PATC, a Full-Service Trail Organization - June 30, 2012

Reported by John Shannon

PATC’s primary purpose is to maintain the Appalachian Trail. This mission goes beyond cutting grass, removing fallen trees, and other pieces of standard trail maintenance. Some members advocate for protection of the trails, and some try to slow the takeover of trails by invasive plants. Others serve as trail angels, who leave water at trailheads and provide transportation for long-distance hikers who need to get to and from the trail.

On June 30, Marian Styles and I (John Shannon) provided a mixture of trail service. Despite the forecast of scorching weather, we headed to Rockfish Gap to remove some weeds and look for damage from a strong, destructive storm on Friday night that packed wind gusts of some 80 mph.

This was called impassable by a
a couple of hikers

By the time we found this, we wanted
more pay to do anything about it

The National Park Service had closed the drive at Rockfish Gap because of downed trees, one of which was near the gate. We walked in, found minor debris on the trail, and saw some recently fallen trees, one of which had some roots sticking into the trail. I cut the worst of the obstructions, and we continued along the trail, clipping a few small branches and looking for a blowdown that a couple of hikers reported as “impassable.”

We found a couple of messy downed trees, which were 5-minute cleanups, and were wondering where the big one was when we saw three backpackers heading toward Rockfish Gap. One of the backpackers was carrying an injured dog in his arms. Greta, a very cute pug who was a veteran hiker, had been wandering outside the view of her human caretakers and came back limping. This was not an auspicious way to start a 43-mile hike to South River Falls.

We abandoned trail work and went into dog-rescue mode. Marian tried to get Greta an appointment with a vet in Charlottesville, but alas, there was no room at the inn. So we all piled into my trusty Camry and headed for the trio’s car, which was parked at South River Falls, so they could get home to New Jersey with the injured Greta. En route, they called their home vet, who said to keep Greta off her injured paw but that there was probably no immediate crisis. During the drive north, we found that car cup holders make a good place for a dog’s paw when the dog is situated belly-down on a lap.

After dropping off the three delightful “New Joiseyians,” Marian and I headed back to Charlottesville to escape the now-obvious heat, with thoughts of going back to Charlottesville PATC’s section of the AT the next day to survey the damage.