By Coleman Wood - Despite a weather forecast that called for clear skies and a high of around 60, the sec-ond Boat Rock trail day of the year saw a good turnout and got a lot accomplished. But it didn’t look like that first. A last-minute cancellation from Georgia Tech and other climbers heading out of town to take advantage of perfect climbing weather threatened to make the event a wash. However, a few committed volunteers showed up and vowed to make the best of it. Their ranks soon swelled as climbers arriving at Boat Rock to boulder quickly pitched in for the clean-up (the promise of free food provided by Con-course Athletic Club probably had something to do with it as well). Some of the first to help were a group of visiting climbers from UGA.

Spreading mulch at The SpiderMan boulder at Boat Rock.

Spiderman area mulched and neat wooden seats.

We love Boat Rock - Float the Boat!

Moving mulch to reduce erosion.

More members of Team Boat Rock.

Volunteers working hard.

Whittling down a mountain of mulch.

“This is my second time at Boat Rock and both times I’ve been very impressed with how well the place is kept,” said George McTish, one of the UGA climbers. “Obviously, there has been a lot of work put into this place, and it really does show. Meeting everybody out here has been cool, and now I know why Boat Rock is the way it is: these people are very caring, and they care for Boat Rock.”

The main goal of the clean-up was to pick up trash and spread new mulch over some of the more heavily trafficked boulders. The Spiderman boulder received new mulch, as did the Pain Can boulder. As more arriving climbers volunteered their services, the main trail leading to the Easy Crack area was re-mulched, including the area around the Sourwood boulder. More in-roads were also made with Boat Rock’s neighbors in hopes of increasing security for the parking lot in the future.

Chad Moore brought out his equipment to clean up some of the trees in the area as well. Three new benches at Sourwood were fashioned out of a tree that had previously been taken down. A dead tree on the left side of Easy Crack was also removed, and the beginning to a new problem was opened up with it. Much of the work completed in the January Boat Rock trail day was still evident, but trail days such as this still play a key role in the SCC’s mission.

“It’s important to do these trail days, because it brings awareness to the community,” said Tracy Meazell, who was one of the primary organizers of the event. “A lot of people still don’t understand what climbing is about, so the more the climbers participate in tak-ing care of the areas and keeping them safe and open for other climbers, the better it is for all of us and future generations of climbers.”