Appalachian Trail Maintenance - June 2, 2012

Planning for today’s activities started on Memorial Day when Lindsay Brown and I (John Shannon) checked on the condition of Charlottesville Chapter’s section of the AT. We both noticed summer growth, including poison ivy. Lindsay found two large blowdowns, and I removed some invasive plants near Rockfish Gap.

The following Saturday morning was the scheduled maintenance outing, and several workers answered the call. We shuttled a car from Rockfish Gap to McCormick Gap, where a cool breeze prompted some people to put on jackets.

On the trail, Ken Moss and Pete Fink traded a swing blade and loppers during the day. Dave Borszich used a swing blade all day. Bev Maresca mainly used clippers. She also carried a bag that I filled with garlic mustard from what I hoped was a small, isolated patch and thus potentially productive to clear. With garlic mustard looking like trees, we could have easily filled all the bags we could carry.

I also stopped to pull a few bittersweet plants, which either seemed isolated or were located in patches previously partially cleared, but leaving hours of potential clearing. As usual, some bittersweet was growing with poison ivy; this arrangement is believed to be a protection racket, although what the poison ivy gets out of it is unclear. The quandary is that standard trail clearing may help the spread of invasive plants by disturbing the soil and spreading seeds.

About halfway through, we stopped for lunch. Given the number of workers, it was a good thing that I had not earlier agreed to give away chocolate raspberry cake to some non-workers.

After lunch, there seemed less to clear, which was fortunate—we realized that we could not clear growth as thoroughly as we wanted if we wanted to finish the same day and avoid exhaustion.

During the day, many through hikers thanked us for our work, and one even shook our hands. One of the groups who thanked us was from Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club, whose members maintain the AT south of McCormick Gap. Toward the end of our workday, at the entrance station trail, we met a couple who had made news when one of them was rescued from Three Ridge after suffering a kidney stone. Now, after a trip home for medical treatment, they were back on the trail.

As to the fallen trees reported by Lindsay Brown, near the middle of the trail we saw a large, dead tree that someone had cut into movable pieces, and we wondered who had done the cutting.

It was a successful day. We cut growth along the entire McCormick to Rockfish section of trail, which often takes two trips, but with the combined efforts of several people, we finished the work in one day.