A.T. Trail Maintenance,Paint Party,Hike - July 25, 2015

Written by Andy Willgruber          Pictures by Lindsay Brown/Sunny Choi/Olivia Stoken/Ami Riscassi

      This hike went head-head with another chapter hike in the AHS parking lot this morning and held it's own!  Four dedicated volunteers signed up to help A.T. trail maintainer Andy Willgruber including two newcomers.  Olivia Stoken plans to thru-hike the entire A.T. after completing her degree at UVA; she was actually disappointed that we weren't painting white blazes today!  Ami Riscassi has previously been involved with PATC cabins;she loves to see the difference that painting makes!  The always sunny Sunny Choi came out to try her hand at trailwork; she already knew she had painting skills.  She found out today how good she was with the loppers!   Chapter President Emeritus Lindsay Brown lent his wisdom and superb trail standards to our operation.

      The crew jumped into Andy's car and we headed to Beagle Gap.  On arrival, we divvied up painting and sanding equipment; everyone also grabbed a trail maintenance tool of their choice.  We headed north on the A.T. while doing light clipping along the way.  On arrival onto the Little Calf Mt. bald, we took a few minutes to admire the panoramic view.  Now, it was time to break out the paint. Our main task for the day was to complete the job started on March 28 by the Virginia Environmental Law Forum (UVA Law School).  They had installed four 6x6 blaze marker posts under very challenging conditions (story on our "news" link posted in April, 2015).  The 30 degree temperatures on that day prevented painting; we had perfect painting conditions today.  We divided into two two-person sanding/cleaning and painting teams.  The work proceeded quickly and pleasantly on the four posts spaced over the next 1/3 of a mile.  We laid down the painting tools at the last post.  This post marked the junction where the relocated A.T. rejoins the old and so finally completes the Calf Mt. Relocation project started a number of years ago!

      We continued north to the summit of Calf Mt continuing with our light, occasional clipping.  The elevation, shade and low humidity made for very pleasant hiking conditions, especially on the summit and north of Calf Mt. Sunny was moved to say she felt "transported to another place"!  We admired the two ancient white oaks located just before the side trail to the Calf Mt. shelter, then proceeded to the shelter's picnic table for lunch.  The lunchtime treats included a variety of chocolate candies from Andy including some from Germany that seemed to be a hit.  Ami also shared some delicious homemade zucchini bread--it's been a good garden year!  It wasn't easy to leave this very pleasant shelter, but we decided to resume our hike and give up the picnic table to a couple of weekend backpackers.  We returned the way we came and hiked back south 2-1/2 miles and hopefully burned off some of those extra lunch calories!  
      We arrived back at Beagle Gap and toasted the day's success with some cold Bold Rock Ciders! The consensus for a post-hike stop was the Greenwood Gourmet Grocery where various necessities were purchased.  We arrived back at AHS a few minutes before 3:00.