The first task after Guy Fawkes night, and also the first time that we have shared the woods with a major orienteering event!
On arrival at Old Leo’s car park your correspondent had to negotiate with the marshalls who were keen to send him back to King Lane with a car full of tools. However, a bit of assertiveness and consummate diplomacy and your correspondent was able to park around the back of the clubhouse – once a bulldozer had removed the remains of last week’s bonfire.
The weather was dark and very damp, yet we still managed a turn out of six – though one Friend went home before we actually started!
We started off by clearing the drainage channels near the picnic area and removing a large quantity of mud. Historically, this was always a quagmire in rainy weather until FOAW put a drainage pipe in and built up some of the path with hardcore – which for the younger readers, if we have any, is a kind of building aggregate used for forming a solid base.
Having cleared away the mud we went along to the Stairfoot Lane carpark and cleared a large amount of mud from the path and dug a drainage channel to let water drain away from the path.
Thence towards the steps down to the beck, pausing on the way to widen the path which was reduced to about 18″ in width by brambles and nettles. As the rest of us did this, Steph gathered a bin bag of rubbish from the carpark.
Finally we cleared the steps of leaves and generally tidied them up. As we did this we gave encouragement to the few orienteers who passed our way.
As we finished, your correspondent congratulated the Friends on their great achievements during the morning and said that they could go home and enjoy a well-earned Sunday lunch. Regrettably, it was a Saturday!
Friends of Adel Woods 