Charlottesville PATC and Wild East Women (affinity group for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy) held a women's trail maintenance work day on Saturday, April 17 on the Appalachian Trail from Loft Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. The focus of the day was to help Lisa and Molly Swales, mother/daughter trail overseers, on the southern section of their trail. Marit Anderson was the leader for the project and Ranger Leah Cawthorn from the Appalachian Conservancy Corps assisted the group for the day. Participants included Jeanne Ralston, Dianne Anderson, Meghan Cloud, Nancy Handley, Linda Beights, and Lisa & Molly. We met at 9 am on this cool Saturday morning at Loft Mountain Wayside, had a safety talk, discussed Covid protocol, geared up with loppers and a few McLeods, and hiked up to the AT and then another mile to the section needing vegetation cut-back and some water bar maintenance. The group broke up into two teams when we got to the waterfall area and proceeded to work two hours until lunch. Everyone got a chance to clear a water bar, learning the correct way to bring the washed out material back onto the trail on the backside of the waterbar. We had a lovely lunch along Ivy Creek and the waterfall. After lunch we continued cutting back vegetation and then leisurely hiked back to the parking lot, stopping to admire the many wildflowers including corydalis, cutleaf toothwort, bellflower, star chickweed, bloodroot and more. Back at the parking lot we cleaned and returned tools, helmets, and other borrowed gear. Ranger Leah gave everyone a token stainless steel SNP Volunteer cup for their service. Quite nice!😊 Thank you to all the ladies for volunteering in the Shenandoah National Park....it was a great day to spend on the first day of National Parks Week!
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| Cloud with a McLeod! |
submitted by Marit Anderson
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