Lots going on in this photo. The river jumped the bank and wiped out the connector trail to the Appalachian Trail (AT) in Taylor’s Valley, Va. The homes in the background have been knocked off their foundations and soaked in flood water. They are uninhabitable. The group is hiking to the AT to clear blowdowns. The Virginia Creeper Trail which runs parallel to the AT on lower ground, on an old short line rail bed, has been erased. It was the area’s economic engine. To date congress has not appropriated money to restore public lands in the affected states.

Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area, Damascus, Va. December 3 – 6, 2024 — The tragedy of Hurricane Helene has been well documented by the news media. Entire towns in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee have been obliterated. Even I-40 was largely destroyed near Davenport Gap.

In these situations, human life and recovery take rightful priority over everything else. My colleagues and I recently spent four days working out of Damascus, Virginia, “Trail Town USA” because national bicycle trails and the Appalachian Trail intersect there.

Flood water soaked the center of town in about two feet of water. All around bridges were obliterated. Now, most of the town is open for business and recovery is well underway. Superficial recovery looks fine, but the deeper full recovery may take years.

As FEMA and other agencies have been doing their work, attention has turned to the recovery of public lands which include the AT.

Thousands of large trees were down, blocking the pathway. Root balls ripped the tread to shreds in places at the same time rushing water scoured and erased the pathway from existence. This is an eight-foot vertical drop created by the root ball on the right.

For reference, the 2,200-mile AT is maintained by a collection of 30 volunteer clubs. Each has a section for which it is responsible. My club, the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) is responsible for 240 miles. In addition, we maintain another 800 miles of hiking trails in the National Capitol Region. We can do that because we live in an urbanized area of 23 million people.

Volunteers gather for the morning safety briefing at the AT visitor center in Damascus.

For the PATC, volunteers are plentiful. Clubs in more rural areas are less fortunate. They don’t have a dense population base from which to draw. Most of the southern clubs fall into the latter category. They’ve called for help. That’s why we were there with volunteers from five of the eight Virginia clubs. We are all committed to preserve and protect the AT. All for one and one for all.

As we marched in on the first day, the damage to the Virginia Creeper Trail below us was obvious. Steel Railroad bridges were bent, twisted and hydraulically washed far from their moorings. It’s going to take $ millions to restore this national treasure.

As noted, thousands of trees were down. Many of these were live 30-inch tulip poplars – big, heavy and full of unusual binds that release stored energy in unpredictable ways. It was not amateur hour.

This is why we clear blowdowns. Imagine yourself as a hiker pawing through mile after mile of this.

As you can see, the first day was cold and snowy. Winter is poking its nose under the blankets. Soon the ground will be frozen rock hard. The weather favored the second day.

We were in an area where the contract arborists had proceeded us. They did some heavy lifting that volunteers with aging, less limber bodies would have struggled. We still had clean up and side trails to clear.

We saw mile after mile of profound damage. War zone was an apt analogy.

Danger persists. This “widow maker” could come down at any time. It would not take much wind or ice to bring it down.

Plenty left for the volunteer sawyers.

None of us had ever seen anything like this. Thank heaven for the rigorous training standards required by the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service.

It will be a long time before the southern Appalachians return to their factory settings. It was an honor for me and four other PATC members to help, to contribute and to prepare for tread repair next year. I expect we’ll will be sending volunteers for several months soon after spring thaw.

Sisu