Hi, this is Outside In Executive Producer, Maury

Marie McMurray, and before we get into this episode, just a warning that it does

contain some strong language. So yeah, you've been warned. Enjoy. here. Am I actually following some sort of centuries-old Native American footpath, one that follows

the easiest and most natural route? root? people who have carried hundreds of pounds of equipment over a mile into the woods in order

to fix a hiking trail that is falling apart.

They drill holes into a big boulder, probably the size of a refrigerator,

and then hammer in wedges, slowly splitting the rock

into nice flat chunks.

Next, they strap the rock chunk onto a zip line because the trail itself is actually 30 feet below the spot where they can get rocks from.

It's a three-person job. One controls how high in the air the rock hangs, another lets it slide down along the zip line, and a third directs the whole show from below.

The lay holding.

Once the rock is down, a hole gets dug.

The rock gets attached to a different kind of lever and pulley setup

and using a rock bar and lots of finagling

the rock gets dropped into place.

All of that, maybe two or three hours of work for three people,

for a single step in a stone staircase, near a nice waterfall.

People think these staircases occur naturally.

This is Nova, which is not his real name.

Everyone who does this work gets assigned a woods name.

His real name is Alex Mildee. He's in charge of this particular Appalachian Mountain Club

work crew which is working at a place called Champney Falls in New Hampshire's white mountains.

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