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| When clearing by hand, think twice, cut once |
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| A typical messy blowdown, relatively quick to clear |
One day we help hikers with an injured dog, and the next day John Brandt arrives at just the right moment to help us clear many blowdowns on the club’s section of the AT. John drove up to Rockfish Gap about 2 minutes before we would have left to shuttle a car to McCormick Gap. John Brandt, who had actually showed up to do a recreational hike, nevertheless said he’d pitch in to help clear the trail.
John Brandt contributed his customary energy and perspective on how some obstacles could be removed, always trying to save small trees. He helped clear at least 10 blowdowns then joined us for lunch before heading off for his originally planned activities.
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| This was easy to pass after we finished, but probably needed a chainsaw to finish |
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| Wasp nest |
Shortly thereafter, the remaining duo came upon a humongous wasp’s nest. Then, at 2.65 miles from McCormick Gap, we found a 30” diameter fallen tree. We cleared some small branches and a poison ivy vine to make it easier to climb over and added it to the “chainsaw needed” list.
About quarter of a mile from the end, we found the tree a couple of hikers on Saturday called impassable. It was messy, but after cutting a hole in the leaves, we got through.
Originally intending to work a half-day because of the heat, we reached the end of the trail after 3:30 p.m. Altogether, we counted 29 blowdowns, some of which involved multiple trees. With John Brandt’s invaluable help, we had completely cleared 16 of the obstructions. For the remaining 13, we cleared what we could and left the rest for chainsaws.John thinks this is the heaviest damage on this section of trail in the last 25 years. It also has more damage that some other sections of AT.
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| The big one, a climb over, not step over |
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| Branches like this can block a lot of trail |
We were both tired and one-half of the crew was also mighty hot, but we were happy about how much work we’d done: 3.4 miles of trail largely cleared less than 48 hours after a major storm, and done on a day with a heat index of 94 degrees.
Meanwhile, Don Davis, with chainsaw at the ready, Andy Willgruber and one or two others are standing by waiting for not so hot weather to clear the large trees that we couldn’t conquer with handsaws.
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