Hackfall Woods: 02-09-2014

The morning dawned sunny and bright as eleven NCVs joined Paul for a day of silt clearance in the cascades and culverts of Hackfall Woods. Off we set, down the hillside, to the first area of the river to be de-silted, with our spirits high and a spring in our step. On the way both Laura and Graham S. spied a good area of brambles for some blackberry harvesting at the end of the day. 

Once on the lower path we then had to abseil down to the river bank, carrying our shovels, hanging on for dear life to a very long rope. Dave L. had deftly tied this around a stout tree, drawing on his previous boy scout knot tying badge training. We hoped that he had tied the knot correctly. At the bottom we squelched our way through thick mud and into the water to start digging out the silt. Paul instructed us not to dig further than 2ft down in order to preserve the invertebrate life. He needn't have worried. We were lucky to be able to dig 6" before water inundated our hole and washed the silt off the shovel. 

 Fling it here and fling it there - 

the mud was shifted slowly but surely.



Further upstream Colin was busy with a rake - 
causing yet more silt to flow down to us!

Gradually the river started to look more 

like a river and less like a stream.

Every so often someone would stand, leaning on their shovel with a frown on their face. They had suddenly got 'that sinking feeling' as they realised that their wellies were well and truly stuck in the river bed. It took a lot of foot wriggling to free a stuck welly, believe me.

Laura slowly sinks into the mire.

A sense of relief was felt when coffee time or lunchtime was called. Of course these did require heaving ourselves up on the rope to get back up to our bags, but the subsequent rest was worth every heave. Singing various mud and digging related songs also kept us happy whilst we wallowed around in the river.

Down at Alum spring it was found that the area was actually quite silt-less. Hurray! An early finish? No - I'm afraid not. There were some very badly blocked culverts that needed clearing, and some muddy sections of path that needed gravelling, before we could go home. 

Whilst clearing the river bed of twiggy debris, 

Julia and Laura draw a line at shifting the log.

(There is only so much one can expect from an NCV.)

At least when clearing culverts there was no 

water to wash the mud off your spade.

The final result - the path is now reasonably mud free 
(unlike the NCVs).
This photo looks as if the path is shiny with water - it wasn't. The dark area is just dry, stony track.

At 2:30pm the job was complete and everyone started cleaning off their tools ready for the hike up the hillside. Laura and Graham tried to beat each other to the best blackberries on the way back. I think that there were sufficient for them both.

Ros E.