Busted!

April 20, 2024September 24, 2024 / jim fetig / 7 Comments

When you break your wrist, you’re stuck mostly with calisthenics.

Kensington, MD, Spring 2024 — Being president of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club is a full-time job. It doesn’t leave time for extra curricular activities including this blog.

As winter tightened its grip, so did my volunteer gig. From a raft of regulatory compliance issues to a key staffer with an unfortunate cancer diagnosis, slogging through the so called dormant season has had all the joy of chomping into a tepid corn dog at the Iowa state fair.

The stale air inside was smothering me. Much like a pup with a full bladder, I wanted out.

Then I broke my wrist. How’d that happen?

It was a leaden day in mid-January with light snow on tap.

A group of my friends organized a trip to crosscut several blowdowns on hiking trails in a federally designated wilderness area near the eastern boundary of Shenandoah National Park. Count me in? Hell yes!

Hell yes! That is until I was literally thigh deep “in” the Thornton River slipping on snot rocks. As I unsuccessfully Attempted to stiff arm a chilling dunk, I smashed my right radius at the distal head. Then I slipped on another snot rock cracking my knee and jamming my wrist again. Ouch!!!

It felt like a polar bear swim in Chicago’s Lake Michigan. There I was … soaking wet, scrambling up the river bank while assessing the growing, throbbing ache in my right wrist. It was about a nano second before it was absolutely certain that I needed to get the hell out of there before I morphed into a lime popcicle and became a carry-out casaulty.

Working my way across the river on a fallen tulip poplar. The going was good on this end of the trip.

Knowing three water crossings were part of the day, a full change of clothes was ridding on my back, nestled next to my store-bought Italian sub and water jug.

Changing clingy wet clothes one-handed was a contortionist’s circus trick. Once dry, and a little safer from hypothermia, more than a mile separated me from my Subaru Forester which was parked along an access road. Fortunately the crew was full of folks with advanced first aid credentials. We had enough splints and ace wraps to equip an ER.

I immediately thought the wrist might be broken, but chose not to splint it so I could better balance on my hike out. We wrapped it tightly with an ace wrap to retard the rapid swelling and everyone hung around while I waded, avoiding the slippery stepping stones, to recross the river.

Patiently waiting in the Page County Hospital, (Luray, Virginia) ER for the diagnosis post X-rays. Doesn’t look that bad. The ace wraps really kept the swelling in check.

The movie “Barbie” was inspirational in choosing the color of my cast.

I have been a woman’s basketball fan (WBB) for decades.

Squeezing medical putty … over and over and over and over.

The swelling made it too painful to type, even after the cast was off. The rest of the winter has been limited one-armed weight lifting, squeezing putty to rebuild forearm muscles and coaching the neighborhood trail crew to fix some muddy spots on the Silver Creek pathway.

Prognosis: Full recovery. Late summer.

Susu

Please be seated.

August 29, 2022 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

Who is she going to bury?

Shenandoah National Park, August 27, 2022 — When you live two hours away, the number of trail maintenance trips is limited. When ever you do get there, there’s usually no time for the extra little touches that are fun to do.

We usually tent at Indian Run after a Hoodlums work trip and use the next day to maintain our section. Since Caroline and her partner have a new puppy that needs a lot of potty training attention, we kicked the can ahead a week. The improved weather was a bonus.

First we replaced a rotten waterbar that, as the photo illustrates, was also completely silted up with sand that originated as part of an ancient lake bed that covered the region eons ago. Then the fun began.

For years I’ve wanted to build a log bench adjacent to the water source that flows at about the half way mark on the south side of Compton Peak. Its common to see hikers stop there to refresh their water supply, each lunch or take a break. There is only one flat rock on which one can park their butt. Otherwise, it’s sit in the dirt. Adding a bench was priority two – after everything else that needed doing.

We had a handy materials candidate in the form of a nearby blowdown cleared about 18 months ago.

The plan was to saw two pieces for the base and use a six-footer to sit on. We would then peg it together with wooden dowels. What could go wrong?

Would you believe the battery overheated several times and stopped the drill dead, the last time for good. We were unable to complete drilling the holes. Time for plan B.

We had already made a cradle for the cross piece with an axe. It would have been ok for a pegged bench, but not for one held by gravity so I used my chainsaw to notch a seat. We’ll bring a more powerful drill next trip and complete the pegging then.

Meanwhile the bench got a reasonable test from a flip flopper and two southbounders who stopped to help.

But wait! There’s more.

The last time I painted blazes was 2015 when I inherited responsibility for the section. Some are fading and flaking paint. Time to refresh.

The first thing we did is invite one of the southbounders to paint a blaze. She was thrilled. Her husband documented the deed. I think we made her day.

The first the old paint has to be scraped and the bark smoothed with a stripping tool.

Caroline’s dad is from Switzerland and she’s a dual national. When I asked if there were any famous Swiss painters, she couldn’t think of any. Well, they have one now – sort of.

Sisu

PS: Hoodlums highlights from last week. Our team cleared seven blowdowns from the north district trails including a branch that crashed at the hut.

We also cleaned out a silted up box spring.

The water cleared after a bit.

Hoodlums 2021 Finale

November 21, 2021November 23, 2021 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

The trailing edge of early morning sunlight. The reds have dulled leaving the last of the copper and gold to color the ridgelines standing sentry over the Shenandoah Valley.

Shenandoah National Park, November 20, 2021 — As mother nature turns down the color temperature of the fall foliage, the Hoodlums trail crew gathered for its last work trip of the season.

The Hoodlums organized into three work parties. Two were assigned crosscut duties on north district blue blaze trails while the remaining group worked hard to put the finishing touches on the Compton Peak project to restore the tread to the original CCC trail. Compton was yours truly’s duty station.

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Photo by Mike Gergely from Facebook

Piney Ridge crosscut crew.

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Photo by Mike Gergely from Facebook

It’s sad when a grand old oak falls.

I showed up early to check on the work Caroline Egli and did two weeks ago. It was in good shape. We weren’t certain because we were building with wet soil that is mostly sand.

Best of all, the leaves have hit the dirt meaning that our plan to rake them out of the waterbars on Black Friday is a go assuming cooperative weather.

Your Compton crew minus the cell phone camera operator.

Our first concern was whether the ground was frozen. If frozen, picks tend to bounce off the dirt like bullets smacking armor. We were fortunate. The tread was hard packed from decades of pounding boots, but not particularly difficult for a pick to penetrate.

We set about building and replacing waterbars and check dams, chopping roots, and leveling rocky sections.

We dig trenches about half as deep as the log and crib them with small rocks to set and lock them in place.

We ran out of previously cut logs so we had to make more using a vintage crosscut saw.

I asked Nikki why she volunteers.

Crosscut in slo mo. Turn up the sound.

Once you cut the log, you have to schlep it up the hill.

Hoodlums: Where all the women are strong and the men think they’re good lookin’!

The buckets are for hauling dirt to places where we need it.

No problem!

After digging “excavaciones profundo” and humping logs and rocks all over the place, the restoration of the original CCC work on Compton is 99 percent complete. Hope everyone enjoys the improvements.

It’s worth mentioning that drumming the ground with a pick, toting logs, crosscut sawing, and all the rest of the exercise associated with trail work is better and much cheaper than therapy. When the Hoodlums are working, the doctor IS in!

Sisu

Trail Repair Update

November 5, 2021November 6, 2021 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

So much silt that we had to spread it downhill.

Appalachian Trail, Maryland and Shenandoah National Park, October 30 – 31 — Mother Nature is splashing fall color all over the mid-Atlantic. The leaf peepers are out in droves. It’s just a tease. Soon hard winter will muscle its way in and own the joint until the spring wake up.

Until then, we’ve got work to do before the ground freezes so hard-ass that that our picks and fire hoes just bounce off.

Saturday: Jessica Say has volunteered to be the next maintainer of the Pogo** Campground in Maryland, It was a delight to take her on her orientation visit. She walked the ground, toured the new tent pads, learned how to clean out a fire pit, and most importantly, how to take care of a composting privy.

She also will be maintaining an AT section further north in Maryland. That’s a bunch! Thank you Jessica for stepping up.

**Pogo Rheinheimer was a young man who loved the AT. Sadly he was killed in a boating accident.

Jessica at the Hoodlums trail maintenance workshop in September.

Caroline loosens silt which is raked away.

Sunday: Readers may recall that a couple of months ago a severe, localized storm was forecast to dump up to six inches per hour on parts of the park. We don’t know what actually happened. We do know the results. Nearly all of our erosion control structures filled with silt. Some were buried deep enough that they were difficult to find.

This compares to 2018 when the Park experienced nearly double its annual rainfall. Then, these same waterbars and check dams were able to handle all that huge rain volume without problem. If climate change features more intense storms, this could be an example.

Readers will recall that a Virginia Conservation Corps Crew (AmeriCorps) rebuilt the upper two thirds of the mountain.

The crew was unique in its all-woman composition, a circumstance they appreciated.

With two-thirds rebuilt, that left the bottom third for Caroline and me.

Our dilemma was to find a mutually agreeable time when we could finish the bottom third before the first freeze. Fortunately, the bottom third is fairly flat requiring far fewer waterbars and check dams in comparison to the rest of the section.

We took turns on the tools – a pick-mattock and a McCloed fire rake.

McCloed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLeod_(tool) The McCloed is the Swiss Army Knife of trail tools. It is a hoe, a rake, a light pick and a tamper. Best of all, it stands up by itself.

Per Park policy, we’re using as few wooden and stone structures as possible. Instead we’re installing swails known in the trail world as rolling grade dips. These earthen mounds, when properly compacted last for years. They are quicker to build. The jury is still out on whether they are easier to maintain.

All told, we put in six hours of solid work.

Next up is the last Hoodlums trip of the year, weather permitting on Nov. 20, and our annual Black Friday soirée to rake the leaves out of the waterbars to facilitate drainage. The irony is that new leaves will wash in over the winter and we’ll have to rake them out again in the spring.

Stay tuned.

Sisu

The Great Blowdown Hunt

October 9, 2021October 9, 2021 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

The Appalachian Trail in Virginia, September 25 – October 7, 2021 — What was intended to be a simple hike to help deflate the COVID spare tire around my waist became something different and an obsessive blowdown quest after a windstorm littered the trail with downed trees.

Our last blog mentioned that I dropped my young friend Chrissy off at a trailhead in Central Virginia. The plan was to join her at the southern boundary of Shenandoah National Park and hike to Harpers Ferry. There we’d decide whether to hike on into Pennsylvania.

Few plans survive contact with reality. Chrissy was half way through the park before I could catch up. That left 102 miles to Harpers Ferry, decent but far short of the 160 – 240 for which I’d hoped.

My wife dropped me off at the Big Meadow wayside (restaurant) around noon. We grabbed lunch and hoofed it north to the Rock Spring shelter for the night. At some point a passing weather front generated a pretty good blow. Our tents popped in the wind and it was noticeably cooler in the morning. We didn’t think much of it.

Not long after pushing off for our second day, we started finding trees down across the trail. The count reached more than 60 before we reached Harpers Ferry. In my experience, that’s a significant number for that kind of (relatively mild) windstorm.

Like a rumpled old throw rug, the AT is infamous for its rocky tread. A few blowdowns here and there only add a few wrinkles for the most part. By the time we were done, the blowdowns had become an obsession a trail maintainer could not resist.

Meanwhile, the blow continued during day two as we hiked on to Pass Mountain. There we encountered an insufferable chaos of southbound thru hikers who were loud and obnoxious.

We retired to the tenting area and ate a quiet dinner sitting on logs near our tents. Ironically, we were alone the next night at Gravel Spring. The silence was lovely.

Breakfast at Indian Run hut. At some point I learned Crissy’s 38th birthday was up-coming. My present was two fold. One was a stay at Indian Run where the public is not allowed, Hoodlums keep a supply of split firewood and we could have a nice fire with chairs upon which to set.

The other was arrange the timing so her birthday was spent at Mountain Home B&B owned by my friends Scott and Lisa. The main building is a fully restored anti-bellum mansion.

In the restoration process, Scott and Lisa learned that the “cabbin” used as a hiker hostel was formerly quarters for enslaved people and that one of the surviving original locks displays an African motif, evidence that it was most likely wrought be an enslaved person.

The next stop was the Bears Den Hostel. By this point, backpacking had become Glampacking. I dubbed Crissy the “Millennial Magellan.” We spent the last night at David Lesser shelter before my spouse shuttled us home from Harper’s Ferry.

Along the way we passed the 1,000 mile sign. At this point, northbounders have traveled 1,000 miles and southbounders hit triple digit mileage with under 1,000 miles to go. For them, it’s a big deal.

Chrissy HF Chrissy points out the length of her journey on the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s relief map of the entire AT.

Phase one was over. Chrissy left for family activities in her native Western Pennsylvania. But what about the blowdowns?

Here’s a sample. I toted up the numbers for each AT district and forwarded the menu to each district manager whose job it is to keep the trail properly maintained. They will take care of their respective areas.

Me? I started obsessing about Shenandoah’s north district where I do the bulk of my volunteering.

As luck would have it, my friend of 25 years, Tina aka “Bulldog,” and fellow Gang of Four member reached out. The weather is improving and it’s time to crank up our monthly hikes.

She posted on Facebook, “We haven’t hung out for awhile, I said. Let’s go to lunch, I said. His retort, let’s go clear blowdowns on the AT. Sure, I said.”

You never miss an opportunity to recruit a swamper, especially one named Bulldog. Never!

I consulted with my district manager. What could we do in a day? Could we tackle a couple of lingering oldies in the process? Boom. We had a plan.

We got about half of the north district blowdowns. We’ll get the rest on the Hoodlum’s work trip next Saturday.

I love making sawdust!

Sisu

Hoodlums Crew Week

August 9, 2021September 11, 2021 / jim fetig / 7 Comments

Two rock hammers and a rock bar. Guess what we did?

Shenandoah National Park, August 1 – 7, 2021 — The park is tinder dry, but the moderate temperatures and low humidity made up for the dust exploding in our faces as our picks loosened the dirt and the rocks we needed to move.

We were there for our annual Hoodlums Crew Week, an opportunity for us to tackle big projects requiring time and muscle.

This time we continued our restoration of the CCC’s work on the AT on the north side of Compton Peak. The primary objective was to replace a ragged set of steps with something more elegant and practical. This staircase had to be torn out and rebuilt.

The crew totaled six permanent members and four more who augmented us on various days depending on their availability. We had to dig up and move almost everyone of those rocks. That’s what they call a heavy lift.

We lived at the Pinnacles Research Station, our normal crew week hangout, but occupancy was limited to four inside. We had a bug proof enclosure outside where we could socialize and the deer came to visit.

On Sunday I came early so Chris Bowley, our ridgerunner, could join me to do so some overdue weeding, after which we joined the others for dinner and beer.

Monday and Thursday featured an assist from a Virginia Conservation Corps group made up mostly young folks who are between high school and college. They helped carry logs we planned to use for our project, built a couple of check dams, and also weeded some overgrown AT sections for us.

They also helped take out of commission an illegal campsite near the Compton Gap parking lot. It was a combination campsite and outdoor latrine.

After cleaning up the TP tulips and burying the feces, we moved a ton of logs and sticks to make the area unusable.

Campsites that are noncompliant with backcountry regulations are proliferating at an alarming rate throughout the park. The culprit is social media, particularly an app called “Guthook.” Hikers can leave notes and GPS locations visible to all users. Once a site is established, with the aid of the app, it attracts evermore users until the vegetation is dead and the dirt is bare. That’s when the erosion starts.

Previously the rangers would try and camouflage the sites, but now hikers can find them with laser precision and easily remove the camouflage. The next step is denial with dead timber too large for one person to move alone.

We also found that a popular boulder was being used as a bathroom where children sometimes explore.

Not anymore.

Everything starts with the foundation. Dig ’em in deep and they’ll still be there in 50 years. Also building with larger rocks, aka BFRs, helps prevent bears from flipping them in search of bugs to eat.

This is a behind the scenes look at the reality of setting a step. Ultimately the entire staircase has to fit together.

It’s tiring work and the team has to continuously think and talk it over. Sometimes it looks like chaos. Sometimes it is.

Ultimately it’s like a giant puzzle.

Steps 1.0 begins to form. This configuration would ultimately be scrapped. Too many voids, the tread wasn’t wide enough. Most of all, they were ugly. If it looks bad, it is bad.

Final version. If it looks good, it must be good! We ultimately removed about a third of the steps making the trail much easier to use.

Meanwhile, further up the trail other work was happening. This is how old men and women get stuff done!

At this point, we’re returning the tread to its original location. The rocks we’re digging up were the original CCC rip rap. Here the trail had become two lanes with the old rip rap in the middle. The trail from Panorama to Mary’s Rock has done the same.

We also cut logs to supplement the rock rip rap. Rip rap is waste rock and other materials used to help keep the tread from expanding; thus preventing erosion.

We got a lot done. In fact, we’re about two-thirds of the way through the project. With luck, we’ll be finished with this trail by year’s end.

Sometimes unusual things happen. A woman leading a horse wondered off a nearby horse trail that briefly coincides with the AT. We helped her get turned around and heading in the right direction. The AT is foot traffic only with a very few marked exceptions.

The last day, we split with one group weeding the Pass Mountain blue blaze trail. I took on an AT section south of Rattlesnake Point. This was taken after the head was refilled with string. Crew week over.

The weekend wasn’t over yet for me. Sunday the Bears Den hostel was having a hiker festival. I grabbed my grandpa’s crosscut and set up a station where people could slice off a chunk of log for themselves. The results were entertaining. I would carefully explain how the saw works and how important it is that the sawyers each pull, not push. Let’s see what happened.

Testosterone is not your friend guys.

We had no idea a wedding had just happened. The happy couple got a unique souvenir and an unusual photo for their wedding album. The did a good job too, an omen?

The little guys did ok too.

Sisu

Clearing the Blowdown Backlog

August 6, 2020 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

Shenandoah National Park, August 5, 2020 — The purpose of this blog is to offer a peek behind the curtain so you can see what it takes to keep the hiking trails open and well-maintained.

There are hundreds of volunteers who do this work. We are organized by park district, south, central and north. Swift Run and Thornton Gap mark the boundaries.

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A young friend who volunteered with the Hoodlums for a year before being transferred to California said that she’d been hiking and backpacking all of her life and had no idea how much effort went into maintaining backcountry trails. She loved volunteering.

And now a word from our sponsor:

PATC always needs volunteers. No experience or tools necessary. We maintain nearly 500 miles of trail within the park and another 1,000 outside of it, including 240 miles of the Appalachian Trail, trails within the national battlefield parks, C&O Canal, Prince William Park, and many more. Join us at http://www.patc.net

The pandemic protocols – mask, avoid as many people as possible, groups of no more than four, sanitize – don’t impose much hardship. After encountering hoards of people on the weekends, we decided to do group work only during the week. That pretty much limits crew members to retired folks with sore muscles.

Yesterday we cleared 11 blowdowns on Pass Mountain. Several hikers reported this one on Facebook. This is a “leaner” in sawyer speak. Leaners can be dangerous to clear and we only clear them if it can be done safely and they are blocking the trail. Otherwise park and PATC policy is to let Mother Nature take care of business.

In this case, the giant tree is not blocking the trail. Moreover, it’s larger than all but one of our saws. If it were on the ground, it would be a hellova project. As it is, it’s beyond our capability in a wilderness area where only muscle powered tools can be used.

Judging from this angle, it’s going to be up there for a long time. Anna Larsen Porter’s granddaughter may be a maintainer by the time it comes crashing down.

__________________________________________

You could tell it was going to be a special day for August when we spotted a car at the Pass Mountain hwy 211 trailhead. The sun was gentle with a cool breeze. A perfect day to be roaming the park.

The plan was to drive up the Pass Mountain fire road and park at the hut/shelter and then work our way downhill to hwy 211.

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First we would use a chainsaw to clear the AT near the hut trail. That area is not wilderness. Note that this leaner is much different from the previous one. The bind is on top, so you saw it from the bottom to keep the bar from being pinched.

We then locked the saw in the car so we would not be tempted to use it in the wilderness area we were about to enter.

This one had also been reported on Facebook.

It was cloaked in grapevines and brush which had to be cleared before we could get after the trunk.

The trunk required two cuts.

Sometimes it’s easier on the back just to sit.

Two down and as far as we knew, one to go. Instead we found nine more.

Easy one. Bottom bind.

Quick work.

Hwy 211 parking. That was a clean mask when we started. Dave looks like Peter Fonda in “Easy Rider.”

Decided to make a Subaru commercial on the way down the fire road.

The Pass Mountain trail was very weedy. Being in a wilderness, it must be weeded with swing blades vs. the string trimmers we can use elsewhere. We understand an AmeriCorps crew will give that trail a haircut this Friday.

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Speaking of haircuts, I could not stand it and gave in. Pandemic beard and hair excuse expired.

Sisu

Shenandoah. At last!

May 29, 2020May 29, 2020 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

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Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. May 27, 2020 — The park is open, sort of. Skyline Drive, the 105-mile-long ribbon of a road that curls along the crest of the Blue Ridge, is open for traffic.

With the exception of a small number of public restrooms, all other facilities are closed including campgrounds. The trails, except the most popular trails where social distance can’t be maintained, are welcoming footprints. The huts/shelters remain off limits for use.

This limited opening makes sense. Reports say the primary means of COVID-19 is respiratory droplets inhaled when people congregate in small spaces.

Imagine up to a dozen people sleeping in an AT shelter with one of them who arrives late in the evening, asymptomatic with corona virus, infecting those sleeping nearby. The same logic applies to crowded communal picnic tables and for visitor centers.

The good news is this. After nearly three months, volunteers may now return. For awhile I thought the most useless card in my wallet was my dormant Shenandoah volunteer pass.

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On Saturday the entry stations opened and we were turned on again. Fearing a Black Friday-like run on the park, most of us opted to pass on the weekend. I chose Wednesday to return because I was committed Monday and Tuesday, and heavy rains are forecast for Thursday, Friday and early Saturday, a day on which I am unavailable.

Saturday the Maryland ridgerunner and I will be pitching the caretaker tent and stringing the rain tarps at Annapolis Rock. It is always a more sane exercise in better weather. This annual ritual is two months late, delayed by the pandemic.

Back to the park.

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Ready to crank on a foggy day. The aggressive weeding of previous years has retarded the growth of jewel weed which is the bane of string trimmers. The width of the corridor is needed because certain briars can grow a foot per week and the width buys me time to return before the trail is impeded.

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Eight hours later.

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Just around the corner. When you’re running a string trimmer, your head is usually down. You’re wearing a helmet with face shield which further impedes vision. Then you look up.

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Black birch is easily dispatched with a folding saw.

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The aesthetics were amazing. Wild azalea blooming. The laurel will start soon.

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The tall grasses grow quickly. People often ask why we remove the weeds and make such a racket in the process. The answer is simple, Lyme Disease.

Animals use the hiking trails to get around just like people do. The mammals such as deer, bear, coyotes, squirrels, and rabbits pick up ticks which drop when engorged. Their babies instinctively crawl up on the vegetation to seek a host of their own.

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Remove the vector. Reduce Lyme disease risk. Mowing tall grass reminded me of harvesting wheat. Weeding is arguably the least enjoyable, but probably the most important task trail maintainers do.

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Just over the hill from the last photo.

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Trusty Silky Big Boy 2000 saw to the rescue. I thought about coming back dragging a chainsaw for this one, but for one, it would be a long carry for two minutes work – literally a long climb for a short slide.

Secondly, we’re going to attack a large blowdown at the bottom of Little Devils Stairs Sunday using a crosscut saw that is special because it once belonged to my grandfather. Not sure there would be enough time or energy left over when we’re done to climb half way up Compton Peak to make, honestly, thirty seconds worth of noise.

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I always check the campsite above the spring on Compton. It’s now official. The park trail crews have been defining its perimeter with logs to help contain the site and limit spreading.

People are inherently predictable. Anyone who has been a ridgerunner can tell you where you’re going to find the TP.

Speaking of ridgerunners, they were defunded in the park this year because thru hiking was discouraged and park gate receipts were dramatically down. Tuesday and Wednesday a fellow maintainer and I counted 14 thru hikers. The noobs are making a mess. Help!

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There’s a reason I always carry potty trowel. All told I buried two deposits this trip. As previously reported, there are more noobs in the woods now and it shows.

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Long day. Sweaty and tired. The COVID beard is coming along. String trimmers turn the weeds, which include poison ivy, into pesto. I’m coated with it. Time to get a shower.

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Spring in the park is awesome! Did I say I love this job?

Sisu

Spring cleaning delayed.

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020 / jim fetig / 7 Comments

Home, April 14, 2020 — As the debate about when America can go back to work stutters along, I’ve been wondering when trail maintainers can start digging dirt again. We want to work too. Time’s a wasting.

I am under no illusion that someone is going to flip a magic switch and the world will shift from black and white to living color regardless of the political pyrotechnics. The virus doesn’t care.

Until there is an effective vaccine, COVID-19 can be a potentially mortal threat to anyone who catches it. Respect alone for this potential will certainly cause some people to avoid crowds and certain public places.

Nevertheless, at some point the parks and trails will reopen to the public. People think they’re far from others when they are in the woods as if civilization can’t follow them there. It’s an attractive illusion, so they’ll be back.

For one, I’d like to have the trails safe and ready when they come.

Fall

The problem is that the trail you tidy up in the fall …

Spring

… looks very different in the spring.

Between now and when the people come back, nature will be hard at work. Spring has sprung and the weeds are growing. It won’t be long before they take over the joint unless they are cut back.

Why worry about weeds? They are the way ticks carrying Lyme disease get to hikers. Lyme disease or COVID-19? Each is ugly in its own way.

Weeds are only one of the jobs that need to be done in the spring.

Waterbar

The tread itself needs maintenance. Water control structures silt up or rot over the winter. A bear destroyed this one. This waterbar has to be cleaned and rebuilt. It’s clear from the detritus that it’s no longer effective.

Crosscut

Blowdowns also have to be cleared.

We’ve has several howling windstorms recently which increase the probability of finding blown down branches as well as tree trunks.

Everyone I know is itching to get a jump on spring maintenance before hikers return. Trail maintainers like nothing better than packing up for an honest day’s work, although I despise the two-hour drive each way.

ToolCache

The tool caches are ready. With the people gone, we could get a lot done when it’s easy to maintain safe social distance. Maintainers in our area are spread about one to two miles apart.

But, like they say, the trail will be there when the time comes. True dat. Meanwhile, I’m on the bench yelling, “Put me in coach!” Where’s coach? He’s sheltering at home just like the rest of us.

Sisu

Annual Trail Maintainers Workshop

September 24, 2019 / jim fetig

Some tools of the trade.

Shenandoah National Park, October 18 – 20, 2019 — If you want to learn how to dig holes in the dirt, who ya gonna call? The Hoodlums, that’s who.

Each September the North District Hoodlums trail crew hosts a workshop for trail maintainers, beginners through experts. Last weekend we did it again. For me it was number seven.

The canopy is for the kitchen where Dave Nebut’s brothers prepare our scrumptious meals.

The format is simple. The content gets adjusted periodically. It goes like this. The official start time is 0900 Saturday morning. The safety talk is followed by work party assignments commensurate with each person’s experience level.

On Saturday we generally work until around four o’clock when we return to clean up. Dinner is a six followed by a campfire.

Sunday is a repeat with coffee and breakfast at 7 a.m. We close at noon for lunch and cleanup.

A few of us usually arrive early on Friday to help with set up, gathering of tools, hauling firewood, and the like. The early birds also get the most level tent sites!

A full campground on a clear Friday night doesn’t always go the way you plan. Some group partied until 3:30 a.m. I was shocked the campground host didn’t intervene. Moreover, the city slicker dogs just had to announce each bear that wondered through in hopes some ignorant knucklehead left out food. Between bears and loud drunken laughter, nobody got much sleep.

Saturday dawned like the shiny jewel of a day it was. The park trail crew arrived to work with the advanced group.

Phone addicts everywhere. Mine gets NO Service in this spot, a blessing.

Dave and I led some fine folks on an encore trip near the junction of the Thompson Hollow and Tuscarora Trails to finish the work we abandoned last month when one of our work party members suffered from heat exhaustion. The day was warm, but not that warm. It’s officially designated wilderness, so traditional tools only may be used.

In total we removed seven blowdowns.

Some of the blowdowns were high while others were low.

Using a hatchet to chop away the rot. On a log spanning a gap, gravity draws the wood downward causing compression (bind) at the top. Once the cut gets deep enough, the resulting bind will slowly make it harder to saw.

We use wedges to hold open the “kerf” so the sawing can continue.

We also built some drainage dips where waterbars were needed to prevent erosion.

The dirt was proof of a hard day’s work, so let’s get the party started.

Good news. Just as darkness blanketed the park, our odds changed. We learned that 30 percent chance of rain sometimes means you get wet. Why good news? The rain doused the campfires and the partying. Silence reigned even as dark rain poured from the inky sky. Everyone got a good night’s sleep. Amen!

Sunday was another beauty contest winner made extra special by the hot coffee.

We split into three groups. Rebecca Unruh, backcountry ranger and dear friend of the Hoodlums, gave a talk on environmental hazards from poison ivy to heat stroke.

We also offered sessions on string trimmer use and maintenance, and on grade dip construction.

We called it at noon for a delicious lunch.

A sign of happiness.

Boots usually last 500 miles or about a year for me. These are two-year-old miracle boots. The rain last year was easy on the soles. The rocks finally got the uppers.

Straining for a selfie.

Until next year.

Sisu

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 Maintenance

Busted!

Please be seated.

Hoodlums 2021 Finale

Trail Repair Update

The Great Blowdown Hunt

Hoodlums Crew Week

Clearing the Blowdown Backlog

Shenandoah. At last!

Spring cleaning delayed.

Annual Trail Maintainers Workshop