 2024 with a new bridge including a sidewalk which will allow the MST to cross the river and connect up to the Fews Ford area/Cox Mountain Trail. If things go well, we will soon have more than a mile of trail to build to make this trail connection. This is one of only two gaps in the trail between Occoneechee Mountain and Clayton, so I am quite happy we are starting the initial work on closing this gap.

Link to Bill’s note on December 9^th: https://conta.cc/3QFah3Q

Why three workdays? It is going to be a lot of work making these repairs, digging, raking, trimming, moving rocks, moving gravel, moving soil. This is a joint project with Bill Boyarsky and the Orange County FMST group and the Eno River Association, as well as the Eno River FMST group.

As some of you have noticed, the Eno River State Park staff organized work to repair the Cox Mountain Trail from the parking lot down to the suspension bridge, eliminating the steep steps and making for a more sustainable trail. This repair was another key step in the future of this segment of the MST.

Thank you to all of you who came out to our very successful September and October workdays  where we got trail repair work done, removed some invasive privet, and removed trash.

RSVP to fred.dietrich@duke.edu

You will need to wear work clothes, boots or solid shoes, and bring water, snacks, and lunch if you plan to work all day.