This weekend was a continuation of the Appalachian Trail relocation at Calf Mountain which started last September. The website www.southshenandoah.net/ describes the relocation as removing the AT from a steep ascent to the saddle below Little Calf and bringing hikers onto better grades and more diverse backcountry scenery.
Saturday started with a cold wind as we waited for workers to arrive. Charlottesville Chapter volunteers included Andy Willgruber, Lindsay Brown, Connie Wright, and John Shannon; some other chapter members worked on other trails that day.
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| Moving a rock with grip hoist |
AT District Manager Don White assigned some people to a group that started some rock crib work to route the trail around a rocky outcropping that would be slippery when wet. Patrick Wilson, trail maintainer extraordinaire, headed that group (one of the many trail maintenance specialties he is a master of). This group used a grip hoist to move large rocks to make a wall, and then started filling the space behind it with small rocks as well as pieces of large rocks broken by hammer.
On Sunday, with PATC Supervisor of Trails Catherine Kelleher in charge, the work continued and provided an educational moment for some of us: watching the crew move a large rock with the grip hoist.
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| Mark Gatewood |
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| Andy Willgruber |
Most other people built new side hill trail, which is not as steep as the AT section we are replacing. The goal is to build the trail to slope out so that water can run off the trail instead of down the trail, which will reduce erosion. Mark Gatewood, crew leader for the Flying McLeods, guided that group and demonstrated a new tool for tread work. The section we built this weekend is situated where its construction was more difficult than normal. Building a flat trail surface of solid earth is difficult when you are working in an area of rocks embedded in a mass of fine roots. Nevertheless, we built a good length of trail, and at Saturday’s end, we left tools nearby for those returning on Sunday.
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| The rock wall |
Sunday started with fog. Suspecting others were sleeping off a large dinner prepared by Mary Jorgensen of Dunlodge fame at Schairer Trail Center where most of the crew stayed, John Shannon headed up to the trail construction site, but after a period of moving rocks and trying to find trail construction earth, he thought it was time for the others to appear. Heading down the trail, he met a couple of people going to collect tools. The tread work for the day, besides assisting with the crib work, was to correct the out slope of some trail built last year, where settling of earth resulted in some suboptimal slope. Toward the end of the day, PATC president John Hedrick came to see the state of the work and also the area of a possible relocation on Bear Den Mountain.
For those who wonder, two days of trail work did not leave us physically exhausted. We do not get dollars for digging, and the crew chief does not walk around saying, "Work harder." He does say, "Stop, take a break" and encourages people to work at a comfortable pace, so people feel comfortable stopping for a minute if they want to.
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