The Ridgerunners are at Full Strength

June 8, 2021 / jim fetig / 8 Comments

Brandon can drive with his eyes closed.

On the Appalachian Trail in Southern Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland, May 29 – June 6 2021 — Memorial Day weekend broke windy, cold and wet, the trifecta of misery for those who tramp around the woods with their house on their back.

Nobody likes to walk in the rain when the temperatures are hovering around 40 and the wind is popping. It is a recipe for hypothermia at worst and guaranteed discomfort at best.

Branden and Kaela shuttled me to Pennsylvania’s Pine Grove Furnace State Park. The park is the northern boundary of the 240 AT miles that the Potomac Appalachian Tail Club maintains. There I would meet Darrel Decker and we would hike southbound to the Mason-Dixon Line where his responsibilities terminate.

After leaving Darrel, I planned to hike solo another 20 miles to my car at Washington Monument State Park in Maryland. From there, after a zero day, I’d return to rendezvous at Raven Rock Shelter with Kaela who would be hiking in from the Mason-Dixon Line at Pen-Mar Park. We would then hike south to where my car was stashed. The net AT mileage for me would be about 80.

This is the official halfway sign between Georgia and Maine. When I reached this point in 2014 I recall my emotions deflating as I realized that after months of punishing effort I was only half done. By then I understood the enormity of repeating the challenge. Pulling up my socks and getting my head in order for another long march was not a small challenge. In that single moment, I understood why so many people give up and quit.

Darrel is a repeat customer. He was a ridgerunner in the Michaux State Forest for the club in 2009, 10 and 11. That experience and time between service is rare and valuable. He will be able to tell us what’s changed since he was last here. One thing he noticed right away is the expanded sprawl of tent sites associated with the shelters.

Veteran ridgerunners know how to find and haul trash. He found a bunch.

The rain was mostly light and intermittent. The tread conditions were good though wet rocks are always slippery.

Damp camp at Burch Run. I like the patter of rain on my tent fly until it’s time to pack up a wet tent.

Lunch break at a campsite. Needless to say we found plenty of trash, especially in the fire pit. It amazes me that people think that foil among other things is combustible. Truth is that they don’t think. They just do.

Recording a blowdown on the smart phone app we use for reporting. Not all of them are conveniently located next to a road.

Quick stop to clean up the Rocky Mountain Shelters. The sun was welcome; the cool weather even more so.

Spent the might drying out on a tent pad at Quarry Gap. One young hiker was reminded of the Hansel and Gretel story. This place was too good to be true, he reasoned. Would the witch eat him? I told him I thought he was safe because I heard that the Inkeeper had a freezer full of hikers left over from last year.

Tumbling Run. Snoring or non-snoring. Strictly “enforced.”

The mountain laurel are ready to pop.

Welcome trail magic at Old Forge picnic area courtesy of a former thru hiker. I scarfed two hot dogs, a Gatorade and a bag of chips.

After our mid-morning snack we marched on to the Deer Lick Shelters and then to Pen-Mar where I continued northward and Darrel reversed course.

Once across the border into Maryland, adjacent to the AT there is an municipal park known as a graffiti hot spot. Not Banksy is spreading up and down the AT which is spitting distance away. Maintainers will remove this with a product called Elephant Snot which essentially is jellied acetic acid formulated to eat spray paint.

I rarely get to hike solo. Hiking with someone tends to focus attention on conversation and away from nature. Hiking alone tunes the senses to your surroundings. Also, as someone who maintains trails, I pay a lot of attention to the tread, weeding and developing problems.

This year I’ve noticed hikers by-passing even the smallest inconvenient rocks, rises and roots. They are creating social trail by-passes in the process. It matters because erosion can develop and what is supposed to be a narrow pathway can become a dirt autobahn in no time. We have ways of deterring social trail development with stacked rip rap or brush. Just another job to put on the task list.

Of course the cicadas are out in force. I can attest that the world’s largest orgy is LOUD! Of note, some areas are chock full of them while others have none at all. Can’t come up with any correlation as to why.

After four days with Darrel and one by myself, I welcomed a zero day with Sophie the shedding lap cat. Zero stands for zero miles hiked, by the way.

Here we are, off the grid, hiking to Raven Rock from Wolfsville Rd. The waving fiddleheads were soothing in the rare absence of cacophonous cicada pick up lines blaring from the branches overhead.

No, that’s not an IV line. It’s a water purification system.

Kaela struggled into Raven Rock hauling 30 lbs. of trash gift wrapped in a cheap green plastic camping tarp she found. She was daunted by the prospect of dragging that mess another 30 miles. She earned her ridgerunner challenge coin with this effort. I was reminded of my own travails as a Georgia ridgerunner where similar trash hauls happened.

This scenario is exactly why I like to hike with new ridgerunners. Call it OJT, spring training or what you will, the old guy knows a few tricks like the one where you take the trash to the nearest road and cache it to be picked up later. The spring was on the way to the road, so when we went to get water, the green tarp and its contents came along for the ride. I picked it up two days later and the dumpster is its new destiny.

Occasionally a little adventure. We cautioned a couple of very tired and reluctant thru hikers to relocate their tent which was pitched next to three dead trees. With high wind gusts in the overnight forecast, we were in no mood to medevac people in the middle of the night. We shared our concerns with the Maryland Park Service which can fell the potential widowmakers.

We ate dinner with four lovely ladies from the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club who are hiking the AT in sections. Their accents, smacking of cheesy grits and buttermilk biscuits, reminded me of friends it turned out we share in common. After momma nature turned out the lights, they built a fire and talked well into the night. When I got up at six thirty, they had already beaten feet. You go girls!

People like to camp at an interesting rock formation about a half mile south of Raven Rock. In Maryland dispersed camping is illegal so we have to “clean it up.”

Three years ago Kiki Dehondt and I tossed about a million rocks into crevasses between boulders thinking we could eliminate the fire rings. (Kiki and his fiance will appear in this space soon.)

We were right and wrong. Now the campers build fires without the benefit of a fire ring. We bagged the ashes and scattered them in the woods before covering the area with leaf litter.

1960s vintage bike.

Water and snack break.

When we reached the Cowall shelter, I noticed Kaela was really hungry. Since my car was a quarter of a mile away and knowing the town of Smithburg was just down hill from there, I offered to buy Kaela , whose trail name is Pizza, an eponymous lunch. We couldn’t find an open pizza place so we refueled at a Mennonite grocery and deli. After hiker food, it was glorious.

Next I dropped Kaela to finish her patrol; then headed to Devil’s Race Course to snatch to cached trash and on to home.

In training we tell the ridgerunners that they are about to meet the dark side of the trail. That side has many forms from the often bureaucratic to the rarely malevolent. In addition to help search for a missing hiker who ultimately turned up in a Gettysburg bar, Darrel and I encountered a hiker who said he’d been bitten by an aggressive dog at the Pine Knob shelter in Maryland. He said he would report the bite to the National Park Service AT incident line: 866-677-6677. Later Kaela and I found the dog. It was not friendly and the owner was unconcerned about it. We moved on and notified the the right folks.

Protecting food from bears is important. A bear conditioned to human food becomes a safety problem and sometimes must be put down. “A fed bear is a dead bear,” the saying goes.

I’ve previously written about bear canisters and Kevlar sacks. I noticed the Georgia ladies were using Ursacks. The one depicted is properly tied to a tree. The problem is that bears can always crush your food and sometimes they can get in.

Fortunately every shelter in the PATC section has a bear pole, bear box or cables to help hikers protect their food.

The forest is a magical place. You never know what you’ll find be they witches, beasts or fairies.

Sisu

First Day Hike 2020

January 2, 2020 / jim fetig / 3 Comments

Tina’s inevitable selfie marking our start at Gathland State Park, MD.

Appalachian Trail, MD, Gathland to Weverton, January 1, 2020 — Do this math. It was the Gang of Four, minus one who had to work, plus three. If Mary was one of them, how many oranges did Mary have left if she ate two? Answer: 6.5 miles. Makes as much sense as most word problems.

The confusion doesn’t matter because these intrepid hikers braved the morning frost to mark the New Year in search of burgers and beer at the end of the rainbow.

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Rest stop at the Ed Garvey Shelter

The trail between Gathland and Weverton Cliff is gentle and not very rocky by AT standards. Tina, who was on the nine-mile Black Friday march, was delighted both by the relative absence of rocks and by the gentle terrain.

The hike follows a wooded ridgeline that is semi exposed to the predominate northwesterly winds. At times the gusty breath of Mother Nature nibbled at exposed skin, but in return, the sun represented her comforting motherly hug. Layers and hats were on, and off, and on again for most of the day.

We were a merry band on our march. We wished “Happy New Year!” to everyone we met along the way. While the trail wasn’t crowded, the number of families enjoying a First Day hike was impressive.

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Our second rest top was Weverton Cliff.

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Weverton Cliff offers sweeping vistas of the Potomac River all the way to Harpers Ferry.

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“Bulldog” is noted for finding and photographing natural art.

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Weverton has LTE. Can you tell?

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Glam shot of “Bad Ass.” She was once a television correspondent for a network you would recognize. She still looks the part.

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It’s almost a military formation! The front two are military veterans leading the way. Note Sam’s “Air Force gloves.”

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Railroad bridge closure notice at the trailhead. We’ll soon know soon how much longer repairs are expected to take.

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We took the long way to burgers and beer, stopping to admire the view at Jefferson Rock.

Total trash collected and packed out: One gallon by volume.

All in all, the First Day was a good day.

Sisu

A tale of two hikes on the Appalachian Trail

June 29, 2019June 29, 2019 / jim fetig / 1 Comment

Me, Mary and Joanne at Nutter’s Ice Cream, Sharpsburg, MD for a pre-hike treat.

Appalachian Trail, Maryland. June 27 – 28, 2019 — The Appalachian Trail is not all work. Sometimes it’s a truckload of fun. So it was this week with two different gravel-crunching adventures.

Making a last gear check in the Penn-Mar Park parking lot.

My ridgerunner friend Mary decided to hike the 47-mile four-state challenge to celebrate her 45th birthday.

Her plan: Ridgerunner colleague Joanne would support her by car. Roughly speaking she would hike the first quarter alone. I would join her for the second quarter, and her colleague Witt, the current speed record holder at 9 hours and change, would trot the last half with her.

The adventure begins on the AT in PA at the Mason-Dixon line, then passes through MD and a corner of WV at Harpers Ferry. It terminates where the trail breaks into Virginia territory. To be official, the hikers have 24 hours to git ‘er done. The average successful hiker uses close to the entire time.

It doesn’t count without the predawn selfie.

Crack of dawn start.

She’s a blur at Pen-Mar Park.

She’s off!

Joanne met Mary at road crossings along the way. Staying hydrated on a hot day was paramount.

Blister repair at the I-70 footbridge. “Dr.” Joanne officiating.

Unfortunately, this is the last known photo. After handing off Mary to Witt at Washington Monument State Park, about 8 miles later they encountered unforecast thunder, lightning and hail. The tenderizing effects of head-banging hail caused Mary to call the game at 32 miles.

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Flash forward one day to the long-planned first hike of the season for the Gang of Four (minus one). Our plan: Annapolis Rock where Mary was on duty as ridgerunner/caretaker.

Green Briar Lake in the background. Catherine with a Ninja pose and Tina photographing a camera-shy copperhead wedged in a crack in the rock.

Mary, none the worse for wear, warns hikers of the copperhead.

Best part of the day at Dan’s Tap House. We missed you Alexis.

Sisu

An Ugly Start to the Summer

May 26, 2019May 27, 2019 / jim fetig / 7 Comments

Bucky

Appalachian Trail, Maryland and Northern Virginia, May 20-24, 2019 — Usually the trail is an undramatic place. Hikers come and go. Some even dig cat holes to go in.

This week opened uneventfully and hopeful of good times to come. I met the short-season Maryland ridgerunner at the Greenbriar State Park visitor center where the rangers with whom we work have their offices. Bucky was issued his radio, parking permit, apartment key and other such stuff.

Bucky’s room. Packs explode when you open them.

We met Mary, his ridgerunner partner, at the apartment. We drove around pointing out landmarks and key areas. Then we adjourned to Dan’s Tap House for juicy gourmet burgers before bounding up the mountain to Annapolis Rock where Bucky will spend his first shift as caretaker. Mary will be patrolling in Maryland.

The sundown faded toward black as Bucky and I arrived at Annapolis Rock. As the last of the sunset peepers were sliding down the hill towards home, we stowed our gear and made the rounds. We found only one camper, a thru hiker. He actually properly hung his food bag on the bear pole. Score! After securing the sagging tarp over the picnic table, we called it a day and dove head first into our respective dream worlds.

We woke to the thunderous snoring of Jake brakes and the throbbing pulse of commerce rushing along I-70. The interstate is invisible from the view point, tucked in behind a low ridge. When the wind is quiet, its presence is as undeniable as is the drag strip across the valley.

With the crack of dawn piercing the tent walls, we raked the sand out of our eyes and adjourned to the ridgerunner office/picnic table for breakfast. Two packs of instant oatmeal and a Jet Boil coffee later, it was time to inspect the rock.

Following orientation, we hiked to the Pogo campsite about two miles up the trail. First we stopped at the Black Rock overlook and scoured the area for trash.

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The desecration of Black Rock and other places is a pastime for local high school kids. I’m certain Shawna wasn’t present when the perp misogynistically memorialized his conquest.

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The good news is that it didn’t last long. Mary followed up the next day with a bottle of Elephant Snot and a scrub brush. Bingo. Like it never happened.

We also checked out Fox Gap where a Civil War skirmish was fought. New graffiti topped the old.

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Once again, Mary and her trusty Elephant Snot to the rescue. (Learn more about Elephant Snot here.) All in a day’s work for a ridgerunner, right?

Now it’s time to interrupt this friendly story for a brief trip to the dark side.

This hiking season has already been marred by a tragic event. One hiker was murdered and another maimed and nearly killed when someone who was deranged stabbed them. Click here for details: (How safe is the Appalachian Trail).

The AT attracts 3 million visitors annually. They represent a cross section of society with all that entails. Normally hikers are pretty mellow, but this tragedy elevated concern within the hiking community, especially for unbalanced and misogynistic behavior which was reportedly exhibited by the accused killer.

Earlier in the day, a hiker complained to us about another hiker variously called “Yogi Beer,” “Renegade,” or “Air Quotes.” Bad actors often change their trail names to avoid authorities. Judging from reports of his behavior, Yogi Beer appears to be a raging alcoholic and possibly bipolar. He had been aggressively harassing women.

With this in mind, Bucky and I were enjoying the brilliant weather while hiking to the trailhead — Bucky to pick up a bale of wood chips for the Annapolis Rock composting privies and me to my car so I could meet the Northern Virginia ridgerunner for his orientation hike the next day.

Three hikers stopped us to complain about a guy called, you guessed it: Yogi Beer. They had first-hand knowledge. One of them had been concerned enough to snap Yogi Beer’s photo. We immediately filed an incident report and shared the photo with law enforcement rangers, trail officials and the other ridgerunners. (Details not shared here to protect the innocent because some of it may be hearsay.) With that, we thought we were done with the dark side.

In the interest of chronology, let’s put the dark side on hold for a minute because we’re not done. It will be right back after a bit more of our friendly story.

Witt

Each of our ridgerunners is an expert backpacker. Occasionally a resume stands out. Witt has thru-hiked the triple crown – Appalachian Trail, Continental Divide Trail and Pacific Crest Trail. He also as held the FKT (fastest known time) for the Arizona Trail and is the FKT holder in Maine’s 100-mile Wilderness. ( Info on the National Scenic Trails System)

Unfortunately for Witt, ridgerunners are more commonly evaluated by the number of contacts they make and the amount of trash they pick up. That’s slow going for a guy who’s used to moving in the fast lane.

Along the way we noticed an unusual arrow made of sticks pointing to a path in the woods.

Somebody wants us to follow the yellow brick road, right? Naturally we did.

About 100 yards in we discovered a sign for a hiker hostel. Unfortunately it’s on National Park Service land, about 20 feet inside the boundary according to the marked trees. We informed the folks who deal with these issues. The owner only has to move it off park service property and it’s good. Commercial ads/promotion isn’t allowed on federal land.

Stacking rocks has been a thing for awhile. Cairns and rock art are inconsistent with Leave No Trace principles. In short: Leave only foot prints (not rock stacks, painted rocks or graffiti) and take only photos (not flowers, feathers and antlers). Leave those for others to see.

Boom. The rocks were widely scattered.

We hiked 12 miles. The trash collected was moderate. Best highlight: We opened the tool cache at David Lessor shelter. We immediately noticed a field mouse. A second later a juvenile Black Snake became obvious. We left mother nature to her business. If they could get in, they could get out.

Now we’ll return to the dark side. When we left we were dealing with Yogi Beer.

Turns out Witt and I may have passed a hiker who turned up in an incident report for threats and sexual harassment. His photo was familiar. Not long after learning that, a report came in about an abusive hiker at a nearby hostel.

Believe me. This volume is highly unusual. Unfortunately, there’s more!

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So, there I was at home in my favorite chair, quietly sipping coffee while reading the New York Times early Saturday morning. The phone rings. It’s Mary at the Ed Garvey shelter in Maryland.

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She’s found a mess. The guy in the tent won’t get up. He doesn’t appear to be under the influence. She wants to educate him to pack out his trash, not to mention properly hanging his food and not to make the mess in the first place.

Raw chicken is in the mix. This could attract animals including bears. Then we’re dealing with a different problem.

Since the camper rolled over and would not get up, she moved a distance away to observe, radioed the Maryland Park Service and waited for the ranger. Before the ranger could arrive, the guy packed up and left. She cleaned up the area.

Enough already? Damn right!

Of note. Sexual harassment on the trail isn’t a universal experience, but its frequency is way too high. Sometimes it’s subtle as when one of our women ridgerunners quipped that all she needed was another septuagenarian man-splaining how she should hike. Other times males go out of their way to tell women they don’t belong on the trail alone or they aren’t strong enough to hike long distances. Sometimes it’s much more sexually suggestive or worse as when someone attempted to rape a hiker I know.

This is shameful. Men need to step up and stop this behavior. We need to own it and step in when we see or hear it.

Incident Reporting: http://appalachiantrail.org/home/explore-the-trail/report-an-incident?fbclid=IwAR2dlPHezWWPQy17qyRHUBqR21UWz-GyyrA7xtHD9FgXgZmrtxGLhZ7l73U

Sisu

Ten Glorious Days

October 13, 2018October 17, 2018 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

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Hiking and Working on the Appalachian Trail and Shenandoah National Park, October 4 – 10, 2018 — Being busy beats boredom more often than not. It’s the same when work is pleasure and pleasure is work.

Hike across Maryland hikers resting at the Ed Garvey shelter.

Road Scholars offers several hikes in our region. The one in which we are normally involved is hiking legs of the Appalachian Trail (AT) in four states – Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia – in that order. We have one more of these on schedule for this season.

The other offering is four days hiking the AT across Maryland’s 42 miles. This is a gentle hike compared to rest of the AT with most of the miles spent running a ridgeline on an old logging road converted to trail.

We were asked to fill in for leaders who could not make it. Good weather graced our participation and the hikers marched into Harpers Ferry in good spirits.

The next day, my friend and colleague Mary Thurman, currently Blackburn Trail Center caretaker, offered to help with some trail maintenance on the AT in Shenandoah National Park.

On a grossly muggy day, we weeded a couple of miles worth of trail on two sections in the North District and removed seven blowdowns, two by handsaw; the rest with a chainsaw.

The long sleeves, gloves, face shield, and buff are to protect from poison ivy which is atomized by the string trimmer. You can feel the spray as you go.

Soon Mary will be headed for her next gig at the Grand Canyon. I’m going to miss her. This spring my wife and I are going to celebrate my 70th birthday in Colorado with my siblings and cousins. Mary and I plan to hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim on the way.

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Twelve hours later. Here we go again. Time for the White House Hiking Group’s planned hike up Old Rag, Shenandoah’s most popular hike – so popular that it was on Thomas Jefferson’s bucket list back in his day.

We rendezvoused literally at Zero-dark-thirty in order to get a jump on the crowds. On a rare dry day in a rain soaked summer, you just knew people were gonna come, and they did.

Dawn cracked with an unexpected overcast. Since you hike Old Rag for the views we prepared for disappointment. Imagine our delight, popping out of the gloomy clouds into happy sunshine.

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Obligatory horsing around photos.

We made it!

Brick oven pizza and a brew in nearby Sperryville capped the day.

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No rest for the wicked. Tuesday and Wednesday brought the Road Scholars again, this time hiking the AT in four states.

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This bunch was unique – a running group from Grand Rapids, MI. They’ve been together for decades and were a hoot!

Meanwhile Sophie endured surgery to remove a cancerous cyst. The bounce is returning to her step and the prognosis is good.

Not until the heavy exercise was over, did the weather turn toward autumn. The humidity and temps are mercifully down just in time for the Hoodlums trail crew next weekend. See you there.

Sisu

PBS Travels with Darley

May 27, 2018 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

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Shenandoah National Park, Hawksbill Mountain, May 24, 2018 — My friend Karen Lutz is the mid-Atlantic regional director for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. As such, she’s forgotten more about the Appalachian Trail than most people will ever know. That’s why she was asked to appear on “Travels with Darley,” a travel program that airs nationally on Public Television.

Karen is a bona fide expert. Her resume opens with a 1978 thru hike, especially prominent because so few women thru hiked 40 years ago.

Karen’s original hiking boots are enshrined in the Park’s Big Meadow visitor center museum. We paid respects at this shrine to (grave of) Karen’s youth on our way to lunch.

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The day’s itinerary was a march to the top of 4,050 foot Hawksbill Mountain, the tallest peak in Shenandoah National Park. It’s also the last 4,000 footer headed north on the AT until New Hampshire.

The program’s topic was all the wonderful things a tourist can do in and around Culpeper, Virginia. Hiking on the AT is only one of them, and thus only a part of the subject at hand.

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Darley and Karen making tracks.

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Television production is tedious work. Endless b-roll has to be shot to serve as transitions between topics or video wall paper to cover voice-overs. You can never have enough in the editing process.

Karen and Darley did a lot of marching shots that will be used to stitch together parts of the AT segment.

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Lots of starts and stops on the way up.

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The folks involved in the shoot were many including Darley and her three person crew, plus writers from the Richmond, Virginia PBS station and representatives from the Culpeper chamber/tourism organization.

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Getting ready for the summit interview. They hid Karen’s mic in her hat – clever, but a hat is not something Karen normally wears. She’ll probably hear from her friends.

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During the actual interview, the mob hung out at a nearby outcrop where I busted a guy from Maine whose dogs were off leash. Dogs must be on leash to protect wildlife from harassment, but also to protect the dogs from from the bears, coyotes, raccoons, skunks and snakes who can inflict far worse on the dogs.

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Channeling Ansel Adams before heading back to the cars.

It’s a wrap. Stay tuned for the air date.

In the National Capitol Region, the program airs on Maryland Public Television and Howard University Public Television.

Sisu

Spring Training

May 26, 2017August 5, 2017 / jim fetig / 10 Comments

Left: National patch. Right: Local maintaining club patch.

Scott Farm, PA, May 16 – 23, 2017 — Baseball players go to spring training and so do Appalachian Trail ridgerunners. It’s a time to refresh and sharpen needed skills for the upcoming season; and to bond and mesh as a team. It’s also fun.

The eleven ridgerunners hired to patrol the mid-Atlantic region gathered for five days of intensive training at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy training center at Scott Farm just outside Carlisle, PA. I was there as the ridgerunner coordinator for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) which employs six of the 11; and to attend the wilderness first aid training to renew my sawyer certification. Following first aid, I helped teach the Leave No Trace instructor course.

The first day opened with a hearty breakfast followed by administrative announcements and an orientation to the trail from a systems perspective. The AT is a lot more complicated than the average hiker can appreciate. The bunkhouse quickly filled up, so the spillover camped on the lawn.

Uniform and equipment issue soon followed. Ridgerunners carry pruning saws to clear minor blowdowns, clippers, first aid kits and wear distinguishing uniforms. The patrol their respective sections for five on and two off; always being present on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the days of heaviest use.

Household chores – cooking, cleaning, dishes, etc. are divided among and rotated between everybody taking part in training. Readers may remember PJ from the Million Woman March.

Following the administivia, it was time to get down to serious business. Each ridgerunner is certified in wilderness first aid and as a Leave No Trace outdoor ethics instructor.

First aid training comes first. Some seasons the worst thing a ridgerunner sees is a skinned elbow or knee. But, and it’s a big BUT, they have to be prepared to manage serious emergencies that arise in the backcountry, hours away from first responders and easy evacuation.

The SOLO Wilderness First Aid course is 16 hours long (two days), and focuses on the basic skills of: Response and Assessment, Musculoskeletal Injuries, Environmental Emergencies, Survival Skills, Soft Tissue Injuries, and Medical Emergencies. The idea is to perform a proper patient assessment, treat common injuries up to and including setting and splinting a compound fracture.

The ridgerunners are trained to determine whether the patient can be safely “walked out” of the back country, or whether an evacuation is necessary. At that point their training allows them to professionally interact with the medical system for the patient’s benefit.

Needless to say, the training is realistic.

Lower leg fracture splint using a common sleeping pad as a splint. Students are taught how to employ commonly available gear.

Field expedient traction splint to set a fracture of the femur.

Splinting an open book fracture of the pelvis. The legs are tied together. This is NOT something you want to deal with deep in the woods. These fractures are often accompanied by severe internal bleeding and the need to get the patient to a room with bright lights and stainless steel tables is critical. Unfortunately, this can take hours in most places and days in others.

Love moulage.

Putting a dislocated shoulder back in its socket. If you didn’t treat dislocations and fractures, the pain might send a patient into severe shock long before s/he could reach care.

Treating hypothermia (on a hot day). Glad I wasn’t the patient.

Eurica! Our friend Denise hiked in right in the middle of training. She’s on a LASH – long-ass section hike. What a pleasant suprise.

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With first aid out of the way, we turned to Leave No Trace. With an estimated 3 million people using the AT each year, minimizing human impact on the environment is of paramount concern.

The ridgerunners primary duty is not to hike. Rather, it is interacting with the public for the purpose of helping them do as little environmental damage as possible. Leave No Trace

Most Leave No Trace training takes place in the woods. The seven principles Seven Principles

Nobody is going to be perfect, but ignorance is our worst enemy. If we can show a hiker how to improve, that’s a victory.

Peeing and pooping in the woods is a subject of endless discussion and immense importance. Not everybody knows how. Ask any ridgerunner. They’ll be glad to teach you.

We divided the students into three teams and then determined who dug the best cat hole – width, depth, 200 ft. off trail. Here, Ryan rolled up a Cliff Bar which looks just like shxt. Then he reached in and pinched off a piece and ate it. He actually hooked a couple of folks!

Exercise in choosing durable surfaces.

Learning about shelters.

Unfortunately graffiti begets graffiti.

Most Leave No Trace training takes place on hikes.

Your 2017 mid-Atlantic ridgerunners.

FIRST PATROL

Julie is our newest ridgerunner and the only one with whom I have not hiked. An orientation hike is always beneficial. So, we started by meeting with the rangers of Michaux State Forest and New Caladonia State Park, PA. Her patrol section runs the 62 miles south from Pine Grove Furnace State Park, to the Mason Dixon Line at PennMar Park.

Clipping vegetation encroaching on the trail.

Documenting a blowdown that will require a sawyer to remove. It’s waist high.

We stopped to clear a small blowdown and who should show up but my friend Rocky who this year is on his second thru hike.

Checking the trail register at the official half way point.

Hung our food and smellables at the Toms Run shelter.

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At the very time Julie and I were at Toms Run, Lauralee Bliss was at the Gravel Spring Hut (shelter) in Shenandoah National Park where a bear destroyed two tents.

The tents have had food in them. Rule number one in bear country. Never put food in your tent and properly store your food and anything that smells such as deodorant, toothpaste, soap, etc.!

Found a hiker just starting his hike from Harpers Ferry. He plans to flip from Maine back to HF and then hike to Georgia. Note the bear bell, large knife and stuffed animal. Bet those are gone soon as he gains confidence.

It was a good week.

Sisu

Short Part of a Long Journey

April 18, 2017 / jim fetig / 7 Comments

Appalachian Trail, New York, April 2017 — Last week I was lucky enough to spend a few days hiking with my delightful friend Robin. She is on a month-long trek to both close an unfinished gap she has between Georgia and Maine; and to get into shape for ridgerunning.

She parked her truck and stashed her extra gear at our house and then together we drove to New York where climbed up to the ridge that hosts the AT at the NJ/NY border on a very warm spring day.

I met Robin, aka Miss America, when I was ridgerunning in Georgia in 2015. The daughter of National Park Service rangers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, she’s a willy woodsman and a strong hiker. She was a ridgerunner in Maryland last year and will serve in Northern Virginia this season. All told, she’s a perfect hiking partner.

Speaking of what’s hot, I can’t remember the last time I hiked in temperatures under 80 degrees F. Last September in Vermont, this March in Georgia and last week in New York it was hotter than Hades. My socks have been so sweat-soaked that they make a squishy sound that squeaks like Crocks on a wet tile floor. Talk about holding your feet to the fire. Enough with the hot weather already!

Fortunately the water sources were plentiful and flowing. In spite of that, I drank four liters of water and still didn’t urinate. By the end of my journey, my clothes were so salt encrusted that they could stand by themselves unaided – you know, kind of crunchy like saltine crackers.

New York is the state where the AT angles a hard north eastern turn toward Maine. The trail turns perpendicular to the north-south flowing ridge lines meaning it’s all day up and down for the hikers. In other words, PUDS – pointless ups and downs.

Here rebar replaces an aluminum extension ladder that was too easy to steal. Hey, it’s New York!

The terrain is ugly for the most part. This is hard work even when heat is turned down.

The gnats had recently hatched. In NY they’re a feature, not a bug.

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Can you spell rugged?

How ’bout them bears? We properly hung our food every night.

Casualty.

We navigate using a guidebook that lists terrain features, elevation profile, campsites, springs and also has town maps and phone numbers.

Miss America photo bomb!

We were out four days before it was my time to head home for chainsaw recertification, a trip to Annapolis Rocks to bring supplies up to Gene Anderson and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Flip Flop Festival this weekend where I’m a featured speaker.

We tented rather than sleep in shelters. This is at dawn, packing up before a big rain pending. At first, Robin was worried about wearing a Red Sox cap in Yankee country, but people treated her as a novelty. Not sure most of them had never seen a Sox fan before.

Staying clean in the woods is critical to remaining healthy and avoid gastrointestinal ailments. We were hiking along one afternoon when I got a message from the ATC asking me if I could take a photo of a hiker using soap and water to clean up in the field practicing leave No Trace principles. We magically produced the goods.

Hudson River Valley just south of West Point.

Yes, the trail goes straight up that rock slab.

Earning my trail legs.

Sometimes you get surprised by trail magic. This was just north of the aptly named “agony ridge.” The sodas were cold too! As a practice, leaving unattended food, trash and drink along the trail is not a good idea. Too many opportunities to unintentionally feed animals and make a mess. Some call this “trail tragic.” We did appreciate it though.

Old sign. Can’t wait to rejoin Robin next week. We’ll be hiking north until just before ridgerunner training starts in late May. Then my spousal unit will come pick us up. There’s no doubt in my mind that Miss America will go far.

Sisu

Busy

July 25, 2016July 26, 2016 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

Digging a bear pole hole.

Northern Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail, July 21-24, 2016 — It was time for the monthly PATC ridgerunner meeting, this time at the Blackburn Trail Center where “Trailboss” is the caretaker and gracious host. Since he has an endless list of projects, Robin Hobbs and I showed up early to help do some work at the Sam Moore shelter (AT NOBO mile 999.6).

Bear poles have hooks to hang food bags using a forked pole, here tied down on the far side of the pole.

The pole is set 18 inches in the ground with four 60-lb. bags of concrete.

Working bear pole at Jim & Molly Denton shelter.

While the Sam Moore overseer and I installed the bear pole, Robin and Trailboss hiked north to clear two blowdowns across the AT.

We finished up by replacing a fire ring with a new fire grate.

The social and dinner prompted a lot of discussion. This is where the real business is done.

Sara Leibold, our Northern Virginia ridgerunner and I started patrolling immediately following the meeting.

We spent the first night at the Tom Floyd Wayside shelter with three others.

We took a break after picking up micro trash at the John Singleton Mosby campsite. It is deep in the area Mosby’s raiders patrolled during the civil war.

Along the way we clipped plenty of vegetation which grows prolifically this time of year.

Our last evening was spent at the Denton shelter with a large grouping of campers. Sunday morning we hiked to a road where Sara’s dad was waiting to take her home to Alabama for a whirlwind visit. She works 10 on and four off which gives her sufficient time.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized Sara might be a serial killer! 😉

Tried to photograph an interesting spider web with a phone camera. No luck. A good camera is on my Christmas list.

I was testing a new Osprey pack for use in the 100-mile wilderness next week. It carries nicely, but I like the cargo features of my old one. On a long hike the ride is more important, so the new pack made the Maine manifest.

Next stop Kennebunkport to see my friend Ed, the guy who taught me to split granite. Then to Manchester, NH to pick up Wendy “Pepsi Hiker” Horn at the airport and head for Millinocket where we’ll drop my car and get shuttled to Monson to begin our 100-mile journey. Boots on trail Aug. 1.

Sisu

The Pancake that Ate Luray…

March 25, 2016 / jim fetig / 2 Comments

Shenandoah National Park, VA, March 23 – 24, 2016 — Pancakes! I woke up hungry for pancakes. What’s wrong with that? I mean what do the real lumbersexuals of Washington eat – not the fake hipster ones, but the gals and guys who actually get out there and get after it?

What could pancakes possibly suggest? How about a work trip to the park. The hikers are coming and there are blowdowns to obliterate.

I called my district trail manager to find out what needed to be done. Then I emailed David Sylvester, my ever ready chainsaw companion, and we set the time and place. There’s more than enough fun to go around.

Sorry. I ate the pancake before it could eat Luray. No. There were no heroics – and apologies to Norman Greenbaum’s eggplant.

So, after carb loading, I test fired my saw, packed the car and stuffed my hammock in the side pocket of my pack and jumped on I-66 headed west.

First stop, Rileyville, Va. to pick up David. Believe me. It’s one of those towns that if you blink, you miss it. Not even a stop light. Next stop, the Luray Seven-Eleven to snag a sandwich for lunch; then on to the park’s Thornton Gap entrance where we were told work awaited.

We understood that there was a big blowdown about a mile up Pass Mountain. Pass Mountain is a pleasant jaunt, maybe the easiest mountain in the park’s entire repertoire. Well, as luck would have it, we marched and marched and marched. No down tree.

After searching for an hour we stopped at Pass Mountain Hut for lunch. Lugging 40 lbs. of chainsaw, safety gear, tools plus fuel and oil up and over mountains with a guy less than half your age is WORK!

I’m always fascinated by the trash we find along hiking trails. Who would leave a pair of serviceable army-style boots in the middle of nowhere? As always we found TP, aka Charmin flowers, everywhere. Women who don’t know better pee, then dry themselves and drop the paper. We get to police it up. Use a pee rag ladies, please – or pack out your paper.

Both days were gorgeous with temps into the mid-70s. Still, snow persisted in some northern shadows. Nevertheless, the bugs were abundant. That’s a bit unusual for this time of year. Obviously, the woodpeckers have been after them. They defaced a brilliant blaze I painted last year.

Next stop was Gravel Spring where a “giant” complex blowdown awaited bucking. Damn! Someone got there first. Probably a park crew. But, we did find another just a bit to the north. It took David longer to get his safety gear on than it did to demolish the obstruction.

Last we inspected a large obstruction the ranger at the Thorton Gap gate told us about. We decided to clear it in the morning. The day ended at Indian Run as many trips do.

A healthy daffodil crop surrounds the hut. We built a small fire and sipped a brew as a brilliant pearl of a moon peaked its nose over the horizon and tracked across the night sky. Excellent medicine. Doctors should prescribe it more often.

Our last project was mopping up this sucker at the junction of the Dickey Ridge and Snead Farm trails. These are popular trails that lead to an old apple farm where the foundation of an impressive house remains and the apple barn has been preserved for history.