Wallface Lean-to Privy Maintenance

Here's a photo of the privy from our original visit to the trail. I didn't want to post it back then because... well, ew, but anyone coming to this article should expect to be seeing pictures of a privy so I'm not going to worry too much about it here.

The privy's door had blown off and the floor was rotted out. It had a weird mailbox that was supposedly intended for clean toilet paper, but was full of dirty toilet paper instead because people are so cool. As I mentioned, the hole was also mostly full.

We arrived at the Upper Works trailhead around 8:30, about half an hour before we were supposed to start. The weather was threatening to be kind of crummy (but not a wash-out), so the trailhead had cars in it, but it wasn't packed.

Here we met Virginia who was joined by another gentleman from the ADK and several others who were there to learn about privy maintenance. We carried in couple of 2x4s, a piece of plywood, a shovel, a pry-bar, a trenching tool, saws, loppers, buckets, and other tools. One of the buckets didn't have a handle so I hung it on Karl's pack; he may have been baptized by a shower of soil from the last project. Sorry, Karl!

We were on our way shortly after. The air was cool and muggy, but the rain was holding off for now. I was happy to see the trail was clear of blowdown and the drainages were currently clear and dry. I am thinking we should come out to clear drainages sometime around the end of the month to get the leaves before they turn to mush.

Dan got the photo of the Hudson River this time. Here you can see the foliage is good, but plenty of room for more colors.

I carried the new floor. Other gear and materials were spread throughout the group. We made pretty good time hiking the 2.6 miles through the forest. The trail was dry and fast. It was a beautiful day despite being overcast. The smells of Autumn were starting to permeate everything. The hike felt fast as well because we had lots of great conversation with new friends.

We arrived at the lean-to at around 10:30am and had a bit of a sit and a snack before getting to work. The mailbox was the first thing to go, then measurements and plans commenced. More than once I wondered out loud if we ought to just cut the siding away and just turn the thing into a thunderbox.

The brains of the outfit assessed the current privy and screwed the 2x4s onto the privy, thus turning it into a Nurgle-themed palanquin.

I put myself on hole-digging duty. Several of us took turns chopping up dirt, smashing rocks, and cutting roots as we tried getting the recommended 4' hole. We quickly hit solid rock, unfortunately. Victoria suggested we dig horizontally a bit, allowing the top root layer to act as a roof over an extended chamber.

As we dug the hole, we carried buckets of soil back to the privy and dumped the soil down the hole in the seat. This meant none of us had to actually look at whatever was down there which was nice.

We were on uneven ground, but we were loathe to lose any depth to the hole by flattening the surrounding ground. Some ideas were thrown around regarding rocks, but Dan noticed the beams were very long indeed and we could, instead, use them to add stability and level the structure. This turned out to be a great idea.

We'd forgotten a level, but someone had the idea to use a water bottle which was, quite frankly, genius.

After another rest in the lean-to and a lunch, we hitched onto the pivy and moved it from its old home to its new home.

After a bit of light carpentry, the new privy floor was installed. The brains of the outfit also used pieces of the 2x4s to strengthen the structure. Dan in particular was very keen to use up all the 2x4s for obvious reasons. We still marveled that the siding of the privy is largely load-bearing, holding up the roof with no frame to speak of.

It turns out that the original hinges were actually fine... it was the frame which had fallen off the structure. The folks who knew what they were doing reinforced everything and in due course, the door was re-hung. We had the privy pointing South, facing away from the summit of the pass where a lot of the wind comes from. From this position, the wind will either hit the back or the front of the privy, so hopefully the door won't blow back and forth too much.

The old hole was covered with a large rock and some other natural refuse. We scattered a few more wood scraps and were done. After cleaning ourselves up with sanitizer again, we packed up and headed out around 2pm.

The lighter loads allowed us to enjoy the hike out. Despite the overcast day, the colors were beautiful.

Dan said the trees with the yellow leaves were beeches while the birches were still holding onto green until later in the season as usual.

We hiked out fairly quickly, but not without a lot of great conversation. Also, the team was kind enough to stop and clear half a log that I'd left a couple of visits ago. It wasn't really terribly in the way, but it was annoying and I was glad to be rid of it. It rained once on our way out for no more than 10 minutes, the most rain we'd see the entire day. The dreaded Nor'easter had just barely clipped us while back home in Mechanicville, they'd gotten dumped on basically all day.

We were back at the trailhead shortly after 3pm, six hours after we'd started. It was a great day of camaraderie and accomplishment. It really feels good to learn new things while also leaving a lasting impact on the back country infrastructure. It was also awesome to meet Karl and the others. I'm sure it won't be the last time I see several of these folks and that's awesome.