Staunton River - July 7, 2012

In spite of the dire heat predictions 7 PATC hikers: Ken Moss, John Brandt, Liz Lyons, Eric Christenson, Leon + Bailey and Bev & Pete Fink left Charlottesville for Graves Mill where we met Michael Seth and began our climb up the Staunton River Trail. The hike was originally scheduled to go to Bear Church Rock but weather warnings prompted a change of plans. We would hike up the Staunton River Trail until a cooling pool appeared and then take advantage of it. The trail started out warm and within 30 minutes we were in the water.

Continuing along we intended to have lunch at the stream near the McDaniel Hollow Trail junction.  When we got there the stream was dry.  The consensus was to go up further to the Stanton River Crossing.  The character of the trail changed from the old road to a soft path through shaded woods where all memories of the heat disappeared.  Thanks to Eric’s foresight in bringing a saw along, several downed trees were dealt with quickly. Before long we arrived at the lunch spot which proved to be an excellent choice…shade, cool water, mossy rocks and butterflies.  After enjoying a relaxing lunch, we continued up the trail to the next crossing which was impeded by an extremely large downed tree – to big for Eric and his saw.  At this point Ken said, “this is the wrong direction for beer”.

With that we turned around and began to retrace our steps until Ken and Liz spotted a large and deeper pool which no one could resist.   After another soaking we headed down toward the cars, the temperature rising as we dropped in elevation. Arriving at the trail head several in the group couldn’t pass up one final dip in the Rapidan before boarding the cars and heading to Timberlake Grill to rehydrate and replenish our energy stores.

Karma, a Trail Maintenance Tool - July 1, 2012

Reported by John Shannon and Marian Styles

When clearing by hand,
think twice, cut once

A typical messy blowdown,
relatively quick to clear

One day we help hikers with an injured dog, and the next day John Brandt arrives at just the right moment to help us clear many blowdowns on the club’s section of the AT. John drove up to Rockfish Gap about 2 minutes before we would have left to shuttle a car to McCormick Gap. John Brandt, who had actually showed up to do a recreational hike, nevertheless said he’d pitch in to help clear the trail. 

John Brandt contributed his customary energy and perspective on how some obstacles could be removed, always trying to save small trees. He helped clear at least 10 blowdowns then joined us for lunch before heading off for his originally planned activities.

This was easy to pass after
we finished, but probably
needed a chainsaw to finish

Wasp nest

Shortly thereafter, the remaining duo came upon a humongous wasp’s nest. Then, at 2.65 miles from McCormick Gap, we found a 30” diameter fallen tree. We cleared some small branches and a poison ivy vine to make it easier to climb over and added it to the “chainsaw needed” list.

About quarter of a mile from the end, we found the tree a couple of hikers on Saturday called impassable. It was messy, but after cutting a hole in the leaves, we got through.

Originally intending to work a half-day because of the heat, we reached the end of the trail after 3:30 p.m. Altogether, we counted 29 blowdowns, some of which involved multiple trees. With John Brandt’s invaluable help, we had completely cleared 16 of the obstructions. For the remaining 13, we cleared what we could and left the rest for chainsaws.John thinks this is the heaviest damage on this section of trail in the last 25 years. It also has more damage that some other sections of AT.

The big one, a climb over, not step
over

Branches like this can
block a lot of trail

We were both tired and one-half of the crew was also mighty hot, but we were happy about how much work we’d done: 3.4 miles of trail largely cleared less than 48 hours after a major storm, and done on a day with a heat index of 94 degrees.

Meanwhile, Don Davis, with chainsaw at the ready, Andy Willgruber and one or two others are standing by waiting for not so hot weather to clear the large trees that we couldn’t conquer with handsaws.

PATC, a Full-Service Trail Organization - June 30, 2012

Reported by John Shannon

PATC’s primary purpose is to maintain the Appalachian Trail. This mission goes beyond cutting grass, removing fallen trees, and other pieces of standard trail maintenance. Some members advocate for protection of the trails, and some try to slow the takeover of trails by invasive plants. Others serve as trail angels, who leave water at trailheads and provide transportation for long-distance hikers who need to get to and from the trail.

On June 30, Marian Styles and I (John Shannon) provided a mixture of trail service. Despite the forecast of scorching weather, we headed to Rockfish Gap to remove some weeds and look for damage from a strong, destructive storm on Friday night that packed wind gusts of some 80 mph.

This was called impassable by a
a couple of hikers

By the time we found this, we wanted
more pay to do anything about it

The National Park Service had closed the drive at Rockfish Gap because of downed trees, one of which was near the gate. We walked in, found minor debris on the trail, and saw some recently fallen trees, one of which had some roots sticking into the trail. I cut the worst of the obstructions, and we continued along the trail, clipping a few small branches and looking for a blowdown that a couple of hikers reported as “impassable.”

We found a couple of messy downed trees, which were 5-minute cleanups, and were wondering where the big one was when we saw three backpackers heading toward Rockfish Gap. One of the backpackers was carrying an injured dog in his arms. Greta, a very cute pug who was a veteran hiker, had been wandering outside the view of her human caretakers and came back limping. This was not an auspicious way to start a 43-mile hike to South River Falls.

We abandoned trail work and went into dog-rescue mode. Marian tried to get Greta an appointment with a vet in Charlottesville, but alas, there was no room at the inn. So we all piled into my trusty Camry and headed for the trio’s car, which was parked at South River Falls, so they could get home to New Jersey with the injured Greta. En route, they called their home vet, who said to keep Greta off her injured paw but that there was probably no immediate crisis. During the drive north, we found that car cup holders make a good place for a dog’s paw when the dog is situated belly-down on a lap.

After dropping off the three delightful “New Joiseyians,” Marian and I headed back to Charlottesville to escape the now-obvious heat, with thoughts of going back to Charlottesville PATC’s section of the AT the next day to survey the damage.

South River Falls – June 23, 2012

Summer and waterfalls go together, so hike leader John Shannon appropriately chose South River Falls for PATC’s first hike of summer 2012. A small group joined John today, consisting of Ken Moss, Liz Lyons, Marian Styles, Lindsay Brown, Eric Christenson, and Eileen Seaman.

A special treat today was that Wanda Hamlin met us at the South River picnic grounds. She walked with us as far as the turnoff for the falls. Lindsay had left his car so that he, Eric, and Eileen could hike 7 miles; the other four opted for a 10-mile circuit.

The waterfall was lovely, and we paused to take in the atmosphere and to grab a snack. John expected that we’d stop near a cemetery for lunch, but when we got there, we found it more overgrown than we’d ever seen it. We pressed on and finally opted to lunch in a wide spot in Pocosin Trail. Later, we stopped to check out the remains of the Pocosin mission.

We saw no bears today, but a rattler that blended into the trail provided the day’s wildlife excitement. Ken nearly stepped on it (where is snake-charmer Rita when you need her?). Along the AT we stopped while Ken and John cut a knee high log across the trail.

The afternoon heat prompted the 10-milers to stop after the hike at the Timberwood Grill for cold drinks, where we extended the day by sitting outside enjoying refreshments and conversation.

Appalachian Trail Relocation - June 16-17, 2012

The continuation of the relocation project began with sad news. We learned that André Dahler, a member of the Flying McLeods trail crew, had died the day before. André was on most Flying McLeods trips with his father, Al Dahler. At his memorial service, a picture of André with the Flying McLeods and his PATC Hawksbill award were prominently displayed.

The good news is that nearly everyone arrived by, or very soon after, 9 a.m. While crew leader Don White waited for a couple more people, everyone else headed to Little Calf Mountain, taking the existing AT. At the top, the plan was to start building new trail to meet up with the trail we had constructed previously.

This plan was disrupted by the absence of clear signs of where the trail should go, something we had noted a month or so earlier while hiking there in rain. Someone/thing had removed the pin flags and other flags marking the route. Andy Willgruber, who was told to direct people to the trail because of his familiarity with the area from his many hours of mowing, headed down an old road to meet up with the new trail, and then at the urging of PATC President John Hedrick, others followed and started digging along the flags that remained, continuing from where we stopped several weeks ago. Later we heard a weedeater, telling us that Don White had reached the top and was removing vegetation from the planned path. He disturbed some yellowjackets and received at least one sting.

At lunch, two veterans of this project offered chocolate-chip cookies and lemon-blackberry cake.

The area where we dug was fairly free of rocks, but enough large rocks to make the rock bar popular. As usual with this work, it is easy to get tired of one section and move on, but another person, after tiring of his own section, will see a need to make little tweaks to the someone else’s work. Some people drifted off to tend to other PATC business, and when everyone finished, we left hand tools near the trail for the next day.

At Beagle Gap, we met Don Davis who had spent the day working for pay. Some people headed home, and others to Loft Mountain Wayside for blackberry milkshakes, and then to Schairer Trail Center for dinner.

The next morning the weather was again perfect. Mark Gatewood was his usual early self and was talking to a mother and her son who looked ready for a hike. They turned out to be first-time trail builders. Iva Gillet arrived with Bill Holman and Trish Newman. The crew chief had not yet arrived, so John Shannon pulled a couple of hard hats from his car and headed up the trail with a trail maintainer from Crozet. Later most of the crew arrived but without the two Dons, who unsuccessfully attempted to drive up the access road in Don Davis’s two-wheel-drive truck. Quite some time later, we heard Don Davis arrive, with the sound of tools bouncing in a wheelbarrow that he wheeled up from Beagle Gap.

An early task was neutralizing the nest of yellowjackets as well as a wasp nest. John came armed with some stinging insect countermeasures in the form of a spray can.

By now, people were in rather rocky ground, and thus using the rock bar a lot. We again had lunch on top of Little Calf, and John augmented lunches with cranberry oatmeal cake.

We still had no crew chief. Don White had injured his knee the day before and could not climb to the summit, so he used a brushcutter to clear shrubs from part of the trail lower down. Early in the afternoon, Mark Gatewood directed people to head down to improve some sections where some further work was needed. Don Davis cut some weeds while others improved some previously constructed tread before we headed home, knowing that in July we would return to finish the job.

On June 23, Don White and Mark Gatewood cut a route for the last piece of trail with weedeaters after Andy Willgruber responded to a request for his time and truck and drove equipment and people near to the summit of Little Calf Mountain. Andy also did some mowing with the mower that Don Davis resurrected, while Don Davis drove the new field mower to the top along the newly built trail and then mowed some of the open area. Thanks to these four giving up another day to the trail, and traveling some distance, especially for Don White, the stage is set for completion of the new trail