I'm excited to attend my first board meeting with Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail later this morning. My co-volunteer Sara and I will be planning out all the events for the rest of CY2021. We have a long list of trail issues to organize: on an 18-mile trail, there's always more work to do.
Yesterday, nine volunteers teamed with the National Park Service to power wash all the slippery grime from Bridge 15. It's on the southern part of the trail, located about 2-3 miles north of the MV Estate. It took about four hours, 150 feet of hose, and about 300 gallons of water. NPS provides the gas-powered compressor, water, and a staff member--thanks again, Mr. Greg--and we bring the deck cleaner, squeegees and muscle. The deck cleaner is immensely more effective than your standard attachment: it does a better job, covers a wider area and uses one-third the water. We also rescued a couple dozen trees from invasive ivy, including a hemlock tree that was completely overrun. I got to climb my first tree in decades, and it was a blast.
I'm also excited to see more first-time volunteers. We had two yesterday, including one brought by a recent joiner. As usual, we paused to chat with the trail users and satisfy their curiosity: who are you, what help do you need, can we volunteer, what's your web site, what kind of ivy is that, etc.
Next Saturday we have a trash walk planned, at Gravelly Point just north of DCA Runway 1/19. This is a very popular recreation site with locals and tourists, who come to watch the airlines take off and land, have a picnic, or set off on a walking or biking journey. We start at 9:00 AM. Come join us!
Yesterday, nine volunteers teamed with the National Park Service to power wash all the slippery grime from Bridge 15. It's on the southern part of the trail, located about 2-3 miles north of the MV Estate. It took about four hours, 150 feet of hose, and about 300 gallons of water. NPS provides the gas-powered compressor, water, and a staff member--thanks again, Mr. Greg--and we bring the deck cleaner, squeegees and muscle. The deck cleaner is immensely more effective than your standard attachment: it does a better job, covers a wider area and uses one-third the water. We also rescued a couple dozen trees from invasive ivy, including a hemlock tree that was completely overrun. I got to climb my first tree in decades, and it was a blast.
I'm also excited to see more first-time volunteers. We had two yesterday, including one brought by a recent joiner. As usual, we paused to chat with the trail users and satisfy their curiosity: who are you, what help do you need, can we volunteer, what's your web site, what kind of ivy is that, etc.
Next Saturday we have a trash walk planned, at Gravelly Point just north of DCA Runway 1/19. This is a very popular recreation site with locals and tourists, who come to watch the airlines take off and land, have a picnic, or set off on a walking or biking journey. We start at 9:00 AM. Come join us!