Saw, Dig, Pull

July 28, 2022 / jim fetig / 1 Comment

My view of the Thornton Gap Entry Station

Shenandoah National Park, July 24 – 27 — The North District Crew Week was anything but usual. For one, we tackled a variety of projects. For another, I only worked three of the five days. Now, it’s off to Manitoba to fish with my brother and nephews.

Usually crew week offers the opportunity to partner with the park service trail crews on big projects that are too big for either outfit alone. This year everybody was everywhere all the time.

We started with the great blowdown hunt. While the remainder of the group took on some dirt work, Wayne Limberg and I searched for a tree tangle reported by a hiker on the Shenandoah Hikers Facebook page. Shall we say it wasn’t where it was alleged to be…

On net we hiked about four miles on our search. We found it about 200 yards from a trailhead parking lot. It would have been a cinch if we had started three miles south of the initial reported position.

We managed to chew a lot of wood into sawdust, huge piles of it.

In the end, the old guys were bushed.

The next day we rehabbed the AT from trailhead parking south to the Byrd’s Nest 4 connector trail.

My last day was best. A tree on the AT about 200 yards south of Compton Gap parking became a leaner last year and ended up in a near vertical posture. This was too dangerous for volunteers to cut. After consultation we and the park crew agreed that it should be pulled down. This is how it happened.

Rigging the tree.

Dave Jenkins has a new toy. It’s a motorized winch. Beats a grip hoist any day. But, sometimes things don’t exactly go according to plan.

Ready to go.

Oh oh! Nothing is happening.

Ain’t technology great! What else. Check You Tube to find out what you did wrong.

Turns out the rope wasn’t wrapped quite the right way around the capstan. A couple of twists made all the difference.

But wait. There’s more.

The tree had dug itself in. Nothing a pick mattock could not tackle.

On the way.

One more time.

Boom!

All that for 50 seconds of sawing.

Job done.

Sisu

It’s all about the food

July 23, 2022 / jim fetig / 7 Comments

Blackburn Trail Center, Round Hill, VA, July 21 – 22, 2022 — Ridgerunners travel on their stomachs just like armies do. We gathered at Blackburn earlier this week for the second time this season to prove the point.

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The spacious kitchen with its tandem sinks and dishwashers naturally draws crowds, especially at dinner time. Wendy Willis, one of our split season Michaux State Forest ridgerunners, is more famous in one of her other lives. She owns a Mexican restaurant in Winchester, Va called Sexi-Mexi. Click here: https://burritobar.sexi-mexi.com/

This year she’s been feeding us at Blackburn to the point that her scrumptious cooking has become the raison d’etre for showing up. Rest assured, no one is late.

As we stood at rapt attention, Julia Child would have approved of how Wendy coached us through the tostada bar she conjured from a magic cooler full of delectable ingredients. The mob gathered salivating, ready to pounce. The secret red poblano sauce was worth holding hostage. Trust me, we took no prisoners.

As ridgerunners are apt to do, we talked long into the night on Blackburn’s enticing wrap-around porch brightened by the moon and a string of low wattage bulbs.

It ain’t over yet. It was bright-and-early o’clock, but my eyes were glued shut tightly as I snoozed away. The sound of sizzling veggies in an iron skillet popped my eyes open. It was fritatta’s under construction. I sprinted for the coffee pot. Count me in! Afterwards I could hardly stand up from the breakfast table. Yum!!!

So far it’s been an fantastic year. The hiker class of 2022 is awesome, the ridgerunners outstanding and the calendar pages turning too rapidly on what will be my final season in this role.

While the fritattas were in the oven, John Cram repaired/modified my poorly designed Zpacks ultralight pack. In another life, John is a sailor and sail maker. His expertise and magic sewing machine did the trick.

Stay tuned. It ain’t over yet.

Sisu

It was all about firewood

July 18, 2022July 18, 2022 / jim fetig / Leave a comment

Sara learned to split firewood.

Shenandoah National Park, July 16 – 17, 2022 — Some Hoodlums work weekends are more fun than others. This one was a blast.

On Saturday we cut firewood for our annual trail maintenance workshop and for use at Indian Run maintenance hut where the Hoodlumns and north district trail maintainers stay when they are going to be out for more than one day. On Sunday Caroline and I weeded our AT section.

(Call sign) Ridgerunner Two, Sara, met me at a trailhead near where she had camped for the night. In the cool of the early light I offered the best treat I could think to bring – fresh Apple House doughnuts with hot coffee to sooth ever present craving for a certain flavor doughnut.

We then lumbered down Skyline Dr. to rendezvous with a group of Hoodlums at the Dickey Ridge picnic area. After everyone arrived, we split into two groups with one working in the area while a third broke for the Indian Run maintenance hut to weed the lawn and access road, and to cut the aforementioned firewood. A third work party met at the Piney Ridge ranger station to work on the AT between Rattlesnake Point and Elk Wallow.

The question was where to find a sufficient amount of wood. Part of the answer was on the AT itself where it is on a fire road near the intersection with the Dickey Ridge trail.

We remembered a blowdown that Caroline and I bucked last October. There are cords worth of wood in that honker, two pick up loads to be exact. The rest we picked off fire road from Compton parking to the Dickey Ridge/hut access road intersection.

Team effort.

The wood is left unsplit to deter impromptu fires. The small wood is locked in the hut.

The Hoodlums gathered for their traditional pot luck at the end of the work day.

Following the picnic, Sara, Caroline and I retreated to Indian Run for the evening.

Let’s just say there was a learning curve in the splitting business.

Caroline and I modeling our dorky Z 87+ safety glasses after we finished weeding the AT section on Compton that we co-maintain. Note the vegetable matter on my glasses – and I was sporting a wire shield on my helmet. Let’s just say that it was hot enough for us to stew in our own sweat.

Sisu

Just in time for the Fourth

July 6, 2022 / jim fetig / 3 Comments

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This is the definition of a blowdown. For perspective, Sara is six feet tall.

Shenandoah and the Washington Nationals Parks, July 1 – 4, 2022 — The month of Hades arrived right on schedule and so did Sara Leibold to pick up her AT ridgerunner duties right where she left off last year.

This tough angel does not fear the month of July in Virginia when it’s hot, hot, hot – and muggy.

We started out with the usual equipment issue and check into White Oak Cabin where Sara checked the log book to see who’d been there since her time last season. We then adjourned for the first night at Indian Run Maintenance Hut, but not before picking up some pizza in Luray.

Muscleman Dan split some firewood.

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I’ve had to saw my way down the fire road the last three visits.

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Before any of this happened, Sara stopped at my house for a special pizza and to pick up the keys she needs at PATC Hq. where she found a shelter log book from 2016 that documents her first night as a ridgerunner.

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Sara loves Apple House doughnuts, a treat from a local eatery. Dan brought some for breakfast at our first shelter stop and Sara ate even crumbs down to the last grain of sugar.