Appalachian Trail Relocation - 19-20 May, 2012

After the wet day earlier this month, we resumed the relocation of the Appalachian Trail. Eight people were present on Saturday. Andy Willgruber and Don Davis arrived first, and Andy mowed a path from the current Appalachian Trail to where the new trail enters the woods before others arrived. It looked so good that some people took the new trail until two workers put some branches over it.

Andy Willgruber waiting to dig out  some soil from a borrow pit

Andy and Don then went to mow some of Little Calf Mountain. Along the way, they encountered an 18” tree in the way. Don quickly cut it, so they reached their goal. Then they mowed a strip that will become the Appalachian Trail and that is currently the road Andy uses to drive a mower to the top.

Andy started clearing Calf Mountain nearly 9 years ago, and he says his truck is showing the effects of age. On the other hand, the mower was a sight we have not seen for a while: it was the mower used earlier on the project, before PATC bought a new one. No one had any interest in the old mower, and after it sat for several years unwanted by all, Don took it home and revived it, to Andy’s delight, because he prefers the higher deck of the old mower. It takes the Don Davis touch to start, but it worked. After mowing, Andy and Don joined the group digging in the dirt.

The rest of the group headed to where we left off 2 weeks earlier. We donned our hard hats, which not all crews do, but our crew chief wanted to protect us.

crew chief Don White finishing a troublesom​e spot on the trail

The first task was putting more soil on the section of trail behind the rock crib wall built earlier this year. The trail looked good, but we wanted to raise it because of expected settling, and to make the trail higher than the rock wall so that water will run off the trail. There were a couple of spots nearby where we also wanted to raise the trail to make it easier to walk over a couple of large rocks.

The perpetual activity for the 2 days was digging up good trail earth and transporting it to a site on the trail. This involves something seen on few trail-building projects—making a borrow pit, a hole where we dig out good soil; this activity is disruptive so not allowed in Shenandoah National Park.

No established mechanism is in place to repay the removed soil, but if borrowing money that may not be repaid is good enough for some governments, it is good enough for volunteer trail builders who spend their own money to get to a trail building site and to be equipped for work.


The first step is choosing a site, preferably close to where the soil is needed, but not staring at people on the trail. Then comes removal of the layer of vegetable matter, which easily disappears if used as trail bed. Then after digging up the soil, somehow we had to move it. At this point, John Shannon’s cats helped, supplying a couple of buckets which once held kitty litter. (One of the cats wanted to be in the outdoors, because the Appalachian Trail is in SocrATes’ name.) We carried soil to the trail in the buckets and most of the time put the soil in a wheelbarrow to take it where needed, which crew chief Don White bought for his house but uses more on trails. Some of the time we carried buckets to the work site.

Don Davis in the largest borrow pit we made; Don was one of the principal diggers

Around lunchtime, the cribbing project was finished, so we turned our attention to another trouble spot where a rock partially blocked the trail. One person decided the solution was to remove part of the rock, which he did with a rock bar and sledge hammer. We completed the project by partially burying the remaining rock with soil from another borrow pit. At lunch we discovered something new. One person declined lemon raspberry cake, not because he thought it was junk food or lacking fiber, but because he is allergic to raspberries.

While most people continued to rearrange soil, a couple of people, including Andy Willgruber, started on another new concept: the relo relo (r squared). One section of trail, which passed through a rocky section, was a little low on the hill, perhaps because the people who built it decided, with justification, that going higher took the path into an area where you cannot build good trail, but crew chief Don White is determined to build the trail right. Two people moved enough small rocks to make a new path, which had a poor walking surface, although acceptable in some places. By now it was time to stop, so after cleaning tools and spraying them with WD-40 from the Charlottesville Chapter, most people headed to Schairer Trail Center for dinner from Mary Jorgensen of Dunlodge cabin fame, and drinks unsuitable for our 14-year-old crew member.

Next morning was a first—John Shannon was the first to arrive at the work site, but Mark Gatewood arrived soon after. Anticipating a wait for others, John headed to the beginning of the new trail to slow down some invasive, tree-strangling bittersweet.

Don Davis standing where the large borrow pit was dug

Four of the Saturday crew returned to improve the relo relo. We returned to a hole used two weeks earlier to provide trail soil. This borrow pit was not very close to a tree, so there were few large roots However this pit was a little distance from the trail so there was the extra task of carrying soil to the wheelbarrow .

Three people worked at the hole, where Don Davis showed his expertise in digging holes. Mark Gatewood, the master trail builder and renovator, who says he learned about trail building from crew chief Don White, used the soil to put an easily walked surface on the new section of trail while Don White tidied up some other spots, and started filling and covering other borrow pits. Chocolate raspberry cake accompanied lunch.

After clearing away more vegetable matter to expand the borrow pit, word came that we only had to fill the wheelbarrow two more times before we largely filled the hole with rocks and the soil we scraped off. The new section looked like normal good trail, not the rough path made of slippery little rocks that it was in the morning.

Finally people could start their trips home, which would take some 2 or 3 hours. Because of multiple commands to take breaks, people ended the day without being exhausted, or injured, so they can come back another day.

Normal looking easy to walk trail, a transforma​tion from rocky hillside, to a trail bed of small slippery rocks to top quality trail