reported by John Shannon
Over summer, members of Charlottesville Chapter have performed several AT maintenance trip reported below. Work trips at home delayed the reports.
Beagle
Gap July 13 2014
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| Brad Young and Dave Borzich |
We
received a message asking for help with the AT over Bear Den Mountain
where an overseer found he had twice as much trail as he expected
because of the resignation of another overseer. District Managers
Mark Gatewood and Don White helped with brush cutters and mowing. I
said that Charlottesville Chapter would help with the remaining
grassy growth.
I
was pleasantly surprised to see Dave Borzich and Brad Young show up
because they have been excellent crew members. As promised,
Andy Willgruber showed up with plans to mow his section of AT north
of Beagle Gap, and then cross the road to mow the short open section
immediately south of Beagle Gap. However, the mower he planned to use
was not back from maintenance so our plans changed some. Andy went to
clear overgrowth on the access road to Little Calf Mountain summit, a
project he and the chapter started 11 years ago.
Dave
offered to use one of the weedeaters. There was a helpful note
explaining how to start the machine which gave me trouble a month
previously. It did not want to start, but Dave had the touch. We
found an unexpected problem, that the bucket holding my fuel
container had tipped over, and because the pouring spout was not in
place, even with the cap in place, the container leaked into the trunk of my car. Brad used his
army training to use a Swiss Army knife to some string to the trunk
lid and then tie a knot so that the trunk could stay partially open
to allow fumes to exit.
We
cut the open section of trail at the foot of Bear Den Mountain, which
probably would have been faster with the mower, but was still
relatively fast with each of us cutting one side. Once we were in the
trees, there was little to cut so I shut off my machine for a while,
until we came closer to the summit and open areas. At the top, the
trail is on roads at times, but later returned to regular trail. This
was the time when my machine ran out of fuel, and after retrieving
the fuel can, found the same happened to Dave a minute later. Soon
after we saw that the trail had been cleared, and I encountered a
yellow jacket so we turned around. When we met Brad, who had been
cutting small branches, we had lunch, and did a little more trimming
on the way down, widening the first grassy section.
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| The crew |
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Andy Willgruber and
Brad Young |
Just
as we reached the car, we saw Andy. We decided to cut the grassy section from the road to the
woods. The mower would have been a more efficient tool than two
string trimmers, but waiting would have left more people to walk
through a trail section that needed clearing and require Andy
Willgruber to spend hours coming back. While Dave and I cut the
grass, Andy and Brad went looking for any other clearing a little
further along the trail, but found little to do.
August
9th. Flying McLeods-Acme Treadway Company-Ivy Creek
Overlook
A
few weeks earlier, Mark Gatewood was the only person to show up to
regrade some trail near Ivy
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John Hennekens and Don White
setting a new step |
Creek Overlook, so this day was an effort
to make up for the small showing. This was a historic trip, the first
trail work trip labeled a Flying McLeods trip without crew leader
Mark Gatewood. District Manager Don White was in charge, and joined
by a veteran of the Little Calf Moutain relocation and a new trail
maintainer, and I carried the flag for the Flying McLeods. Instead of
the regrading we expected, installing rock steps at a switchback
became the main task of the day. There was the usual hunt for good
rocks, contemplation of how they would best fit our holes, and then
trying to make them stay in place. It was a long day which almost disrupted evening plans.
August
16th McCormick Gap
To keep a short section of trail at McCormick Gap relatively free
of oriental ladys thumb, I headed off with a bag to fill with weeds.
Because of previous efforts, the beginning of this section of trail
had relatively light growth of this invasive plant, so I pulled what
I saw to keep it that way, hoping one day to move further up the hill
into the overgrown area. After a while, my back and boredom said I
had done enough, and several hikers mentioned a blowdown that was
inconvenient to get by. On my way, I met David Dalley and his wife
who mentioned the superb wilderness first aid performed last year by
Dan Ralston and Jeanne Densmore. She also mentioned slipping on a log
waterbar, which is another reason the Flying McLeods like to regrade
trails to reduce the need for waterbars. The blowdown was indeed a
nuisance, but it was fairly small, so clearing it did not take long. A couple of known bittersweet patches had pleasingly little regrowth after previous clearings. I stopped at
McCormick Gap to pull out some poison ivy which was perilously close
to the trail, and then headed straight home to shower. How do you pull up poison ivy without getting a rash? Carefully. And wear vinyl gloves and a synthetic long sleeved shirt.
August
23 More AT clearing
Plans
to do some clearing at Rockfish Gap the previous week were altered by
blowdown removal so this week I stopped at McCormick Gap. A few water
diversions needed more excavation; the soil did not pack down well
because the soil was so dry, but perhaps leaf litter on the new trail
surface helped protect it. I removed some Oriental ladys thumb and a
little bittersweet before rain provided a good excuse to head home.
September
6. Summer growth part 2
After
the major summer growth cutting in June, enough plants regrew
sufficiently to warrant more cutting. Marit Gay and Mark Perschel and
I came from Charlottesville and Michael Seth met us at Rockfish Gap.
We all headed south from McCormick Gap, with Michael and Marit going
ahead picking some oriental ladys thumb and clipping shrubs and
branches, while Mark and I each cleared a side of the trail with
string trimmers, cutting normal summer growth, and hoping we reduced
future growth of some invasives. Based on his expertise, Mark showed
a way to load the string trimmer heads with one long piece of string.
Michael and Marit decided to walk all the way to Rockfish Gap to pick
up the car left there, and Mark and I, after reaching one of the side
road on the trail, decided we had done what we hoped to, and took the
road expecting it would lead us to Skyline Drive, as it did. As we
were walking along the road, a young man turned around to offer us,
dirty and sweaty, a ride. He too has volunteered for projects
elsewhere and was grateful for trails here to hike. Just as Mark and
I arrived back where we had left some equipment, the others in our
group showed up. From there, Marit and Mark headed to their section
of trail, while I went to Rockfish Gap to cut growth at the end of
the trail, kill a little bittersweet and pulled at little more poison
ivy.
September
20 Ivy Creek redux; Flying McLeods and Acme Treadway Company.
The
day was a language lesson for some, learning the meaning of redux. We
had a large crew, including South District managers Don White and
Mark Gatewood, a couple of veteran maintainers from far north and two
relatively new maintainers. Marit Gay and I represented
Charlottesville. Don and his veterans from Acme Treadway Company
improved the rock steps built a month earlier while the rest of us
did classic slough and berm removal to slow erosion. The long dry
period caused dust to fly when we tried to tamp down earth. At the
end, we had a long section of flat, correctly graded trail, the
longest section I have seen since the relocation at Little Calf
Mountain. The rock steps were indeed nicer to walk than the previous
month. Because we finished at classic Flying McLeods' hour, some of
us stopped at Lafayette Inn in Stanardsville to have a snack courtesy
of Don White.
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| Marit Gay |
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| A long section of well graded trail |
