Appalachian Trail: Smith Roach Gap to Pinefield Gap - December 1, 2012

Reported by Marian Styles

This route was planned to help long-time trail maintainer Alvin Dove, who for 30 years maintained trail so well that people knew they were on his section because of the excellent condition. In that time, Alvin gained great knowledge of SNP, both the trails and off-trail areas, including vegetation. Alvin launched Michael Seth on his way to learning about local plants and plants that grow here but should not. So Alvin indirectly started the knowledge of invasive plants within the Charlottesville Chapter through Michael.

Before the hike started, in a surprise award ceremony, District Manager Don White presented Alvin with PATC honorary life membership: an award for those who have made major contributions to the club.

By the time the Charlottesville Chapter contingent arrived at Smith Roach Gap (John Shannon, Briana Taylor, Leon Gorman, Ken Moss, and Marian Styles), the ceremony had concluded and some folks had gone to arrange the car shuttle.

In addition to Alvin Dove, we had the company of two other honorary lifetime members: Tom Johnson, a former PATC president, and Mark Gatewood. Mark has been a very active trail maintainer in SSVC. He created the Flying McLeods Trail Crew, is active in the Trails to Every Classroom project, and is a former SSVC president.

As planned, Flying McLeods members Al Dahler, Mark Gatewood, and other SSVC members helped Alvin Dove clean waterbars on the first two miles of trail. The rest of the group cut a couple of fallen trees along that section and a few trees further along, but we didn’t encounter the expected vegetation overgrowth.

An overlook of the Piedmont served as our lunch venue, and lunch had a chocolate theme. Between the warm temperature and the sunshine, it was tempting to linger, but we soon hit the trail.

After completing our descent from the second of the three hills on the hike, we met the SSVC trail maintainers at Simmons Gap and we handed off a pair of borrowed loppers. With such lovely weather, even the final mountain provided pleasant walking. We reached Pinefield Gap at 3 p.m., and three cars carried us back to Smith Roach to retrieve cars there.