The Flying McLeods started their 4th season on the trail leading to Hightop in the northern part of the southern district of Shenandoah National Park. It was the usual foursome of Mark Gatewood, Al and Andre Dahler and John Shannon who went to rehabilitate water bars on this section maintained by Radar, a person only seen maintaining trails, but a recent illness has prevented him from getting out. We cleaned some waterbars, reset logs for several, replaced the log for one and completely remodeled one rock waterbar. Also in a few spots we made little runoffs where the shape of the land suggested we could easily drain water off the trail. We did a little tree and branch clearing also. At lunch, we all enjoyed pumpkin cake. By now, the wind died down so we experienced the expected pleasant temperatures. On the way out, Mark Gatewood counted 43 places where we improved drainage.
During the day we saw several people. One backpacker trained as a marine biologist in Townsville and therefore recognized an Australian; two trail maintainers who admired our waterbars, and have problems with theirs because of the many rocks on their section; one couple who recognized and thanked us as volunteer maintainers.
Today also realized there are items which would help us, but not even Google can find; non-stick McLeods; a trail roller to give a smooth finish to water bars (once procured, I wonder if this heavy off-road moving object would appeal to our former tank commanders). I also needed Kevlar pants for trail work for protection against saws which slip out of place.
After stopping work on waterbars, I went to a section of AT north of Doyles River to see what works needs to be done that is too heavy for overseer Connie Wright. There were no fallen trees, but as expected, waterbars needing clearing. A number had definitely caught some debris. When we clean them, we will probably look at some remodeling to see if more debris can be diverted off the trail to reduce future cleaning. I spent some time cutting some bittersweet in the hope of saving some trees from strangulation. I noticed how one patch we have been clearing seems to have little bittersweet growing into the trees and shrubs, but spring may reveal more plants on the ground hoping to grow up into trees.
After looking and cutting, I headed to Conley Cabin to dine with other members on the Charlottesville and Shenandoah Valley Chapters.
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