Shenandoah National Park, December 28, 2021 and January 1, 2022 — PATC’s newest certified sawyer had a brand new Stihl electric chainsaw that was burning a hole in the bed of his pick’em up truck. The park had blowdowns to give. What a coincidence.
The rain stopped right on time for a First Day Hike a couple of days later. Shenandoah is truly the magical “The daughter of the stars.”
Dan Hippe is a recently retired geologist who spent the summer banging around with the Hoodlums and taking on trail maintenance projects. His energy and enthusiasm earned him a seat in the park’s newest chainsaw certification course we just finished.
Last Wednesday we met at the Thornton Gap entrance to pick up a park radio and chase a few blowdowns that had been languishing on the AT and side trails. His electric Stihl was up to snuff. I scratched together a short video using an iMovie template rather than post 50 photos of our escapade.
This year’s First Day Hike was the Gang of 4 minus three plus Jessica Say, one of our newest maintainers. We originally planned to start at 10 a.m., but the rain gods forced a two-hour delay. We quickly scrambled up North Marshall for what turned out to be a much better view than the expected fog.
Along the way we camouflaged some non-compliant campsites and broke up an illegal fire ring. Campsites must be 60 ft. from the trail. Most are within 10 ft.
Eventually the sun poked its head through the cotton candy clouds.
We had a relaxing walk before the long drive back to reality.
Happy New Year everyone!
Sisu
Nicely done, Jim. Spielberg would’ve called it “Raiders of the Lost Amp”.
Good one. Speaking of amps. Those saws could use a couple more. Also, we used up two batteries suggesting that having three might be in order. That would bring the total cost of the kit to $1,000. Ouch! Hope you’re enjoying Michigan.
That was an impressive video production. The music got my blood pumping.
Last weather check showed you getting some wintry stuff. We are done with it here in IA after several inches and below -7F.
The music was part of the iMovie template. I realized that I haven’t made a video since 2016. Everything in the app has changed. It was a bit of a struggle. The negative temps have really smacked the upper Midwest recently. Fortunately we experience milder lows in this region. This was the last video I made: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1q8vllw73pa5dz8/SnowZilla%202016.2.mov?dl=0
We’ve had storms like that about every fifth or sixth year since moving here in 1985.
Great video Jim. Putting an electric Stihl on my Nice list for Xmas 2022!
Maston
You better be a good boy! I certified last time with Stephanie Danahy’s electric Stihl. They are just fine for 90 percent of what we do. The batteries are $$$$.