We arrived at the Rock Run trail work location in Perry County just before 10:00 am.  We walked over the raised shoulder along Rock Run Road and saw the day’s assignment, which displayed its obviousness with trickery:  a wetland with several small stream crossings and no discernable trail to follow to the other side.  After the safety briefing by Andrew Bashaw of the North Country Trail Association we all followed the soon-to-be Buckeye/North Country Trail marked with orange survey tape to get ourselves oriented, then back to the vehicles to pick out our tools, many of which were leant by Wayne National Forest.  Andrew opened the majestic green box storing the trail building/maintaining tools and set various tools around his truck.  With little fumbling, we all had our tools.  Andrew with his pulaski, Claudia and Sheila took fire rakes, Jay and Shannon grabbed pulaskis and Emily snagged the loppers.  Mike, Dana and Dan all donned their own tools; a pulaski, a lopper and a mini ax/large hatchet, respectively.  Two Wayne National Forest employees arrived later to chainsaw some trees.  After another brief safety demonstration by Andrew we set off with our tools and hardhats.  We worked for approximately two hours, bartering tools with trail coworkers as the need arose.
“Do you need that mcleod right now?  I’ll trade you this pulaski and hand pruner for it?”
“No, but if you can find me a fire rake, it’s yours.”
            “LUNCH TIME!”
The bartering process had to wait.  We all walked back to the trucks, grabbed our lunches and then hiked along the new section of the Buckeye/North Country Trail to a small scenic pond where we sat and ate lunch.  It’s always fun to work on one area of the trail and then walk the entire section to see the progression.  The new trail could be seen, but still needed some work.  After the revitalization of energy from lunch (my revitalization consisted of two peanut and apple butter sandwiches and an orange-pineapple soda) we commenced working.  The trail had come together exquisitely nice.  The loppers and pruners defined the width and height of the trail corridor, the fire rakes cleared the trail of debris and Japanese honeysuckle, the pulaskis pulled up roots and stumps and also benched into hillsides where slopes were encountered, and the mcleod cleaned up the benching into the hillsides where the pulaskis have previously been and also to stamp down the freshly turned soil on the trail.  We finished the section of trail early, so we began to clean the portion of trail that climbed to the lake where we ate lunch.  When we reached the lake, we rested for a moment and talked before trekking back to the vehicles where the day began.  We all talked for another half an hour reminiscing the day on the trail before departing.
            Trail work parties aren’t all about building trail.  They reveal the accomplished product of teamwork in as little as one afternoon, they are a great place to meet new people, and also the satisfaction of knowing that when the next hiker, hiking this portion of the Buckeye Trail, approaches and sees this newly made portion of the trail, of which he/she may have even heard horror stories from past hikers’ experiences, he/she will walk with comfort, peacefulness, assurance, and possibly most importantly, the sense of knowing that people care and can make a difference.