Hurricane Helene Clean-up

December 14, 2024December 17, 2024 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

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.

This is called bucking and limbing. It took a couple of hours to clear this copse.

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

Summer Vacay

June 29, 2024 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

Piney River

Shenandoah National Park, June 24 – 27, 2024 — Crew week has bit of groundhog day feel to it. Opportunities to get outside for several days don’t grow on trees. I mean if you want to keep your idle hands out of the devil’s workshop, staying busy is the thing to do. When crew week comes up, you don’t hesitate.

Normally have have a single large project. We join forces with the park ranger crew to git ‘er done so to speak. This year we had random trail work and the rehabilitation of two buildings ‘gifted’ to us by the park service for use in storing tools, equipment and creating a workshop. We divided into teams to tackle our assignments.

Freaking blowdowns never stop. When working in federally designated wilderness areas, we have to use traditional tools which are muscle powered. Battery powered or motorized tools are a no no.

This year we were joined by our two current Shenandoah ridgerunners, Kara and Emily, plus Alex Gardner who was in the park last year. That so many return to volunteer speaks volumes about the quality of the program and who they are as dedicated stewards of the our national treasures.

Kara brushed a perfect blaze. Blue is the color used to mark side trails that connect to the AT. Those of us who blaze know that paint drips usually decorate our clothing. Kara managed to avoid that fate.

Of course we had to dig. Tread work is ubiquitous. It’s usually hard to photograph. This is the beginning of a rolling grade dip designed to shunt water off the trail.

Everybody hates weeding. Clearing weeds is necessary to reduce the number of ticks and by extension, Lyme disease. Here we’re clearing the camping area around the Indian Run Maintenance Hut.

Making sandwiches for lunch at the Pinnacles Research Station reminded me of my first crew week in 2013.

First crew week in 2013. Of this group, four regulars remain – Wayne Limberg, Noel Freeman, Cindy Ardecky, and me.

Please tell me what you did on your summer vacation.

Sisu

Here we go again.

May 7, 2024 / jim fetig / 1 Comment

Shenandoah National Park May 1 – 5 — When it’s spring the wild azaleas bloom. They come first, closely followed by the mountain laurel about three weeks later. After that, it’s all weeds.

We started by joining the Crapper Crew emptying the compost bin on the Calf Mountain Hut privy. Everybody thinks this is task is as attractive as waking up in a French Quarter back alley. In reality it’s more like opening up a bag of potting soil from your local garden store.

On the way to the trail section Caroline and I maintain, I stopped by to check out the fire damage in the north district from last month. The understory is coming back. The canopy is normal. All told, it appears to have been a healthy event for the forest.

“Greetings,” said the bunny. “Do you know the way to Mr. McGregor’s garden?” For a rabbit, this time of year, the world is a giant salad bar. Not need for Peter Rabbit’s coordinates.

Unfortunately, this little bunny was unafraid. Saw it on my way back down the mountain. Sad to say, there are too many hawks and coyotes on the hunt for fearless Lepus sylvaticus to survive for long.

One of the sentinel trees that stand watch over the AT.

Saturday was “Show Your Love” to the park day. Almost 90 people showed up to volunteer on what was a cold and drippy day. Thanks y’all.

Sisu

PATC

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC), January – April 2024 — There was a lot going on over the winter, broken wrist aside.

The PATC dedicated a new website at http://www.patc.net. It replaced a 1995 design. That was a welcome change.

A few PATC stats are in order. We are a volunteer managed and led organization. For the past 97 years the club has been connecting people to the outdoors through rental cabins, guided hikes and volunteer opportunities, mostly maintaining hiking trails, our 49 cabins and 45 shelters.

We have 8,400 members, 1,000 of whom are active volunteers, plus 9 full-time employees and several seasonals. The remainder of the membership rents cabins and participates in hikes.

Our volunteers maintain 1,200 miles of hiking trails in the National Capitol Region, including 240 miles of the AT and 500 miles in Shenandoah National Park. We work with a total 16 national parks, two national forests and various state parks, forests and wildlife management areas.

The PATC’s geographical footprint covers 45,000 sq. miles in four states (Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania) and the District of Columbia.

Those stats represent a lot of effort, tradition and history.

Richard Lee and Venus Foshay dig a rolling grade dip (drain) on an AT section in Shenandoah National Park.

Trail maintenance goes on year-round, but becomes a force to be reckoned with starting in mid-March with the ground in our region begins to thaw. That’s when prep begins for thru hiking season on the AT and the influx of hikers everywhere.

Meanwhile there are winter meetings with our agency partners across the region, including regional planning meetings that include sister trail clubs.

PATC also hosted a book signing for Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. His new book, “Walk, Ride Paddle: A life outside” is about hiking the AT, biking the Blue Ridge Parkway and paddling the James River in Virginia. https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Ride-Paddle-Life-Outside/dp/1400339456 PATC is prominently mentioned, not to mention he used vintage PATC guidebooks so he could see what’s changed in the past several decades.

If you think winter was busy, stand by. Spring and summer will be busy like this past winter on steroids.

Sisu

July is Dirt Month

August 1, 2023August 4, 2023 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

The lowly rock bar does its job. We later used rocks to lift the boulder for better leverage.

Shenandoah National Park, July 2023 — It’s been a typical July in the Mid-Atlantic region featuring scorching heat, dripping humidity, gads of gnats, and clouds of dust where the daily pop-up T-storms failed to drip. The rain may have missed a spot or two, but enthusiastic Hoodlums came to dig, push and pound, come what may. By the way, the gnats are a feature not a bug. 🙂

HOODLUMS MONTHLY TRIP
Both the Hoodlums’ third-Saturday-of-the-month work trip and crew week pack the calendar. Caroline and I camped at the Indian Run maintenance hut on Saturday night and weed-whacked our AT section on Sunday, hustling for an early start to avoid the heat.

While some folks breakfast at the hut, Caroline, the ridgerunners and I slipped into Front Royal for a bite at the Knotty Pine.

This is a one-meal-a-day, greasy-spoon, stick-to-your-ribs, and clog-your-arteries breakfast. These hole-in-a-wall, mom-and-pop eat shops are where it’s at in every tiny community across our nation. It’s where locals gather and a part of American culture that I love.

Our project was to work on the AT near the spring on Compton Peak. The tread on about 250 yards of the trail had drifted down hill. Our job was to restore the tread to its original location using a technique called side-hilling.

Reminds me of railroad building.

The raindrops didn’t miss the area around the hut Saturday night. The slow, steady patter on my tent fly served as white noise for sound sleeping. That meant hanging my kit out to dry once home. Cleaning and storing equipment is part of the game. Speaking of games, the ballgame was unremarkable other than the hapless Nats won one for a change, but the spectacular shot of the capitol on the drive home reminds me of why I like living here.

NOW FOR CREW WEEK

Crew week runs Sunday – Friday. We reside at the Pinnacles Research Station. It is equipped with ten bunks, a lab area, kitchen, livingroom, shower and laundry. It is surrounded by apron of flat ground for tenting and trees to hang hammocks.

We tend to work side-by-side with members of the park trail crews and various members come and go as available. I had to be home on Tuesday to chair a PATC Executive Committee meeting but rejoined Wednesday bringing Sabine Pelton, 2019’s Ridgerunner One, who was in town all the way from Maine while her husband attended a conference at the University of Maryland.

We did a lot of rock work this year. This happened while I was away. Crew colleague Cindy Ardecki shared her video of this rock’s journey. There is more than one way to move a BFR as you will see.

The previous day we used a different technique while working on the Overall Run trail just above the falls.

Crush and blunt force injuries are possible, so safety is a big deal. The park doesn’t require hard hats, but the club will consider adopting them as standard PPE this fall.

We ran into a young bear on the hike back to our transportation. He was curious but conditioned to having people nearby. He only moved 10 ft. off the trail as we hiked past.

You might ask if we were nervous. Not really. As a rule, bears are shy and fearful of humans except when food is involved. This bear showed no sighs of aggression or being concerned about our presence. Besides, he was realistically overmatched by eight guys equipped with trail tools.

We also repaired steps on Compton Peak leading to the park’s best columnar basalt formation. We built the original steps 10 years ago. They are in a difficult spot in which to build and were in need of attention.

We’re trying a new technique using logs as retaining walls to create steps filled with rubble.

We worked on the Indian Run access road on the final day. Sabine and I also slipped up to the spring on Compton to improve the flow. We also found new artifacts near the CCC trash midden located on the section. I wrote about it last winter. This trip we found a plate shard and part of a terracotta pipe section.

Sisu

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

Fun Week – Open House, WFA, Hoodlums

May 28, 2023 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

PATC HQ, Vienna, Va. May 27, 2023 — The PATC headquarters building hides in plain sight, buried deep, just off the main drag, in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Vienna.

We decided it would be advantageous to piggyback our open house on the local annual street festival thinking we might attract more people. The objectives: raise our profile, sell some stuff and recruit new members. We also added a members only cookout at the end.

The crosscut salami slice is always a favorite. Fun for all ages. The youngest gets the chunk sawed off.

We had multiple displays from the ski touring group, mountain rescue and our standard science fair display used at outreach events.

The early results: $1,200 in sales, 200 visitors, 15 new members. That’s in line with our projected performance objectives.

But there’s more…

Wilderness First Aid has to be recertified every two years. https://www.solowfa.com/

Ridgerunner training at High Point State Park, New Jersey.

Of course the third Saturday of the month belongs to the Hoodlums trail crew.

The Hoodlums are like Lake Wobegon. All the women are strong, the men good looking and everyone is above average.

Of course, it’s weed season.

The mountain laurel are finally blooming.

American chestnut next to chestnut oak which mimics American chestnut.

Freshly weeded trail.

Before the string trimmer waltzed by.

Ran into Alex Gardner, the Shenandoah ridgerunner. Always good to get caught working.

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

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

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.