May Day/Derby Day Work Party at Ichabod’s Bridge

We had a dry if not terribly sunny day on Saturday, although someone invited the mosquitoes to the party as well. Since the pandemic blew into our lives there have been solo and household work parties, and a couple of small gatherings to work at the Horse Park, but this was the first group work party I had hosted in over a year, and it was wonderful to see those orange vests and hard hats again.

Ever since we built the bridge on Silent Alder Trail at Gibbs Lake County Park there was a problem with traction when the deck was wet. I tried anti-skid tape on the running planks, but it wasn’t durable and some riders still thought it was slippery when wet, so I came up with a more solid solution – extend the trail tread over the bridge itself.

Five of us met on Saturday morning at Beausite Lake Rd. Larry, Kris, Judith and I would work on resurfacing the bridge while Helen cleared the trail of low-hanging branches. First, we cleaned the bridge deck and put down fabric and curb rails to hold the gravel in place. Then we used our power gravel toter to move the material down to the bridge surface. After crowning and tamping it down and building up the approaches the bridge is ready for many future uneventful equine crossings.

No more clopping of hooves on the wooden deck, but perhaps Ichabod will appreciate the quiet.