September 10-11, AT relocation at Beagle Gap

The long-awaited relocation of the Appalachian Trail from Beagle Gap up Little Calf Mountain broke ground today. Crew leader Don White arranged for excellent weather, warm, but not hot, and no rain.

The first clearing work was on Sept. 3, when Andy Willgruber and Don Davis mowed Little Calf Mountain summit and some areas north and south of the summit that will become trail. On Saturday, trail builders met at Beagle Gap around 9 a.m. to collect tools, hard hats and directions.

Making new trail with a McLeod

The most-used tools were pulaskis and McLeods to cut out a near-level trail in the side of the hill. We used a couple of rock bars to move some large rocks. A sledge hammer to knock off pieces of rock would have been helpful, but perhaps not worth the effort of carrying. Later I discovered there is a product named “light-weight sledge hammer,” not available at the usual home improvement store or even amazon.com, but perhaps we will find them at the Shops at Stonefield when they open. For $60/pound, you can reduce the weight of a sledge hammer by 1.5 pounds.

Other useful hand tools included loppers for a little clipping and leaf bags. The first rule of the day was that no one was going home in a body bag, so in addition to what people often wear for trail work, hard hats were required. One person said it was the first time she had to wear one, and thought it a good idea.

The workers came from near and afar. One trail maintainer from Missouri was in the area and spent part of the day helping. He invited others to join him at Springer Mountain next February, or to see him in May when he passes through this area on the Appalachian Trail. A number of people were from northern Virginia and Maryland, and seven were from the Charlottesville area.

Crew leader Don White

Andy used the field mower to cut a wide strip through the grass near Beagle Gap. Don was the chainsaw operator, cutting some large, dead trees in the way and other small trees obstructing the trail. Excitement ensued when a large log rolled down hill but was stopped by a tree. Mostly people dug into the side of the hill to make a trail bench. This is a fairly different world from repairing existing trail, requiring deeper digging and cutting more roots. In spots, we had to remove many rocks, some large, many small.

One observation was that crew leader Don White took the long view by building the best trail he can--one that avoids steep inclines and is free of rocks that might trip people--because people will use it for decades, so at times there was a lot of work on small sections. For instance, there was the rock sticking up an inch above ground where it could trip people, but took a lot of digging to move the foot of rock below the surface. A couple of times there was a choice of an easier-to-walk path for the next 15 feet, or an easier-to-build route; the choice was the easier-to-walk and less erosion-prone route. The benefits of less erosion and less uphill will last for decades, after the extra time and effort for construction are forgotten.

One person asked why we did not use an existing abandoned trail, or perhaps road, instead of digging new trail. The main reason is that the existing path stays level, and then requires a relatively steep uphill, unlike the new trail which gently climbs along the face of the hill.

As on other trips, some people made beautiful wide, flat trail, while others dug trail that was more wilderness-like. A sign that the area is meant to be trail is that some exotic invasive plants are already growing, although they have not yet taken over the area.

Lunch with chia and chocolate

At lunch on Saturday, we heard of the health benefits of chia. The advocate is 82, has walked 500 miles this year, and plans more next year, and told of us several problems that improved after eating chia. Bill Holman distributed dark chocolate treats, and I passed out chocolate (contains flavenoids to neutralize free radicals) babka with a mix of dried fruit.

Toward the end of the day, the last task on the trail was scattering leaves over the bare earth to reduce splash erosion. When back at the vehicles, it was time to clean tools, a new experience for some, and cool drinks from crew leader Mark Gatewood. Some people headed home (a few returned Sunday) and half the crew went to spend the night at Schairer Trail Center with dinner by Mary and Thomas Jorgensen, known to some from work on Dunlodge Cabin.

Covering new trail with leaves to reduce erosion

On Sunday, there was some crew turnover, with some people from Blue Ridge and Bridgewater Colleges. Although there were four Ph.D.s, we accomplished some trail building. Some of the new crew showed that trail workers can be under 40, even under 30. Don Davis spent much of his time using a brush cutter to reduce the effort of clearing shrubs from the trail further uphill, where there is less of the time-consuming side hill trail construction.

Working with a trail crew comes with benefits. One is getting a free T-shirt. Another is the social contacts and sometimes free access to people who know useful things. We have Don Davis who knows how to repair most things used by trail maintainers and house owners. Sunday’s learn-something-new-every-day came from talking to a teacher of arborists, who explained that some tree care practices ignore the trees’ hundreds of millions of years experience in survival.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of trail work, though, is seeing how people will spend hours getting dirty, tired and sore to preserve one of America’s treasures.