The Ridgerunners Ride Again!

April 2, 2016April 2, 2016 / jim fetig / 11 Comments

After a early evening rain shower at Annapolis Rock

Annapolis Rock, Maryland, April 1-2, 2016 — Spring has sprung loose the usual Pandora’s box that is the hiking public. The weather is improving and they are on the march. Time for the ridgerunners to ride again and help the challenged to do the right thing.

This year’s class is interesting. We were funded for six vs. five last year. The extra one goes to Shenandoah National Park where we’ll now have two veteran ridgerunners to cover 105 miles of the Appalachian Trail there. I’ll introduce or reintroduce everyone as they come aboard.

First things first. Maryland funds two ridgerunners because its 42 miles of trail is among the most heavily used anywhere. After all, millions of people who live in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. areas are within two hours travel time and easy access to relatively gentle hiking. The trail candy, e.g. the sites, vistas, civil war, and monuments, are attractive incentives.

Consequently the state wants a caretaker at Annapolis Rock (AR or the Rock) from April one through Oct. 31. All the rest, with one exception, work from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day – peak season so to speak. That exception launches in Shenandoah next week.

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The easy access, gorgeous views, romantic sunsets, and excellent rock climbing, not to mention being named one of Washingtonian Magazine’s top 10 hikes, make the Rock a prize to to which people flock in droves. Three hundred people on a pleasant weekend day is not uncommon. Someone’s gotta help and guide them or the vegetation would be trampled and the trash would obscure the rocks.

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Enter Kyle. He’s a jocular former Marine and 2014 AT thru hiker. He’s also a recent graduate of the National Park Service Park Ranger Academy.

Ridgerunning is not glamorous. First thing is moving into the rustic apartment provided by the Maryland Park Service. Then the AR overseeer helps you find the wood chips that help the two composing privies at the AR campground work. Taking care of poop by tending the privies is a big part of every ridgerunner’s job! That’s the ironic part of this dream job.

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Q: Guess what the shovel’s for? A: It falls into the privies.

Next you have to put up the tent in which you or the summer ridgerunner will be sleeping in for the next several months.

It was fun trucking that stuff up the mountain – not. Thanks to Rush, the AR overseer for schlepping it up.

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We got the rain tarp flying over the picnic table just before the rain hit. The rain was a nice complement to April Fool’s Day.

After the first band of showers, we went up on the rock to enjoy the scenery and that last “golden hour” of sunlight.

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Overnight showers snare-drummed the fly of my hammock all night long. Me, I was hanging high and dry, my ears stuffed with ear phones listening to old “Lone Ranger” radio shows. Rain drops or hoof beats. I couldn’t tell.

They sky cleared this morning and it was time to haul up the first bail of wood chips for the privies. The first day in the glamorous life of a ridgerunner.

Separation Anxiety

March 19, 2016 / jim fetig / 3 Comments

Hiawassee, GA, March 17, 2016 — It was time to say farewell to my intrepid friend Denise and head home for a Hoodlums trail crew work weekend, since snowed out, but that’s another story.

I really didn’t want to go. In fact, the bug bit me. I really, really wanted to hike all the way home. A cool thousand miles would be a great way to celebrate spring and work off my winter weight gain. Unfortunately, my volunteer career comes with responsibilities requiring my presence in places other than the southern Appalachians.

I’ll be up front. I think Denise is going to make it. At the very least she has better odds than most. She’s stubborn, positive, and has the self discipline of the soldier that she once was. Her competence in the woods counts for a lot.

For most people Georgia’s 80 miles are a bitch, plain and simple. Although the treadway itself is mostly smooth dirt, the hills are steep and a good test of will and fitness. The first day out, Denise’s challenge was compounded by a nasty upper respiratory infection (URI).

Being sick in the woods isn’t fun. She suffered, yet she persevered without complaint – good sign!

Along the way we met a ton of people. At one point she asked me if there was anyone I didn’t know. Here we are with Erwin, Tennessee’s “Miss Janet” Hensley, one of the iconic trail personalities and genuinely good folks on the trail. She’s referenced in memoirs going back to the turn of the century. It’s fair to say those stickers help keep her van in one piece.

The weather this season has been unusually warm leading to a slightly greater number of hikers making it out of Georgia. In other years adverse weather tends to wash out a lot of inexperienced people.

The warmth this year has led some hikers into believing spring has sprung. They have sent their weighty cold weather gear home. Not Denise. She knows that she’ll be hiking over 5,000 ft. (and at one point 6,000) for the next 400 miles. Not until you’ve seen the wild ponies at Virginia’s Grayson Highlands state park just south of Parisburg is it safe to shed most of your cold weather gear.

Denise started ahead of the big bubble. By March 15 last year I was counting around 150 hikers per day. They fill the shelter/camping areas beyond capacity in spite of the heroic improvements made by the Conservancy, the Georgia Club, National Forest Service and the Appalachian Long Distance Hiking Association. Knowing the area helped us find good flat spots away from the tent cities.

We hit one day of intermittent rain last week. Our training hike in the cold rain last spring paid off. The orange rain cover is to give the hunters a visible aiming point.

I’ve always loved the way life renews itself and finds a way to survive and recover. That tree is a survivor.

People still need to learn how to Leave No Trace in the woods. It’s gross, and a lot worse than this in many places.

Taken three years apart.

Meanwhile, our intrepid hiker has invaded North Carolina. One state down. Thirteen to go. She’s fine. I’m the one wringing his hands. I’ll continue to cross post her blogs as her hike unfolds.

Christmas Cookies

December 8, 2015 / jim fetig / 6 Comments

With Ron Tipton, executive director of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and his ferocious trail dog.

Harpers Ferry, WV, December 5, 2015 — It was time for the ATC’s annual holiday party. Say party and cookies in the same sentence and count me in. Add hot cider to the mix and heaven will just have to wait.

Last year we attracted a nice crowd of what were mostly the usual suspects, trail denizens we all know and love. More than 100 came to turn perfectly good cookies into crumbs, and they did an excellent job of it too.

Greeting a visitor this year.

This year we drew 225 excited folks, most of whom we did not know. What changed? Two Hollywood movies about hiking, “Wild” and “A Walk in the Woods.” This year a pile of new AT hikers came to find out what they could learn about planning the great adventures they are imagining for 2016.

The Visitor Center has a mini shelter for kids complete with its own resident bear and shelter log in which they can color a beautiful entry.

Lots of families came. Free cookies fresh baked by the volunteers are a big draw! I ate my quota, but mostly behaved myself around the sweets.

Professional cookie taster!

Da Bears (Den)

November 22, 2015 / jim fetig / 12 Comments

Bears Den Hostel and Hiking Center, Bluemont, VA – Saturday, November 21, 2015 — Sometimes pop up projects just happen. The PATC supervisor of trails was jawing with Glenn, the Bears Den caretaker. “Ya got any work?” “Yup.” And so another adventure begins for the North District Hoodlums Trail Crew.

So there I was, minding my own business when in comes a “flash” email looking for volunteers for Saturday. Bears Den needs firewood and urgent repairs to one of its hiking trails. Who can come? Sawyers bring your chain saws. “Let’s rally!”

Now what can you say at a time like this? A chance to fire up my chainsaw… This is better than playing baseball in late October. Woah dude! Don’t ask twice I’m there. I love extra innings.

Fortunately we’ve had a prolonged indian summer here in the mid-Atlantic. Unfortunately we became way too comfortable with unseasonably warm weather.

Of course the weather pattern was going to hold. What was the chance it would be subfreezing Saturday morning … No need to guess. It was 26F according to my car when I pulled into the parking lot.

Everyone was shivering as we organized our work parties.

We had three sawyers and split into two parties while a larger crew marched off to repair a badly eroded trail.

The swampers got some help from one of two Scout troops camping on the Bears Den grounds. We were bucking the hazard trees a professional crew of arborists dropped earlier this summer as mentioned in this post: http://jfetig.com/2015/07/29/on-the-road/

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Lunch is always better when enjoyed outside, especially since the temp jumped the shark back to early autumn.

Now to split the damn stuff. Fortunately, Glenn has a hydraulic splitter.

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At the end of the day, we tramped down to Bears Den rocks for a zen moment Thus ended another Hoodlums excellent adventure.

The Easy State

September 1, 2015September 2, 2015 / jim fetig / 8 Comments

Max Mishkin and Dan Smith are the AT ridgerunners in Maryland

Maryland Appalachian Trail, August 28 – 29, 2015 — Many hiking guides list Maryland as the easiest state on the Appalachian Trail. Here the AT is a relatively flat ridgewalk, mostly on South Mountain. It has its share of rocks, but nothing compared to those to be experienced north and south of here. In that sense, Maryland is fortunate.

In contrast, Maryland has the misfortune of being easy and close to the millions who live in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metro areas. That’s a lot of people, many of whom take the shortest path to the AT section nearest home. It’s a recipe for over use and abuse. That may be why the state funds two ridgerunners for just 38 miles. One starts early and the other stays through October.

On Saturday Dan Smith and I hiked from Weverton Cliffs to Gathland State Park. These gentle miles unfold quickly. Even the hump to the top of the cliffs isn’t an outrageous challenge. Pretty much any able bodied person can make it. Come at it from Gathland and the physical challenge is even easier.

Relative to the work Lauralee and I did last week in Shenandoah National Park, this southern chunk of Maryland was a piece of cake. Still, I was surprised at the amount of trash we policed up – ranging from micro trash like mylar snack wrappers to discarded/forgotten clothing. Dan said it was a light weekend. Note to self: Remember this for next year.

We also broke up a couple of illegal fire rings too. Fires, except at designated fire pits at the shelters, are illegal in Maryland, but some people just don’t seem to care.

Dan is an amiable Pennsylvanian and mechanical engineer who appreciates being outdoors. He’s thru hiked both the Appalachian Trail (AT, 2,200 miles) and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT, 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington, featured in “Wild.”)

Next year Dan’s off to hike the Continental Divide Trail (CDT, 3,100 miles from Mexico to Canada via New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.) It’s the last leg of his triple crown and I have no doubt he’ll nail it. The ridgerunner community will miss him.

After repositioning Dan’s car, I left him to rush northward to spend the night at Annapolis Rocks with Max Mishkin. I made camp about two minutes before I needed to turn on my headlamp.

The two Maryland ridgerunners rotate so that there’s always a caretaker on site at the Rocks. It didn’t take long to figure out why.

Caretaker’s tent at Annapolis Rocks. I hung my hammock nearby.

Annapolis rocks is the Grand Central Station of Maryland’s AT section. On a nice weekend, several hundred people per day have been known to visit. Most are neophyte day trippers who are unaware of the Leave No Trace principles. Consequently trash and cigarette butts figuratively snow from their presence.

Outdoor organizations also frequent the Rocks. Scouts and Outward Bound groups are common. Camping is restricted to a limited number of designated sites and no fires are allowed.

As I was walking in, a disgruntled father with a couple of sons was moving out with the speed of the approaching darkness. It seems that the father brought the boys to one of the most sensitive and protected places in Maryland to show his boys how to build a fire and make a lean-to. Max caught them hacking live trees and starting a fire.

Rather than camp the right way, they packed up when Max didn’t allow them to continue their activities. The damage they caused was sadly obvious when we cleaned up the site the following morning. As some of my military friends put it, “You can’t fix stupid.”

The upside to caretaking at Annapolis Rocks is obvious. People seem to love a guy with patches on his shirt. I think we found Max at central casting.

Max is a jovial extrovert from Connecticut who graduated from William and Mary. Since then, he’s knocked about in political campaigns and paralegal work. On his days off, he volunteers like I do at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Visitor Center. In early November he plans to hike Vermont’s Long Trail. I’m planning to be on that trip too if circumstances permit. I love the challenges of winter hiking.

Two Outward Bound groups came in turn to climb the rocks. This is a climbing favorite in Maryland. The highest rated climb, Black Crack, is 5.9 because it has an overhang. The others are non-technical but do require rope protection.

Two Outward Bound groups came in turn to climb the rocks. This is a climbing favorite in Maryland. The highest rated climb, Black Crack, is 5.9 on the Yosemite decimal system because it has an overhang. The others are non-technical but do require rope protection. It’s a long drop to terra firma.

I love to see young folks learning how to climb. The rock is a hard sandstone infused with calcite. The cracks and fissures make excellent and safe handholds.

The youngster on the right did an excellent job.

Say it ain't so! The seasonal transition has begun.

Say it ain’t so! Buckle up your overshoes. The seasonal transition is beginning.

A fork in the road

Yogi said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." So I'm following the white blazes.

Appalachian Trail Consernancy

The Ridgerunners Ride Again!

Separation Anxiety

Christmas Cookies

Da Bears (Den)

The Easy State