We have a special mid-week workday scheduled for next Thursday, July 24^th meeting at 8AM at the hiker parking lot,  5253 N Roxboro Street Durham.

The plan is to clear the Mountains-to-Sea trail of flood debris and trash where it runs along the north side of the Eno River at West Point on the Eno. Note that West Point on the Eno is still closed on the south side of the river. There are two areas where some work will be needed to get the trail reopened, but generally the trail seems to have come through the flooding fine.

There is still some pushback at Durham Parks and Recreation to reopening the MST at West Point, so we may not be able to clear debris off the trail next Thursday. Thus there is a plan B, which is to finish up removing trash from the River Forest section of trail, down river from West Point. We might not know until Thursday morning which of these projects we will be doing. We need to do both projects, though I would prefer to start with opening the trail.

Thank you so much to all of you who came out last weekend and worked to open the trail from Old Oxford Road (Penny’s Bend) to Roxboro Street. An incredible amount of work, and the trail is now open to use, though still a bit muddy in places.

Over the past days I have walked that trail and noted the locations where we need to do trail repairs, repairs that can wait until cooler weather. This morning during the short period of time I was on the trail, I saw five runners, two people walking dogs, and two other people out walking the trail. The trail is back in use!

For either of these projects you will want to bring water, work gloves, and wear long pants, boots or solid shoes, and bring insect repellent. Working safely is our highest priority, and the main hazard right now is the hot weather.

RSVP for the Thursday, July 24^th special workday to fred.dietrich@duke.edu