A Carrabassett Valley Outdoor Association crew spruces up the AT. (CVAO photo) CARRABASSETT VALLEY — A half-dozen members of the Carrabassett Valley Outdoor Association teamed up with the Maine Appalachian Trail Club recently to tame the lowdown and overgrowth along the Carrabassett Valley section of the AT.

The crew drove up the Sugarloaf Binder Trail to work on the half-mile blue-blazed trail that runs from the summit of Sugarloaf to the AT and the two-and-a-halfmile section of the AT that runs to the Caribou Pond Road.

The AT has standard guidelines for maintaining all sections of its hiking trail from Springer Mountain, Ga. to Katahdin here in Maine and they were followed by the CVOA team.

Spring said CVOA may “adopt” this section of trail, assuming responsibility for annual maintenance.

Laying waste to what Spring called “an old forest of arboreal growth” on Maine’s second highest peak were Pete “Grub Hoe” and Judy “Snipers” Weston, Fred “Digger” Randell, Lisa “Loppers” Sleight, Tom “Tylenol” and Helen “Aleve.”

“I think we cut trees that were planted during the second Grant Administration,” joked Spring, a member of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club and a past president of CVOA. “The trail has been neglected. Brush had to be cut back and water bars cleaned out.”

Spring said most of the work involves cutting back the overgrowth on the AT (NPS Guidelines suggest a path that is 4 feet wide and 8 feet high) and the cleaning of water bars.

The AT trail project was one of many that CVOA volunteers tackle each year. Members of the outdoor club are active participants in the annual town cleanup of Route 27. In addition, CVOA members clear brush and clean litter from the premier hiking and biking trails in the valley and work with MATC on bridge and trail repairs in the area.

The group has also built and maintains a dozen picnic tables on the Narrow Gauge Pathway, Crommett Overlook and other scenic spots. It works with the town to stock a fish pond at the Outdoor Center and pitched in on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.