A cool, overcast day may have kept away some people who had expressed an interest in helping maintain trails today. However, Pete Fink and Bev Maresca showed up, as did Andy Willgruber who had observed some fallen trees on the road to Little Calf Mountain. Andy set off by himself while the rest of us made a stop at the Rockfish Gap toolbox. Here I made a poor decision to take 3 McLeods and no shovels, based on thoughts of regrading rather than what we actually did. Pete used his saw for the first time in cutting a large bittersweet vine.
The goal for the day was cleaning, remodeling and possibly creating water drainage structures of this section of trail whose overseer is long time member Connie Wright. A week earlier, I walked most of the section, finding that existing waterbars needed cleaning. So we started cleaning some existing waterbars, remodeling some recently created runoffs made by putting some outslope on short sections of trail. Soon I realized that Pete and Bev did not need any direction in cleaning or remodeling of water control structures, most of which are a waterbar-grade dip hybrid. In addition to clearing out recent debris and vegetation growth in runoffs, we widened the entrance to the drains in the hope of getting water off the trail without having to make a sharp turn, and dropping debris on the trail. Digging we did in previous years made opening the runoffs easier than it might have been. If I had taken Pete’s advice and brought a shovel, it would have been even easier. As usual, one of the problems clearing runoffs were the briars which pricked us when trying to clear debris, and the mats of grass in the runoffs, which showed that trail maintenance is a holistic task.
Some of the tasks for maintainers are treadwork- moving earth and rocks with McLeods, picks and perhaps shovels; vegetation trimming; blowdown removal; invasive plant control. Today they came together. Some run offs were blocked by fallen tree, others by mats of stilt grass (a prolific invasive weed), other by briars which in one spot also protected some bittersweet vines which were strangling a tree. If we could stop the invasive plants, treadwork might be easier.
As we neared an overlook, I suggested we had done enough for the day, which was by now one of the longest work trips I have had. On our return, I counted 47 water diversion structures, which I thought was an impressive effort. In the future, they will need cleaning again, and clearing of overgrowth, and possibly more remodeling, but this day’s work will make that easier to do, and easier to see what else could be done.
Andy Willgruber reported a successful trip to Little Calf Mountain, meaning the road to the top is drivable so summer mowing can be done.
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