Stone stairs beside waterfall in Hendricks Park

Ken Bouchard, Founder of Sentiers Wakefield Trails, sitting on the stone stairs beside the waterfalls in Hendricks Park.

One of the earliest projects of Sentiers Wakefield Trails was building the stone stairs beside the stream and waterfall in the woods behind Fairbairn House. About 2010, six recently retired old farts worked a month in the spring, fall, then the following Spring again to put them in place. These local fellas were: John Rayner, Martin Podehl, Graham Sibthorpe, Michael Cooper, Ken Bouchard, and Archie Smith. 

“When the highway department changed the drainage at the top of Old Bridge Road and Highway 366, it brought down about twice the volume of water.” Ken Bouchard said, recalling the day they decided to put the stairs in place. With spring run-off and heavy rainstorms, the water poured over the rocks, knocking some out of place and making it dangerous to walk on the trail. “Rocks don’t stop water. So we had to put sandbags along the side of the stream to stop it from washing out the trail. We added rocks on top of the sandbags to make it look as natural as possible.” Bouchard said. “We replace them frequently enough. Anywhere the rocks no longer are, it’s because the water has pushed them out of the way.”
Using rocks that were on-site, the friends used a hand-powered winch strapped onto a tree to put each stone in place. Each stone weighed about 1000 pounds. They put 8 foot lengths of 2x6 boards under each stone, leapfrogging from one board to another, so the heavy rocks could be put in place.

Ken Bouchard climbing the stone stairs installed by him and five of his friends around 2010. Photo by Laura Wesley.

“The hand winch had a 2 tonne capacity (2000 lbs). If we wanted to put the rock to the right or left of where it was to be set, it couldn't be a direct pull straight forward with the winch. In that case, we would put a snap lock on a tree to pull the rock sideways.” Said Bouchard.

The rocks were set one on top of another from the bottom up. There is nothing under the stairs; no wood or sandbags. The large stones that comprise the stairs have been leveled or straightened to make more room for the overflow of the water.  Now, when the stream overflows in the spring, the water goes under the stairs. The rocks are so big they don’t move.

Asked where he learned the skills to build the stairs, Ken said he took four courses over his trail building years with the Appalachian trail in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. The courses were on general trail building, First Aid, group/trip management and the one on building stone stairs. He brought back the knowledge to our community in Wakefield. These skills have come in handy since, on three other trails in the village of Wakefield where rocks have been moved to create a safer, steadier climb.

A bench honouring one of the builders of the stone stairs who has since passed away, Martin Podehl, was sponsored by the Wakefield Grannies.