On January 24 the weather 'before' our session was ugly. As you might expect poor weather can negatively affect turnout. As often happens the weather improved, by the session's start time it was nice. We are fortunate, our volunteers are hearty souls. Weather varies, and on Little Mountain it changes quickly. Our people simply dress to accommodate it...

Our early turnout was a touch off, with eleven (11) volunteers. But at lunchtime we got seven (7) fresh volunteers, giving us a total of eighteen (18). Below you'll see Jerry Granahan, our crew leader, holding our safety meeting.

Below you'll see one of our new volunteers at work. David is a Cub Scout, he has been with us for several sessions. In the background you can see his Scout Leader. David works hard, it's fun to watch his skills and confidence grow.

In the photo he is digging the organic material (rotten wood) out of what will soon be a hardened trail tread. Maybe he'll be giving the safety talk one day...

In this third image (below) you'll see a few of our mid-day arrivals. Some of them are repeat volunteers, young people in our area on their missions. They worked hard, laughed lots and were wonderful. We hope they keep coming out...

In this first session on the Heart of the Park Public Trailhead Facility all the dead fall (branches & trees) and duff were removed from a new trail section.

We started work on the HOP Connector trail that will link the new lower trail head to the Up Only and La-Z-Boy trails. In our next session (2/14) we begin the contouring of this new trail section and start work on a large rock retaining wall.

A number of skilled rock wall builders have confirmed for the session, and the MVHS National Honors Society will be our 'featured group.' Having two projects going on at the same time is a little tricky, but we've done it before.

We hope to have a good turnout. Like last session we will meet at the main park entrance, at the big yellow gate.

See you on Saturday 2/14/15, which is Valentine's Day.