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Every year a dedicated group of volunteers gathers at JBL (John’s Brook Lodge) and Marcy Field in Keene Valley to ready JBL for the season. Food, supplies, propane and empty sewage drums as well as building materials for the year’s repair and building projects need to be flown in by helicopter each year around the end of April. Empty propane bottles, trash and full sewage drums have to be flown out. Two major building projects are in the works this year: Replacement of 1/3 of the roof on the lodge and replacement of the bridge across John’s Brook that is used to get to the cabins on the other side of the Brook.
I had the good fortune to take part in this years “Fly In” and definitely will be back next year. This is one great bunch of people to work with and this year the volunteers were joined by Neil Woodworth, the ADK Executive Director and a number of other ADK staff people. It turned into a social event enjoyed by all. There even was a film crew there to record the event. In one word - AWESOME!!! Of course the pictures here are from the “JBL side” of the Fly In. There was much activity by many volunteers and ADK staff at Marcy Field as well that I wasn’t able to photograph. If anyone has photos from Marcy Field, please let me know and I will post them here as well.
Approximately 10 or so volunteers met at the ADK Loj on Sunday with a bunch of us hiking into JBL Monday morning to be joined by several more by evening. The day started out chilly and remained that way all day with the occasional snow shower to let us know that Spring may not quite be here after all. It was a sad sight to see the bridge over John’s Brook a short distance north of JBL twisted and torn from its supports. Below is a picture I took of the bridge in September, 2003 (two guys were trying to tie their food under the bridge to prevent bears from getting to it - I don’t think they realize that bears can swim and are tall enough to reach it hanging under the bridge). Next to it is a picture of it now.
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