Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School cross country coach and science teacher Luc Roy talks strategy with his students and cross country athletes before one of the final work days on a new trail along the Androscoggin River they built this summer. The students built a bench and finished installing railings for the bridge they built on Friday, Sept. 6. Evan W. Houk/Advertiser Democrat

PARIS — Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School students and cross country team members came together to build a new nearly one-mile trail along the Little Androscoggin River behind the school.

About 20 students from the OHCHS cross country team gathered on the new trail Friday, Sept. 6, for one of the final work days to finish building the new practice and community trail.

Students finished installing railings on a newly built bridge and put together a bench along the Little Androscoggin.

During the summer, students cleared out the new trail, installed the bridge and multiple boardwalks, including a 22-foot-long stretch that clears a bog that is often flooded.

“They take so much joy running on it now after putting in the hard work to do it,” science teacher and cross country coach Luc Roy said. “They sat on that boardwalk for two weeks screwing each board down.”

Roy helped to facilitate the building of the new trail using grant funds to purchase supplies and hire six student interns, as well as enlisting student volunteers from the cross country team.

Tenth grader Grady Miller signed up as an intern mainly because of the cross country team and Coach Roy.

“I just thought it would be a fun job outside, helping the community,” he said.

Miller said he and other students spent half a day cutting a trench in the hillside near the bridge they constructed, in order to better direct water flow, especially during rain events.

The completion of the bridge spanning the small brook was the biggest accomplishment to Miller. Concrete bases were set for the bridge legs and boards had to be properly spaced and leveled.

“The hardest part was getting the boards right because you have to space it out really well,” he said.

Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School students and cross country team members finish installing railings on a bridge they built as part of a new trail along the Little Androscoggin River on Friday, Sept. 6. Evan W. Houk/Advertiser Democrat

The new build was funded initially by a Maine Outdoor Learning Initiative grant, which is part of COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act funds that expire at the end of this year, according to Curriculum Director Jill Bartash.

All the students who applied were able to be placed as interns, Bartash said. Some did gardening at one of the school gardens, as every school now has one, or at the Alan Day Community Garden in Norway. Other students attended Bryant Pond Summer Camp or a youth leadership program at Roberts Farm Preserve.

A lot of the work went toward building the new trail off the Viking Trail, however. The Viking Trail was first revamped in 2016 through the efforts of Healthy Oxford Hills, which is still involved in maintaining it, Roy said.

The new build along the river involved clearing trees and brush in order to blaze a fresh path.

“The way we did main parts of the trail is we’d have a crew of two or three in the front, moving all the logs and branches and stuff. Then we’d have someone with a weedwacker to take down the grass. Then we had the leaf-blower come behind,” Roy said. “So it was like a whole assembly line of trail-building.”

The students trouble-shooted and problem-solved together, sometimes using trial-and-error to see what worked best in installing the railings or building the bench on Friday.

“We wanted it to be safe for the community and the students,” Roy said of the trail.