Hackfall Woods: 10-04-2018

A Wet Morning at Hackfall.

After all the partying of last week the NCVs were still on a high. The monthly Hackfall Woods visit was due and so, in spite of the dreadful forecast for the day (not so much April showers as April deluge) 10 turned out. There were a number of tasks to be done, but we decided to only work for the morning and prioritise the most important jobs.

NB Limited photography this week due to the weather conditions!!

A group of 6 set off to Mowbray Castle to remove two fallen trees. The progress with the first can be seen below. 

Andy showed off his lassoing skills.

Then the rotten roots were cut through....

...before the tree could be rolled away to the side of the path.

A final tidy up and then on to the second tree!
(No photos of that one.)

A group of four others set off to investigate what could be done to prevent the path near Fisher's Hall getting completely waterlogged....

Water streaming down the path 
instead of through a drain pipe.

David got the particularly muddy job, 
namely digging a new channel. 

It should work very well. 

The other job they had to do was to measure up for a new section of board walk next to the river. HOWEVER....

The stream down from Alum Spring was in full spate.

The raging torrent sped down the hillside and....

...prevented us getting across to reach the area we need to get to.
The same thing happened when we walked the long way around  
and came across a second stream - also in spate.

So no measuring for the board walk - though we were able to look at another example to find out how to construct one. Hopefully next time we'll be able to ford the stream safely.

En route to the car park, two of this team did manage to create a temporary barrier near Grewelthorpe Pond to prevent visitors walking off the main footpath and crushing the emerging bluebell leaves. (Sorry - no photo for this either.)

So - a good morning's work - in spite of the awful conditions!

The NCVs hitched a ride from a passing ark 

to get back to the car park.