The Southern Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville Chapters teamed up on June 4 to celebrate National Trails Day and work on a remote but popular trail deep in the heart of Ramseys Draft Wilderness. What was once perhaps the largest tract of old growth hemlock in Virginia has succumbed to the wooly adelgid. Nearly all of the giants have been killed. Some snags are still standing, but many have fallen across Ramseys Draft Trail which runs through the center of the 6,600-acre federally-designated Wilderness. In addition to the down hemlocks, the undergrowth had become overgrown, as often happens when more light reaches the forest floor. Having heard reports that upper Ramseys Draft Trail was nearly impassable, SSVC and Charlottesville chapters planned this joint worktrip to cut out some of these blowdowns and clip back the overgrowth. The North River Ranger District of the George Washington National Forest supported our volunteer efforts by sending two of their staff with a chainsaw to cut blowdowns outside the Wilderness area.
Five SSVC members who have worked on Ramseys Draft trails several times this spring packed up their Coronas, a crosscut saw, and a 25 pound come-a-long and got an early start from Camp Todd. We hiked 3 miles to Hiner Spring and then began working downstream on Ramseys Draft Trail. With a much longer drive from their meeting place Debra Fisher, John Shannon, Bill Holman, Karen Siegrist, Tony Alimenti, Ivana Kadija, Barbara Martin, Marian Styles, Iva Gillet, Rich Bard, Lisa and Nick Auwarter from the Charlottesville Chapter arrived at Camp Todd a little later and hiked up the mountain to Hiner Spring with clippers, loppers and saws. This was Ivana, Barbara, Lisa and Nick's first trail work hike. About half of the group stopped en route to work on the badly overgrown Hiner Spring Trail, while others caught up with SSVC just in time to lend a hand on cutting a step-through on a giant down hemlock that had been very difficult for backpackers to cross. Cutting and chiseling out the step-through gave just about everyone a chance to try their hand at the crosscut saw. It was too large to cut completely with any of our tools, but the step-through helped significantly.
With a grim forecast for flash flooding later in the day and a long drive home, the Charlottesville group headed back to the cars, only to be caught in torrential rain. The streams rose quickly, flooding FR 95, the only access road to the trailhead. Fortunately, the road was passable with only a couple of inches of flooding water. The SSVC group worked a little longer until the rain began, then hunkered down and waited out the worst of it. We realized later how lucky we were when we read that communities north of Harrisonburg got 4.5” of rain the same afternoon.
To make a long story short, both groups were soaked to the bone and opted to skip the planned gathering at a brewery in Staunton in favor of a shower and dry clothes back home. Charlottesville members were able to stop at Blue Mountain Brewery on the east side of the Blue Ridge for a early dinner on the way back to Charlottesville.
Despite the wet end to the day, we accomplished a great deal on the most remote part of Ramseys Draft Trail, which draws hikers and backpackers from the entire mid-Atlantic region. Hopefully our work will make future visits a little more pleasant.
SSVC plans to work more on Ramseys Draft Trail this fall. We lack about 3 miles in the most remote part. If anyone in PATC is interested in lending a hand, we would welcome your help.
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