Appalachian Trail Clearing - December 24, 2016

Submitted by John Shannon

On Christmas Eve, Marian Styles and I gave to the AT and its users by cutting some logs on the Chapter’s AT section. Since it was not only Christmas Eve but raining in the morning, no one appeared at Albermarle High to join us. By the time we reached Rockfish Gap, a wave of my arm cleared away the rain, ushering in fine trail-clearing weather.

Pressing Ctrl-X did not work to cut this log

The warm up log

Soon after starting, we saw the first blowdown reported by David Crowe, but we left it because we knew of bigger logs ahead. The first was a 10-inch log. Moving it off the trail without destroying a small tree took almost as much effort as cutting it. A bit further along, we found the big one. I had seen it on a previous trip, but the saws we had that day would do little more than scratch it. Today we had the Chapter’s new cross-cut saw, ready for its first real test. Some long wedges proved useful in opening the 15-inch cut on the uphill side of the trail. Marian made the final cut, which left the job of retrieving the saw and a wedge, which had gotten trapped. A trusty Corona saw moved enough wood to free the items.



Are we there yet?

As expected, the downhill section of the tree was too large to move, or even wiggle, requiring a second cut. The log was resting on rocks at the optimal place to make the second cut, but we wanted to avoid hitting rocks with the new saw. So we could either cut through a narrower point on the log, which would leave some of it still in the trail, or we could cut further down where the log was considerably wider, which would free all of the log on the trail. We chose the latter. While I slowly cut, Marian went a little further up the trail to clear a couple of branches encroaching on the trail from a tree that had fallen beside the trail.

 Lunch offered a break from the tedium of cutting. Marian removed some more wood in the gap from the first cut so that there was room for the center section to move into as the second cut widened. While we were cutting our way down to ground level, the log seemed to drop down further, so I had to create trenches for the saw. The good news was that the saw did not bind, and the wedges again widened the cut.

This saw was helpful but most cutting was
done with the large cross cut saw

Finally the cutting was finished

 Finally, after about 2 hours of sawing on this tree, the wood broke. Marian took pictures of me standing triumphantly on the cut log, estimated 24 inches across. Removing the weighty log from the trail was the next problem. We rolled it a short distance to make a walkable gap between two sections and declared victory: we were a cutting crew, not a moving crew. We put the new Dan Dueweke-style saw guard back on the saw. Three items—the cross-cut saw; new, longer wedges; and saw guard—all worked as hoped on their first major trip. Fatigue, cold, and evening plans said it was time to head home.