Saturday, March 29, 2014

EST Spring Cleaning!

Every spring we have one day where we go through the East Side Trail and get things back in order after a year's worth of use and a winter's worth of fallen material. Usually we go through the whole trail, stem to stern, and set things right.

This year we had an extra challenge. There were two abandoned homeless encampments in Bell Hill Park that had become mini dumps. On top of that Elliot Street had seen an increase in abuse of late. So we had ourselves a pretty concentrated area needing serious attention. Lucky for us we had a crew to tackle it!

WPI students, Holy Cross Students, and a Clark student all showed to tear into the trash and get it off site. On top of that the stewards of the East Side Trail and volunteers from the Greater Worcester Land Trust were able to bring their experience and knowledge to the matter. Of particular note we had a special guest star appearance of the keeper of God's Acre, an experienced combatant with epic trash, to bring gravitas to the project.

4 hours later, with the help of Worcester's DPW&P staff, a couple of pickups, a couple of wheel barrows, and a dedicated trash truck, we had the hill in good shape along Elliot Street, and Bell Hill along the East Side Trail.

We are ready for next week's hike of the East Side Trail!

Come join us next Saturday morning as we hike from Shrewsbury Street at the band stand, all the way to Lake Quinsigamond, 3.5 miles, and a lot of elevation change, later!

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