Ramsey's Draft Worktrip - April 21, 2012

The forecast was for rain, but 6 dedicated trail volunteers from Charlottesville joined the Shenandoah Valley Chapter for a joint work trip in Ramsey's Draft Wilderness. Dan Ralston, Eric Christensen, Ken Moss, John Brandt, Bill Holman, and Iva Gillet left AHS and headed over the mountain to meet 10 members of the SSVC PATC for work in the wilderness followed by a potluck.

Valley chapter president Karen Waterman and Lynn Cameron had organized yet another work trip in Ramsey's Draft, which have extensively improved the conditions of this 8 mile Wilderness Trail from constant climbing over huge downed trees to a picturesque hike through the former old growth hemlock forest, now standing dead from the wooly aldelgid invasion. This trail crosses Ramsey's Draft Run multiple times, making timing critical when hauling large tools for trail work. As a wilderness area, no power tools or wheeled vehicles are allowed, meaning that even the trees more than 12 inches in diameter must be cut with hand saws and MAN (and woman) power!

With so many workers, we were able to spread out- Ken Moss and John Brandt forged ahead to asses the needs about 3-4 miles in, as previous work from the Valley chapter had made the first 2 miles park like. Bill Holman, Eric Christensen, and Mike Waterman worked for 2 hours on an 18" tree trunk, later to be supervised by Malcolm Cameron. Meanwhile, Jeff Monroe and Gracie arrived to lend assistance after an early morning shopping trip at REI, as the fanatical gear-head shopper that he is. Some people will drive 140 miles just to save a few bucks!!

Further down the trail, Karen, Lynn, Dan and Iva worked on a downed trees with Corona saws, finally conceding that it would be much faster work with a proper saw, so onward they went. We stopped and joined Nancy Hall, Michael Seth and others for lunch, and since Iva had the hiking cookies, the group was pleased. We then set to tackle a very large downed tree with collateral damage. John Brandt, Dan, and Ken worked engineering processes to move the large limbs and clear a path around, while Nancy, Brian Bruns, and Karen cleared away the debris. Once this was accomplished to the best of the group's ability, and after several groups hiking through expressed their appreciation, we retreated back toward the parking lot.

Bill Holman met us, coming to lend more support to our efforts, but with the darkening clouds, we all decided to head for the potluck. The rain fell, and we donned our raingear as prepared hikers do. Upon joining the rest of the group, Lynn decided that we would use a shelter they had reserved in Churchville for just such weather for our potluck. Good food and a chance to chat with fellow wilderness lovers, our chapters have planned a joint hike in July on Shenandoah Mountain to get together again.

We are pleased that a good day of group work will allow this incredible area to be enjoyed by many more without constantly climbing over downed trees. We were grateful that the rain held off long enough for us to get substantial work done, and we look forward to hiking this area again soon. Go check it out!