Busy. Busy. Busy.

July 6, 2023 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

Here, there and everywhere, June to July Fourth, July 6, 2023 — We’ll start with the good news/bad news. My dear friend Mary Thurman is now the park manager at Flagg Mountain, Alabama.

This is stellar news for Mary. She’s been searching for “big girl” work for a long time. She’s uniquely qualified and so far, she’s loving it.

Mary’s mission: Bring a long dormant park back to life. Who could be better for that? Her degree from Florida State is finally paying off.

Unfortunately, with Mary’s fortune, we lost our ridgerunner in the Michaux State Forest, Pennsylvania.

Before she hit the road, we visited the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center where the large aircraft are on display. Obviously, this is the Space Shuttle Discovery.

We also shared a fire and some beer. Can’t wait to visit Flagg Mountain after the weather cools off.

Got to welcome four new AT Communities into the fold. AT communities welcome hikers, support the trail and are a vital source of volunteers. I kept my speeches mercifully short. Some of the politicians didn’t.

Along the way things happened. This is the readout on a gas pump. Usually I get gas in Front Royal, VA when I go to the park. It’s often 50 cents less expensive than in the D.C. area.

Guess who left home without his wallet? In addition to not having my drivers license, I didn’t have a credit card. How close was it? My tank holds 15 gallons.

Nice blowdown on Pass Mountain. Tina is my go to swamper because she’s usually available during the week. Pole saws don’t require credentials or PPE. Secret: The car is parked on a fire road less than 100 yards away.

Made a quick trip to weed the part of the AT Caroline and I maintain. Used my new Stihl battery string trimmer. Worked like a charm. The park service says a persistent bear reported by several hikers has been hanging around. Methuselah, the apple tree, is bearing fruit.

For the first time ever, the PATC was in charge of chainsaw training for a class composed solely of park service employees.

We had several park instructor/trainers working with us and carrying a substantial teaching and evaluating load for the four-day course.

Wayne Limberg is teaching chain sharpening in this photo.

My chainsaw was due for cleaning and inspection. Needed a new starter rope. Of course the dealer didn’t have one. The chain catcher had done its job too many times. Received the new parts the next day via Amazon.

A young fox caught a small black snake for dinner as viewed from the bedroom window.

Our friend Martha Kumar is a professorial scholar of the American presidency. I first met her when I served on the National Security Council staff at the White House. Of course, she was born on the Fourth of July. Our tradition is to attend the Nationals game followed by Martha’s birthday party where we sing Happy Birthday.

Let’s close with the bullseye rash found on my elbow after the chainsaw classes. We spend a lot of time in the woods. It’s doxycycline for two weeks.

Sisu

Walkabout

May 14, 2023 / jim fetig / 1 Comment

Obligatory selfie at the columnar basalt formation.

Shenandoah National Park, May 13, 2023 — About a month ago we planned to take a hike up and over Compton Peak to see the wild azalea and mountain laurel which historically are in full bloom. It was also a chance to check up on weed growth and talk about the work we’d do over the summer.

As the days counted down, the weather prognosis worsened. The precip probability in the 10-day forecast climbed from 39 to 58 percent. Digging deeper the day prior, we learned that the Weather Channel app was predicting less than a half inch accumulation with scattered showers. Those are excellent odds and conditions so we green-lighted the trek to great success. So what if we had to wear a rain jacket for 10 minutes.

Maintenance issues constantly crop up whether a waterbar rots, a spring undermines some stone steps, or some knucklehead scratches graffiti on a rock. The steps will fall to the Hoodlums for repair.

Along the way ya gotta check out the rocks. We also found a couple of thru hikers enjoying out bench.

Ultimately we found a few flowers. The azalea were waning and the mountain laurel are just budding out. The dreaded weeds are ahead of schedule. It’s going to be an interesting year.

Sisu

Quick Trip

April 26, 2023 / jim fetig / Leave a comment

Wild flame azalea

Shenandoah National Park, April 25, 2023 — My new job as club president is keeping my away from the outdoors, more than I would have thought. In addition, this month’s Hoodlums work trip was rained out. I needed an outdoor fix.

My excuse: Yesterday was the park staff’s annual meeting with its partners – park association, trust, concessionaire, and volunteer organizations. It’s a chance to share, learn and maintain relationships. After the meeting I drove an hour northward.

A blowdown was calling near the summit on the section Caroline and I maintain. After the meeting, I dashed up the mountain to clear it. It was a step-over, so not the highest priority. We left it during spring cleaning because we didn’t think we had time to cut it with a hand saw.

The weather was ideal, a sunny 47 degrees. No breeze and no sweat on the hike up to the summit. It’s been awhile since I’ve been solo. The solitude was priceless.

Got there and it was gone. Much later I realized our first ridgerunner was on the trail and that he probably removed it. Meanwhile, the greenbrier and blackberry canes are starting to go nuts. My clippers clocked overtime.

The inspection established everything was in shipshape. The spring was flowing well. No major concerns other than we can anticipate more than our fair share of weeds.

The azalea and mountain laurel are beginning to bloom. We have a walkabout planned for May 13 to catch peak flowers. That date seems about right.

As one might expect, the animals are very active.

Coyotes mark their territory with scat. It’s possible that this is two males arguing over the boundary. This has happened several times along game trails lower down. This rock was part of some steps much further up the mountain, so I’m not certain exactly what the story is. In addition, found some bear scat, cub size, near the trailhead. That’s the fist bear scat in awhile.

Fresh bear activity. There’s not much to eat right now – mostly acorns and other nuts under the leaf litter, and insects. The bears use their claws to shred rotting logs to expose the bugs inside. This is a black birch. They are soft and rot quickly – good bug habitat.

Blowdowns never end. This one is a minor obstruction at 12″ in diameter. It’s going to need a bigger saw. We’ll get it next work trip which should be May 20.

Sisu

Where Ya Been?

February 20, 2023February 21, 2023 / jim fetig / 3 Comments

Ice-downed pine on a Pass Mountain tent pad.

Shenandoah National Park, January and February 2023 — Ice storm pick up sticks continues. We’re now on the trails. The AT in the North District is clear and mostly clear elsewhere. We’re teaming with the Park Service crews and the Appalachian Conservation Corps (an AmeriCorps group) to get after the approximately 400 miles of blue blaze (side) trails in the park. Many of them are steep in tight canyons that funnel and speed up the wind. The Venturi effect dramatically increases wind speed and consequently the number of downed trees and branches.

Don’t hold your breath for this job to get done. It’s going to be awhile as the video, photos and narrative will illustrate.

My new duties as club president also eat time like an addict finding their next fix. The PATC is a complex organization and perhaps the largest volunteer service organization in the region. We have nearly 9,000 members, maintain most of the hiking trails in the National Capitol Region, operate soon to be 48 rental cabins, 45 camping shelters, several trail centers and the Bears Den Hostel.

So far, it’s a job for a one-armed paper hanger. You’re going to be busy with planning, reports, relationships, Zoom calls, and the politics associated with the large number of people needed to manage this much complexity. That doesn’t leave nearly as much time to put your boots in the mud or to write blogs.

Since the December ice storm, the weather has been generally good. We’ve had individual maintainers and small crews out almost continually, weather dependent. My batting average is down, but I’m still in the game.

Clearing tree crowns and large branches is like cutting hair and can be tedious work. Pole saws help, but we don’t have that many of them. Loppers are the tool of choice. All you need is time and patience.

Sometimes you find a real honker. Naturally, it blocked the AT near Thornton Gap. This one was partially hollow, a condition that presented its own challenges for the sawyer, Wayne Limberg, the AT district manager of the North District.

Sometimes the pick up sticks land in odd ways. Some of these were driven into the ground like stakes. All of them had unusual binds, making it easy to trap the saw.

My friend Josh Fuchs is a blue blaze district manager in the Central District. He also owns a moon bounce business. Ever clever, he invented way of attaching a chainsaw to any pack using spare moon bounce materials. This makes it much easier to schlepp awkward Old Betsy up the mountain.

It’s not just Old Betsy. That pack also has a liter of fuel, extra bar oil, Kevlar chainsaw chaps, trauma kit, Silky folding saw. wedges, hatchet. radio, spare clothing, lunch and so much more. Not sure what it weighs, but it’s a respectable number.

On one trip, the pin that holds the starter pawls broke and and I might as well been hiking a dumbbell back to the car. I’ll be honest. I didn’t even know what a pawl was, but thanks to professor YouTube and Amazon Prime, I made the repair the next day.

Had to leave one tree that Dan Hippe clipped with his Mattel-like battery saw.

Yesterday we organized a crew to work on Compton Peak and Piney Branch.

We taught Caroline to use the pole saw. No certification or chaps needed.

The bench we built this fall got some use.

She put her new found knowledge to work on a large tree we found blocking Keyser Run Fire Road on our way to demolish a nasty tangle on Piney Branch.

Keyser Run fire road was an absolute mud hole. Type II fun. It was an all-battery power event!

This beauty was yesterday’s final objective. Several complex binds. One large branch with side bind moved 15 inches. In some cases, knowing how the tree will behave when cut can save life or limb.

The pole saw reach and stand off made many of the cuts much safer. I’m a believer.

Lots of debris to clear.

One of the trees was a hard maple and the sap was running.

End product.

After all that, we stopped at “lunch rock” before heading home.

Sisu

Hut Repair and a Day Hike

October 24, 2022October 24, 2022 / jim fetig / 1 Comment

Shenandoah National Park, October 21 – 22, 2022 — The park is probably getting tired of me. I’ve been there six of the last nine days. I won’t mention the gas bill.

First the hike. We were back at it again last Friday when the Gang of Four -1 plus Sara hiked up North Marshall and down Big Devils Stairs on a leaf peeping sojourn. We were not disappointed.

We ended with our usual pizza stop at the ever excellent Rappahannock Pizza Kitchen – a brick oven pizza emporium in Sperryville. https://www.rappahannockpizzakitchen.com/

Now for the weekend highlight. Gravel Spring Hut is a place for hikers to sleep. As it’s name implies, it’s adjacent to a spring and comes with campsites and a composting privy we’ve chronicled before.

The hut’s siding is original inch-thick oak carpentered by the CCC nearly 90 years ago. After all that time, it’s beginning to rot in places due to insect and water damage. In order to save as much history as possible, only the rotted parts of the boards are replaced with rough sawn lumber matching the same dimensions.

Boards are surgically removed rather than the chaotic demo seen on TV home renovation shows.

The scrap was left as a treat for campers to burn. The volume of activity near the huts ensures there isn’t much small firewood around to collect. Since most campers don’t carry small saws, they get stuck trying to burn larger branches that don’t readily lend themselves to campfire fuel.

Next, the boards are cut and sized. Thank heaven for battery-powered tools. Sara, aka Ridgerunner 2, stopped in to lend a hand. She’s given a lot to the park the past two years and PATC in 2016. This year she also was a ridgerunner in Northern Virginia and Maryland. We’re going to miss her.

The boards are carefully placed and screwed into place. Screws eliminate the risk of further damage pounding nails might cause.

Special caulk is stuffed into the cracks followed by paint. Russell Riggs, the hut maintainer, played Rembrandt. The hut is back in service. We’ll be back again when we have more lumber which is donated by a local saw mill.

Sisu

Loose Ends

October 10, 2022October 10, 2022 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

Here and there, October 10, 2022 — Just closing the loose ends. We burned a bunch of firewood and mowed down some pizza at Sara’s farewell this past Saturday.

Recall from the previous blog that I dropped off Sara and Lane Early at the Mason-Dixon line in the rain so they could hike the 41 AT miles in Maryland. They finished at their predicted time. Lane and his wife Colleen have been the caretakers at Blackburn Trail Center all summer.

Poured some Prosecco to toast Sara’s long service as one of our ridgerunners. Though my daughter says it’s fake news, she did take cover behind the glass door. Not sure she had much confidence in my ability to safely pop the cork.

In the bad luck department, Sara’s dad hit a deer on his way up from Alabama. He’s supporting her current adventure biking the C&O Canal – about a 250-mile bike trek through history.

He says it drives ok, but only has one headlight. Glad he was already thinking of buying a new one. Meanwhile, he’s driving her van, not his, which is safely stored in my garage until they return.

Next up: Hoodlums on Saturday with encore appearances. Stay tuned.

Sisu

Seasons end but the work lives on.

October 5, 2022October 5, 2022 / jim fetig / 5 Comments

The Appalachian Trail, September 30 and October 2, 2022 — We’re a month early but my final chapter leading our ridgerunners has been written. Dan Hippe will now keep the flame burning brightly with his capable leadership.

It was a cold and drippy day as Sara and I climbed up to Annapolis Rock one last time to pack up the caretaker site and secure it for the winter. The stuff good enough for next year was packed into the tool box while we carted the UV-rotted tarps to the dumpster at Washington Monument State Park.

Since then, Sara has turned in her radio and keys. She’s hiking all of Maryland’s 41 miles as this is written. I picked her up at 5 a.m. in Harpers Ferry where she left her van, and shuttled her to the Mason-Dixon Line for a 6:15 a.m. pre-dawn start. She expects to finish by 11 p.m. tonight.

My larger role may be changing, but the trail maintenance gig has a long runway in front of it.

The spring on the AT section Caroline and I jointly maintain in Shenandoah National Park was, for all intents and purposes, dry. The ground was saturated but the flow was virtually nonexistent. Tina, my friend of 30 years, Gang of Four hiking group member, and occasional swamper, joined us help remedy the problem.

We dug a catchment basin, inserted a 5 ft. length of PVC pipe and anchored in with large rocks.

It worked! Our next Hoodlums work trip is October 16. We’ll check on it then.

The other reason we were working was to rake and shovel silt out of our waterbars (erosion control structures that direct water off the trail). Our section is particularly sandy and the waterbars need annual cleaning.

This is hard pick and shovel work.

We didn’t count the exact number, but we got three quarters of our waterbars cleaned out. We’ll finish the rest next trip.

Exciting news! After almost two consecutive years working with the Hoodlums Trail Crew and one year co-maintaining this section, Caroline has a trail name.

It’s not something trite like “Sweet Caroline.” Regular readers know that she’s an American/Swiss dual national, so she could have been “Swiss Miss.” It’s far better than those.

Meet Caroline “Dozer” Egli” ’cause she can move dirt.

Sisu

Seasonal Rhythms

September 23, 2022December 14, 2022 / jim fetig / 5 Comments

Fall

September 22, 2022 — Today is the autumnal equinox, the day Mother Nature begins disrobing. Ultimately she’ll bare it all. To my delight, she showed a little ankle on my neighborhood walk today, a bright splash teasing what she has on offer.

So it goes in the world of hiking trails and life in general. Events happen more or less in order and on schedule – the circle of life’s rhythms and flow.

If it’s the third weekend in September, it must be the Hoodlums’ annual trail maintenance instructional workshop in Shenandoah National Park. Thirty folks ranging from raw beginners to the well-experience gather to live an learn. Picks are swung, fires are made and beer, shall we say, is swallowed.

This crew repaired part of the Appalachian Trail Caroline and I maintain on the south side of Compton Peak, about 11 miles south of the park’s northern boundary.

Heavy use and heavy weather was taking its toll on a steep traverse. Eight waterbars (erosion control drainage structures) were torn out and reconstructed. Rocks were dug out of the tread to smooth it out and make it a bit safer. It’s good for at least 15 more years.

Caretaker area at Annapolis Rock – Caroline, Sara and Sierra.

This also is the time when the ridgerunner program shrinks to Maryland only. We lost Kasey to a family matter, so Sara Leibold shifted from Shenandoah to Maryland to help us out. She and Sierra will complete the season – my last. I will miss the interviewing, hiring and hiking with the amazing people – nearly 60 all told – who have graced us with their selfless service to the hiking community.

Caroline let me know that she was thinking of taking a Saturday hike on our section. Knowing I would be there Monday, I suggested she hike up to Annapolis Rock with me. Since she and Sara are friends, I thought a two fer would be fun – see Sara and a new place.

While inspecting the area, eagle-eye Sara spied a spotted lantern fly. It’s an invasive insect that is wrecking havoc on the region’s fruit orchards. Did you know that if the jar says Smuckers or Mussleman’s, it probably came from this orchard-rich area? We made the required report.

Unfortunately, on the way to the car I noticed this graffiti and the axe blaze on the tree not far from the upper trail to the Pine Knob shelter. We’ll use Elephant Snot to get ride of it, but why people think vandalizing nature is ok is beyond me. The rock is sedimentary, the remnant of an ancient sea bed.

Tina, aka “Bulldog”, my friend of nearly 30 years, dating back to our days at the White House, has been my swamper on several trips. She pitched in again this month.

The rhythmic drumbeat of blowdowns crashing to the forest floor is quickening. The supply is nearly infinite. Invasive insects have recently killed the red oaks, ash, and hemlocks. The chestnuts and elms are long gone. A native blight is currently attacking white oaks. Have chainsaw. Will travel.

I’ll close on a sad note. We lost Mittens to brain seizures. He was 15 1/2. As the alpha cat, he could be a pain. But, a Formula 1 Ferrari could not compete with the throb of his rhythmic purr. Frank Sinatra’s eyes could not have been bluer. In fact, I wanted to name him “Frank,” but was overruled by my daughter. RIP Big Guy!

Sisu

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.

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.