Witt’s Chainsaw Rides Again!

January 21, 2020January 23, 2020 / jim fetig / 6 Comments

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That white glaze isn’t frosting. It’s ice which atomizes when the teeth bite in.

Appalachian Trail, Northern Virginia, January 21, 2020 — The thermometer was slinking past 19 degrees this morning when we crunched gravel in the Keys Gap trailhead parking lot. We were on a search and destroy mission to clear six blowdowns on the AT.

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The frosty air pinched our noses as we rucked up the chainsaw and all its trimmings. The first blowdown was quick on the march. The white stuff is ice.

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The chainsaw makes quick work of these guys.

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All clear. The next five were attacked in quick succession.

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One side down.

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Side two. The round, or the middle chunk of log we removed, had to be cut in half. It was too heavy to manhandle out of the way.

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The formula is simple. Convert gasoline to noise. Noise is a catalyst that converts wood to sawdust. Done.

Sisu

The AT’s Newest Sawyer

December 29, 2019December 30, 2019 / jim fetig / 7 Comments

Appalachian Trail, The Rollercoaster, Virginia, December 28, 2019 — Some folks who spend time preserving and protecting hiking trails are possessed by the demons of perfectionism.

Knowing something isn’t right is like an itch they can’t scratch. They obsess about it until whatever ‘it’ is, is fixed. In this case ‘it’ was blowdowns.

Pair uncleared blowdowns with a newly certified sawyer itching to practice, and a chainsaw gets to go for a hike along with a couple of enthusiastic swampers !

By way of introduction, our sawyer is Witt Wisebram who was last season’s ridgerunner in Northern Virginia and ultra distance runner. The Atlanta native is now the winter caretaker at the Blackburn Trail Center.

A “pie cut,” sometimes called a wedge cut, is used because the bind is on top and the log isn’t thick enough to use wedges. It’s too close to the ground to attack from underneath.

The first few blowdowns were little more than a nuisance to hikers. They are step-overs that can be ignored, at least the small ones can. They are removed because they can cause erosion. The greater challenge for the sawyer on this type of blowdown is to avoid sawing rocks and dirt.

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This tree trunk blocks the trail. There’s no way around it. It’s equally difficult to crawl over or under. Because it’s a “leaner,” care is taken to read it in terms of bind, how the log will behave once the tension is released, including whether it might roll.

You also want to keep your feet out from under the top section of the trunk which will hit the ground with a heavy thud.

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The pie cut missed but the angle cut worked anyway. Experience gained. Witt’s friend Jason congratulates!

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Clean up.

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Finishing the job.

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Funny how they seem to fall perpendicular to the treadway.

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Blowdowns come in all sizes. Witt captured the white blaze for display at Blackburn.

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People have been painting rocks and leaving them along the trail as decorations. Now it’s golf balls.

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This is how we found it. Needless to say we packed it out.

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This large branch buried itself more than a foot into the ground. It was too big to move without being reduced to bite-size chunks.

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Mother nature saved the tenth and best blowdown for last. The bigger ones are more fun to cut.

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A log this large – in this case about three inches thicker than the length of the chainsaw bar – sometimes the round will bind and not drop to the ground. An inverse keystone cut is used to ensure the cut out section falls to the ground.

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Note the end of the bar is not sticking out. That means the sawyer has to cut from both sides.

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We used wedges to keep the kerf open. It worked as planned.

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The trail is clear.

Stay tuned for the Gang of Four’s First Day Hike.

Sisu

Storm Clean up

December 1, 2018December 1, 2018 / jim fetig / 10 Comments

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South District, Shenandoah National Park, Appalachian Trail, November 30, 2018 — The east coast got smacked with an early season snow storm a little more than a week ago. The Washington area escaped major impact, but it hammered the south district of Shenandoah between Stanardsville and Waynesboro, VA. and cities to our north.

Image may contain: tree, sky, plant, outdoor and nature

Photo courtesy Shenandoah National Park

Heavy snow and high winds crushed the softer trees leaving hundreds of them blocking Skyline Dr., the road that runs 105 miles from one end of the park to the other. The park trail crews report that the downed trees resembled a military abitis that runs for miles along the road. Abitis definition at this link.

Leave it to the park crews to painstakingly clear the road quarter mile at a time. Each tree must be bucked and chipped. That’s a slow process.

Meanwhile, enough of Skyline, from Swift Run Gap south, had been cleared to permit the PATC to begin clearing the AT. The supervisor of trails in coordination with the south district manager called for sawyers and swampers.

Sawyers are club members certified by the National Park Service to safely operate a chainsaw. Swampers help the sawyers by removing slash and trunk rounds from the trail. The plan was to attack the afflicted area from both ends.

As the supervisor of trails reported yesterday: “We met at Swift Run Gap at 8:30am today and had 22 PATC members ready to work. Ten were certified chain saw operators including six District Managers.

We were limited as to parking shuttle cars because of the clearing of Skyline Drive and this constrained the amount of trail we could cover. The AT is clear from Swift Run Gap to Simmons Gap a distance of nine miles.

There is another group working from Rockfish Gap north and I don’t have any information on their progress right now. The main problem appears to be further south toward Rockfish Gap where the blow downs are quite severe.

Skyline Drive is not open for other than emergency travel and the clearing is very slow. The park maintenance crews and back country trail staff are responsible for that clearing. We will schedule another work trip later this week.”

Sawyers are distinguished by their red Kevlar chaps.

We divided into crews. My crew consisted of three sawyers and three swampers. We worked northward from Powell Gap to Smith-Roach Gap – about a mile and one-third. Other crews worked elsewhere.

The swampers were all experienced trail overseers and knew how to get after the work at hand. They brought their pruning saws, loppers and other trail tools which allowed them cleared several blowdowns by themselves.

With one exception, our blowdowns were smaller trees snapped or bent over across the trail. These are tedious to clear, our three two-person sawyer/swamper teams worked quickly and efficiently.

This is one blowdown we tackled with two sawyers, one on each side. Hidden within these tangles are branches loaded with weight called spring poles. They can whip around hard enough to cause serious injury when their energy is released. Sawyers are trained to find them, but they are hard to read in tangles like this. Each sawyer reported being surprised by more than one, including me.

All told, our crew removed 27 blowdowns in just over one mile.

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Sawyer PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) consists of leather boots, Kevlar chaps, leather gloves, helmet, face shield, and ear muffs.

Stay tuned for follow on trips. We’ll be at this for awhile.

Sisu

Windstorm Cleanup

March 13, 2018March 27, 2018 / jim fetig / 9 Comments

Shenandoah National Park, Sunday March 11, 2018 — About ten days ago a nor’easter ripped through the mid-Atlantic on its way to hammer New England. Large trees were snapped and uprooted like toothpicks, dragging down power lines as they crashed to earth. Widespread power outrages bloomed in the winter storm’s aftermath.

Our own electricity in the big city burbs was out for four days thanks to a big old tree that landed in the wrong place.

Soon word spread of massive blowdowns all along the Appalachian Trail, especially in Shenandoah National Park. What’s a dedicated trail maintainer gonna do except saddle up and ride toward the sound of cracking tree trunks?

This tree snapped near its base, and in the process, blocked a four-way trail junction. Bucking this 20-inch tree was an interesting puzzle requiring careful attention to safety and a step-by-step approach.

fullsizeoutput_154b Step one was trimming away the smaller branches and reducing the blowdown to its bare structure.

Step two is getting the main trunk on the ground where it’s safer to chop it up.

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Step three is reduce the main trunk. Here, with a top bind, after an initial cut about eight inches deep, wedges are driven to keep the cerf from closing and trapping the saw in the cut.

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Wedges in, the job can be finished.

Step four is get the slash off the trail and out of the way. Best of all, we converted a lot of chainsaw gas into sawdust.

Job. Done.

All told, we cut six blowdowns on the section I maintain. The subject tree was on the southern end.

After that, we moved to the Indian Run fire road which is the access to the Hoodlum’s maintenance hut.

We quickly picked off three minor blockages on the fire road.

Of course there’s always “that one.” This 12-incher was draped in vines and it was hollow making it a bit more sketchy to cut.

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The approach was to trim away the vines and branches before dicing up the trunk from the top down.

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Like dicing vegetables for roasting.

Sliced into small enough chunks to drag off the trail.

Ten obstructive trees were gone. Then we found this. This tree is a good 20 inches alone. It has a twin right behind it. That’s a twofer. It’s also a “leaner.” The angle isn’t bad, but this multi-ton tree’s top is hung up requiring care to safely bring it to justice.

The day was getting late. Fatigue proved the better part of valor and a safety rule red light, so we left the remaining trees for the Hoodlums to tackle on Saturday.

Sisu

Busy Week

April 8, 2016April 8, 2016 / jim fetig / 12 Comments

ameShenandoah National Park and Antietam National Battlefield, first week of April, 2016 — It’s about time I complained about the weather. It’s been totally schizoid for the past several days – hot then cold with a dash of sun, rain and wind, frosted on occasion with powdered snow. There’s snow dusting in this weekend’s forecast.

Why weather? Last Saturday Shenandoah was ripped by strong winds. A sleeping hiker was pinned under a tree that blew over about two days hike south of the park at a place called Spy Rock. Trees and branches were down everywhere in our region.

I was supposed to spend Sat. night at Indian Run with a friend I was going to help Sunday clear blown down trees on one of Shenandoah’s 400 miles of side trail called Jeremy’s Run.

After spending a cold night at Annapolis Rock, I chickened out. The wind and cold were distinctly unwelcoming. Instead I showed up bright and early Sunday morning to a greeting by an icy windchill with teeth and a dusting of snow still on the ground.

Jeremy’s Run is located in a designated wilderness area. That means all work must be done with hand tools. No motors allowed.

So off we marched with a junior sized version of the famous crosscut saw you see in antique logging photos. It sports a traditional carpenter saw handle on one end and a moveable vertical handle on the other. If the vertical handle is on the far end, it’s a two person saw. If it’s just forward of the fixed handle, it’s a one person saw. Very versatile.

Blowdowns are a pain in the butt for hikers. Step-overs like this one are not so bad.

It’s the chest high or ones with a ton of protruding branches that are a real pain. You can’t go up or down.

We whacked six and 1/4 blowdowns. One quarter?

This big fella came at the end of the day. It requires two cuts to get it on the ground and two more to cut out the section obstructing the trail. Its height and the adjacent slope make cutting out the center section too difficult and dangerous. Better to lay it down.

Lots of work here, especially coming as it did at the end of the day. At least we were out of the wind. The wedges keep the cut open as the tree’s weight and gravity wants to close the top of the cut and bind the saw.

This guy was too large for our little saw to be fully efficient. It took 45 minutes for two tired sawyers to make this slice. Hence one quarter. A crew with a longer crosscut will finish the job next weekend during the Hoodlums regularly scheduled monthly work trip. At least hikers have a relatively passable step over until then.

Wednesday I joined a group of nine PATC members at the Antietam National Battlefield to disassemble a section of worm row fencing. We got ‘er done in three hours! In the process we dubbed ourselves the Hole-in-the-Ground crew because of the dozens of ground hog dens we occasionally stepped in.

We celebrated a local ice cream parlor in Sharpsburg – no work without play is our motto.

The National Park Service is working on a multi-year project to restore civil war battlefields to the sight lines and condition they were in when the battles actually happened. This fence was not present on Sept. 17, 1862 when 23,000 soldiers became casualties on this ground. It was and remains the bloodiest day in U.S. military history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antietam_National_Battlefield

The week ended with a short trip to Shenandoah so our ridgerunners could meet with the back country office before Lauralee’s first patrol starting today. Both Lauralee and Hal are returning from last year and need no introduction. Chris Zigler is the new back country manager and we wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.

Of note, the park’s trail crews will be beefed up. Better yet, up to six back country rangers will be on the trail and at the huts this year – helping people do the right thing and coaching Leave No Trace outdoor ethics.

On the way home this little guy on my AT section got chopped up with a pruning saw. Did I ever mention that I love retirement. The work is not work. It’s fun!

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.