Charlottesville Chapter of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club

Nine strong hikers converged near Lexington to tackle a true wilderness trail and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Hikers included 7 from the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club and Marit Gay, Jeff Monroe, and Gracie the Fabulous Hiking Dog from the Charlottesville Chapter of the PATC.

This group answered the question, “What if you schedule a hike and arrive to find no evidence of a trail?” We bushwacked through the woods until coming across faint evidence of the trail alignment suggesting the Crane Trail, and followed that until it became a real trail climbing Rough Mountain through the Rough Mountain Wilderness.

This remains a trail best hiked with someone who has been on it before, and we minted 8 new veterans to the small list of folks globally who have experienced this nice trail. After summiting Rough Mountain (clipping back vegetation as we moved), we continued on the Crane Trail over the mountain’s western slope, treated to views of the Cowpasture River Valley and Beards Mountain in Douthat State Park. While the Roanoke group turned around about halfway down to gain more time for a leisurely lunch at the mountain's summit, the Charlottesville-based group (Jeff, Marit, Gracie) showed their toughness by following the trail until it reached private property near Route 42. The western slope portion of the trail was in great shape, strongly indicating that local landowners see the Crane Trail as their own private entryway to secluded wilderness. Lucky folks!

reported by John Shannon

Over summer, members of Charlottesville Chapter have performed several AT maintenance trip reported below. Work trips at home delayed the reports.

Beagle Gap July 13 2014

Brad Young and Dave Borzich

We received a message asking for help with the AT over Bear Den Mountain where an overseer found he had twice as much trail as he expected because of the resignation of another overseer. District Managers Mark Gatewood and Don White helped with brush cutters and mowing. I said that Charlottesville Chapter would help with the remaining grassy growth.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Dave Borzich and Brad Young show up because they have been excellent crew members. As promised, Andy Willgruber showed up with plans to mow his section of AT north of Beagle Gap, and then cross the road to mow the short open section immediately south of Beagle Gap. However, the mower he planned to use was not back from maintenance so our plans changed some. Andy went to clear overgrowth on the access road to Little Calf Mountain summit, a project he and the chapter started 11 years ago.

Dave offered to use one of the weedeaters. There was a helpful note explaining how to start the machine which gave me trouble a month previously. It did not want to start, but Dave had the touch. We found an unexpected problem, that the bucket holding my fuel container had tipped over, and because the pouring spout was not in place, even with the cap in place, the container leaked into the trunk of my car. Brad used his army training to use a Swiss Army knife to some string to the trunk lid and then tie a knot so that the trunk could stay partially open to allow fumes to exit.

We cut the open section of trail at the foot of Bear Den Mountain, which probably would have been faster with the mower, but was still relatively fast with each of us cutting one side. Once we were in the trees, there was little to cut so I shut off my machine for a while, until we came closer to the summit and open areas. At the top, the trail is on roads at times, but later returned to regular trail. This was the time when my machine ran out of fuel, and after retrieving the fuel can, found the same happened to Dave a minute later. Soon after we saw that the trail had been cleared, and I encountered a yellow jacket so we turned around. When we met Brad, who had been cutting small branches, we had lunch, and did a little more trimming on the way down, widening the first grassy section.

The crew

Andy Willgruber and
Brad Young

Just as we reached the car, we saw Andy. We decided to cut the grassy section from the road to the woods. The mower would have been a more efficient tool than two string trimmers, but waiting would have left more people to walk through a trail section that needed clearing and require Andy Willgruber to spend hours coming back. While Dave and I cut the grass, Andy and Brad went looking for any other clearing a little further along the trail, but found little to do.

August 9^th. Flying McLeods-Acme Treadway Company-Ivy Creek Overlook

A few weeks earlier, Mark Gatewood was the only person to show up to regrade some trail near Ivy

John Hennekens and Don White
setting a new step

Creek Overlook, so this day was an effort to make up for the small showing. This was a historic trip, the first trail work trip labeled a Flying McLeods trip without crew leader Mark Gatewood. District Manager Don White was in charge, and joined by a veteran of the Little Calf Moutain relocation and a new trail maintainer, and I carried the flag for the Flying McLeods. Instead of the regrading we expected, installing rock steps at a switchback became the main task of the day. There was the usual hunt for good rocks, contemplation of how they would best fit our holes, and then trying to make them stay in place. It was a long day which almost disrupted evening plans.

August 16th McCormick Gap

To keep a short section of trail at McCormick Gap relatively free of oriental ladys thumb, I headed off with a bag to fill with weeds. Because of previous efforts, the beginning of this section of trail had relatively light growth of this invasive plant, so I pulled what I saw to keep it that way, hoping one day to move further up the hill into the overgrown area. After a while, my back and boredom said I had done enough, and several hikers mentioned a blowdown that was inconvenient to get by. On my way, I met David Dalley and his wife who mentioned the superb wilderness first aid performed last year by Dan Ralston and Jeanne Densmore. She also mentioned slipping on a log waterbar, which is another reason the Flying McLeods like to regrade trails to reduce the need for waterbars. The blowdown was indeed a nuisance, but it was fairly small, so clearing it did not take long. A couple of known bittersweet patches had pleasingly little regrowth after previous clearings. I stopped at McCormick Gap to pull out some poison ivy which was perilously close to the trail, and then headed straight home to shower. How do you pull up poison ivy without getting a rash? Carefully. And wear vinyl gloves and a synthetic long sleeved shirt.

August 23 More AT clearing

Plans to do some clearing at Rockfish Gap the previous week were altered by blowdown removal so this week I stopped at McCormick Gap. A few water diversions needed more excavation; the soil did not pack down well because the soil was so dry, but perhaps leaf litter on the new trail surface helped protect it. I removed some Oriental ladys thumb and a little bittersweet before rain provided a good excuse to head home.

September 6. Summer growth part 2

After the major summer growth cutting in June, enough plants regrew sufficiently to warrant more cutting. Marit Gay and Mark Perschel and I came from Charlottesville and Michael Seth met us at Rockfish Gap. We all headed south from McCormick Gap, with Michael and Marit going ahead picking some oriental ladys thumb and clipping shrubs and branches, while Mark and I each cleared a side of the trail with string trimmers, cutting normal summer growth, and hoping we reduced future growth of some invasives. Based on his expertise, Mark showed a way to load the string trimmer heads with one long piece of string. Michael and Marit decided to walk all the way to Rockfish Gap to pick up the car left there, and Mark and I, after reaching one of the side road on the trail, decided we had done what we hoped to, and took the road expecting it would lead us to Skyline Drive, as it did. As we were walking along the road, a young man turned around to offer us, dirty and sweaty, a ride. He too has volunteered for projects elsewhere and was grateful for trails here to hike. Just as Mark and I arrived back where we had left some equipment, the others in our group showed up. From there, Marit and Mark headed to their section of trail, while I went to Rockfish Gap to cut growth at the end of the trail, kill a little bittersweet and pulled at little more poison ivy.

September 20 Ivy Creek redux; Flying McLeods and Acme Treadway Company.

The day was a language lesson for some, learning the meaning of redux. We had a large crew, including South District managers Don White and Mark Gatewood, a couple of veteran maintainers from far north and two relatively new maintainers. Marit Gay and I represented Charlottesville. Don and his veterans from Acme Treadway Company improved the rock steps built a month earlier while the rest of us did classic slough and berm removal to slow erosion. The long dry period caused dust to fly when we tried to tamp down earth. At the end, we had a long section of flat, correctly graded trail, the longest section I have seen since the relocation at Little Calf Mountain. The rock steps were indeed nicer to walk than the previous month. Because we finished at classic Flying McLeods' hour, some of us stopped at Lafayette Inn in Stanardsville to have a snack courtesy of Don White.

Marit Gay

A long section of well graded trail

10/7/14

Buck Hollow to Mary's Rock, October 4, 2014

Rocky Mtn - Brown Mtn. Loop, September 20, 2014

10/6/14

Crane Trail, September 11, 2014

10/5/14

White Rock Falls, September 13, 2014

Appalachian Trail maintenance summer 2014