By Ann Roberti

This past Fall, maintainers of the Andes Rail Trail were dismayed to find that the bridge over the historic cow underpass was beginning to fail.  This bridge is only used by Rail Trail hikers and our wonderful neighbors who help with the mowing on the trail. The old bridge was supported by telephone pole timbers that spanned the gap. One end of one of those timbers was rotting and sliding down the slope which also caused cracking on the structure on the opposite side of the bridge.

The Catskill Mountain Club looked into several options to deal with the problem. We turned to Jonathan LaFever and LaFever Excavating, who have helped us with issues at the trail before.  What seemed like a daunting job to us was simple for the pros at LaFever, but Winter was coming fast and we really wanted this fixed before Winter  set in.

Finally, the day arrived and the LaFever team removed the old bridge and built a new one in record time, with snow already on the ground around them.  LaFever donated their expertise, labor, and equipment to the project, and the Catskill Mountain Club is paying for all the bridge materials.

We are so grateful to the team at LaFever Excavating for the great job they did and for the donation of their work. We are also grateful to the Andes Hotel for hosting our fundraiser. The community we have here in our corner of the Catskills is truly a treasure.~