DryStoneGarden

Mcleod (tool)

The other  tool that represents trail crews for me, along with the Pulaski I showed in my last post, is the Mcleod, a combination rake, hoe, and tamper. It doesn’t make a big first impression, but it’s surprisingly useful, a mainstay on trail-maintenance and fire-fighting crews. The straight edge is the primary business edge, kept sharp enough to cut through roots and useful for cleaning and grading out a trail. A lot of people don’t notice, but trails are never built completely flat; they always have a slight outslope so that water will flow off them. Classic Mcleods are built from a single piece of steel welded together (even older ones were built so that the handle could be removed for easier transport, but I’ve never actually seen one of those) and are useful for checking the outslope of your trial; you can just stand them upright, and they should tilt one or two inches to the side, instead of plumb, if the outslope is correct.

Mcleod head with bolt

Newer Mcleods, the only ones I’m seeing now, have a bolt at the bottom. They still function for tamping, but you can’t check the outslope on a hard-packed trail with them. A water bottle laid on its side then becomes the low-tech, backcountry level of choice.

A ranger for the Sierra National Forest, Malcolm Mcleod, designed the first one around the start of the century, and his name provides one of the only tool jokes I know:

What is the difference between Mick Jagger and the Scottish people? Answer below the jump. (more…)