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

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

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.

The Great Blowdown Hunt

October 9, 2021October 9, 2021 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

The Appalachian Trail in Virginia, September 25 – October 7, 2021 — What was intended to be a simple hike to help deflate the COVID spare tire around my waist became something different and an obsessive blowdown quest after a windstorm littered the trail with downed trees.

Our last blog mentioned that I dropped my young friend Chrissy off at a trailhead in Central Virginia. The plan was to join her at the southern boundary of Shenandoah National Park and hike to Harpers Ferry. There we’d decide whether to hike on into Pennsylvania.

Few plans survive contact with reality. Chrissy was half way through the park before I could catch up. That left 102 miles to Harpers Ferry, decent but far short of the 160 – 240 for which I’d hoped.

My wife dropped me off at the Big Meadow wayside (restaurant) around noon. We grabbed lunch and hoofed it north to the Rock Spring shelter for the night. At some point a passing weather front generated a pretty good blow. Our tents popped in the wind and it was noticeably cooler in the morning. We didn’t think much of it.

Not long after pushing off for our second day, we started finding trees down across the trail. The count reached more than 60 before we reached Harpers Ferry. In my experience, that’s a significant number for that kind of (relatively mild) windstorm.

Like a rumpled old throw rug, the AT is infamous for its rocky tread. A few blowdowns here and there only add a few wrinkles for the most part. By the time we were done, the blowdowns had become an obsession a trail maintainer could not resist.

Meanwhile, the blow continued during day two as we hiked on to Pass Mountain. There we encountered an insufferable chaos of southbound thru hikers who were loud and obnoxious.

We retired to the tenting area and ate a quiet dinner sitting on logs near our tents. Ironically, we were alone the next night at Gravel Spring. The silence was lovely.

Breakfast at Indian Run hut. At some point I learned Crissy’s 38th birthday was up-coming. My present was two fold. One was a stay at Indian Run where the public is not allowed, Hoodlums keep a supply of split firewood and we could have a nice fire with chairs upon which to set.

The other was arrange the timing so her birthday was spent at Mountain Home B&B owned by my friends Scott and Lisa. The main building is a fully restored anti-bellum mansion.

In the restoration process, Scott and Lisa learned that the “cabbin” used as a hiker hostel was formerly quarters for enslaved people and that one of the surviving original locks displays an African motif, evidence that it was most likely wrought be an enslaved person.

The next stop was the Bears Den Hostel. By this point, backpacking had become Glampacking. I dubbed Crissy the “Millennial Magellan.” We spent the last night at David Lesser shelter before my spouse shuttled us home from Harper’s Ferry.

Along the way we passed the 1,000 mile sign. At this point, northbounders have traveled 1,000 miles and southbounders hit triple digit mileage with under 1,000 miles to go. For them, it’s a big deal.

Chrissy HF Chrissy points out the length of her journey on the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s relief map of the entire AT.

Phase one was over. Chrissy left for family activities in her native Western Pennsylvania. But what about the blowdowns?

Here’s a sample. I toted up the numbers for each AT district and forwarded the menu to each district manager whose job it is to keep the trail properly maintained. They will take care of their respective areas.

Me? I started obsessing about Shenandoah’s north district where I do the bulk of my volunteering.

As luck would have it, my friend of 25 years, Tina aka “Bulldog,” and fellow Gang of Four member reached out. The weather is improving and it’s time to crank up our monthly hikes.

She posted on Facebook, “We haven’t hung out for awhile, I said. Let’s go to lunch, I said. His retort, let’s go clear blowdowns on the AT. Sure, I said.”

You never miss an opportunity to recruit a swamper, especially one named Bulldog. Never!

I consulted with my district manager. What could we do in a day? Could we tackle a couple of lingering oldies in the process? Boom. We had a plan.

We got about half of the north district blowdowns. We’ll get the rest on the Hoodlum’s work trip next Saturday.

I love making sawdust!

Sisu

The page turns.

September 15, 2021September 15, 2021 / jim fetig / 5 Comments

2021 PATC Ridgeerunners absent Sara at the Blackburn Trail Center on Aug. 26. L to R: Witt Wisebram, me, Chris Bowley, Darrel Decker, Kaela Wilber, and Branden Laverdiere.

Shenandoah National Park (mostly) August 26 – September 14, 2021 — Come Labor Day the summer chapter in our trail story ends and the page turns toward autumn. The cast of characters is down to one.

When the five o’clock whistle announces the Labor Day weekend wind down, the clock runs out for five of our six ridgerunners. For them it’s time for next steps. Two have taken seasonal work with the mid-Atlantic AT boundary monitoring team. They check surveyor’s monuments to ensure that the bench marks and the witness trees are still there and search for encroachment on federal land. One headed for Vermont’s Long Trail and there bumped into the ridgerunner who had her job in 2016! Small world. Witt returns to endurance running.

Branden is the last man standing, at least until Halloween. Until then, he’ll patrol Maryland’s 42 miles during the week and spend weekends caretaking at Annapolis Rock.

This year’s team was particularly noteworthy for their dedication, teamwork, innovation, and extra effort. Everyone associated with them will miss their enthusiasm and presence.

Meanwhile a lot happened before the story ended.

Chris reported this rat’s nest on the AT in the middle of the north district.

I had time to kill while waiting for Chris to catch up and swamp for me. Sawyers are not allowed to saw without an assistant – to call 911 when we screw up. That gave me time to recon the blowdown and develop a plan of attack. Along the way I was saddened to discover that my favorite tree in the park had passed.

I first discovered it on a foggy walk in April 2013. Hikers spend more time looking down than up in order to keep from tripping on the ever present rocks and roots. In the fog that day, the old oak startled me looking very ominous, reminding me of the Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter series. I’ve loved it ever since. Soon we’ll be sawing up its bits and parts and nature and gravity slowly reclaim it.

Chris’s did a great job using his folding saw to clear as much as possible to make it easier for hikers to pass.

Chris acted as the swamper and moved most of the pieces out of the way.

The rest was a simple matter of converting gas to noise by chopping the thing up from left to right. Now it’s history. Elapsed time: 10 minutes thanks to the recon.

Is that it? No! There’s more.

20210909_145748

You stood tall next to the AT at Beahms Gap until you succumbed to the emerald ash borer. Now you’ve got to go. Since you can’t do it on your own, Mr. Stihl will help.

There’s a teaching point here. Note how the tree is lying across the trail. What you cannot see and neither could I is the tree’s crown. There was too much vegetation in the way. Here’s what happened:

20210909_145930

The part of the trunk on the left side of the photo should not be expected to rise. The tree was once very tall and the majority of its weight was across another blowdown parallel to the trail. That blowdown acted as a fulcrum allowing the trunk to rise when cut. Once in the air I could see clearly what happened.

This is not particularly dangerous. We are trained to watch for possibilities like this. Nevertheless, the day you think you’ve mastered the art of bucking blowdowns, you should think again.

20210909_150002

Another blowdown in the history books.

The next stop was dropping my friend Crissy at a central Virginia trailhead. She’s walking 500 miles before moving to Colorado to be with her father who is ill. I’ll join her in a couple of weeks to hike the last half.

You’d think there would be enough nature on the trails, but noooooo. Backyard buck is chowing down on the landscaping to build strength for the mating season. Note the cat in the chair.

While the deer was destroying the flowers, the guard cat could not care less.

Next steps: Tomorrow brings trail work with an all-woman Virginia Conservation Corps crew followed by the Hoodlums annual instructional workshop on trail maintenance.

Sisu

Hoodlums Crew Week

August 9, 2021September 11, 2021 / jim fetig / 7 Comments

Two rock hammers and a rock bar. Guess what we did?

Shenandoah National Park, August 1 – 7, 2021 — The park is tinder dry, but the moderate temperatures and low humidity made up for the dust exploding in our faces as our picks loosened the dirt and the rocks we needed to move.

We were there for our annual Hoodlums Crew Week, an opportunity for us to tackle big projects requiring time and muscle.

This time we continued our restoration of the CCC’s work on the AT on the north side of Compton Peak. The primary objective was to replace a ragged set of steps with something more elegant and practical. This staircase had to be torn out and rebuilt.

The crew totaled six permanent members and four more who augmented us on various days depending on their availability. We had to dig up and move almost everyone of those rocks. That’s what they call a heavy lift.

We lived at the Pinnacles Research Station, our normal crew week hangout, but occupancy was limited to four inside. We had a bug proof enclosure outside where we could socialize and the deer came to visit.

On Sunday I came early so Chris Bowley, our ridgerunner, could join me to do so some overdue weeding, after which we joined the others for dinner and beer.

Monday and Thursday featured an assist from a Virginia Conservation Corps group made up mostly young folks who are between high school and college. They helped carry logs we planned to use for our project, built a couple of check dams, and also weeded some overgrown AT sections for us.

They also helped take out of commission an illegal campsite near the Compton Gap parking lot. It was a combination campsite and outdoor latrine.

After cleaning up the TP tulips and burying the feces, we moved a ton of logs and sticks to make the area unusable.

Campsites that are noncompliant with backcountry regulations are proliferating at an alarming rate throughout the park. The culprit is social media, particularly an app called “Guthook.” Hikers can leave notes and GPS locations visible to all users. Once a site is established, with the aid of the app, it attracts evermore users until the vegetation is dead and the dirt is bare. That’s when the erosion starts.

Previously the rangers would try and camouflage the sites, but now hikers can find them with laser precision and easily remove the camouflage. The next step is denial with dead timber too large for one person to move alone.

We also found that a popular boulder was being used as a bathroom where children sometimes explore.

Not anymore.

Everything starts with the foundation. Dig ’em in deep and they’ll still be there in 50 years. Also building with larger rocks, aka BFRs, helps prevent bears from flipping them in search of bugs to eat.

This is a behind the scenes look at the reality of setting a step. Ultimately the entire staircase has to fit together.

It’s tiring work and the team has to continuously think and talk it over. Sometimes it looks like chaos. Sometimes it is.

Ultimately it’s like a giant puzzle.

Steps 1.0 begins to form. This configuration would ultimately be scrapped. Too many voids, the tread wasn’t wide enough. Most of all, they were ugly. If it looks bad, it is bad.

Final version. If it looks good, it must be good! We ultimately removed about a third of the steps making the trail much easier to use.

Meanwhile, further up the trail other work was happening. This is how old men and women get stuff done!

At this point, we’re returning the tread to its original location. The rocks we’re digging up were the original CCC rip rap. Here the trail had become two lanes with the old rip rap in the middle. The trail from Panorama to Mary’s Rock has done the same.

We also cut logs to supplement the rock rip rap. Rip rap is waste rock and other materials used to help keep the tread from expanding; thus preventing erosion.

We got a lot done. In fact, we’re about two-thirds of the way through the project. With luck, we’ll be finished with this trail by year’s end.

Sometimes unusual things happen. A woman leading a horse wondered off a nearby horse trail that briefly coincides with the AT. We helped her get turned around and heading in the right direction. The AT is foot traffic only with a very few marked exceptions.

The last day, we split with one group weeding the Pass Mountain blue blaze trail. I took on an AT section south of Rattlesnake Point. This was taken after the head was refilled with string. Crew week over.

The weekend wasn’t over yet for me. Sunday the Bears Den hostel was having a hiker festival. I grabbed my grandpa’s crosscut and set up a station where people could slice off a chunk of log for themselves. The results were entertaining. I would carefully explain how the saw works and how important it is that the sawyers each pull, not push. Let’s see what happened.

Testosterone is not your friend guys.

We had no idea a wedding had just happened. The happy couple got a unique souvenir and an unusual photo for their wedding album. The did a good job too, an omen?

The little guys did ok too.

Sisu

Oh, Shenandoah. So many stories.

April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 / jim fetig / 3 Comments

Oh, Shenandoah,

I long to see you,

Away you rolling river.

https://lyricstranslate.com

Shenandoah National Park, April 17 – 26, 2021 — The park was full of delight and disappointment this past week, marked by old friends, a new beginning and a sad ending.

The week started with the first full Hoodlum work trip in 18 months. My first thought was family reunion.

Socially distant safety briefing.

First night at Indian Run in 20 months for me. Somebody is appropriating a bunk mattress for use in his tent. The “Princess and the Pea” was my first thought.

Work continues on the AT restoration project on the north side of Compton. What we thought would take a couple of years may be finished this year if we can have a crew week with the park trail crew to rebuild a large flight of stone steps.

The rip rap on the side encourages hikers to stay on the tread and helps prevent erosion.

Ringnecked snake. This is a big as they get. It was released unharmed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-necked_snake

Just a couple of days later, the new long-season ridgerunner stepped into the on-deck circle.

The ritual pose at the north entry kiosk on the AT. It’s his first official act.

The pandemic disturbed our normal routine. Chris spent his first two days on Zoom for Leave No Trace training. I’ve always wondered how you dig a cathole through your living room carpet. Apparently it’s virtual with a backyard practicum on your own.

So, we got a late start. A nasty weather forecast predicted high wind and frigid temperatures.

The first-day orientation occurred on the second day where we met with the head of the backcountry office who coordinates the ridgerunners’ day-to-day activities. The park rules, radio procedures, general expectations, equipment issue, living arrangements and a host of other topics are fire-hosed at them at full force.

As noted, the weather was brutal. Sabine, our 2019 ridgerunner, was hiking in the park while waiting for her partner. Her gear was at its cold weather limit, so she popped in for a warm up.

FIRST PATROL

We started with unattended trail magic. NO! This parking lot is not the place to food-habituate bears or any other animal. Well-meaning but ignorant has hell.

A stroll up Compton.

The class we took three months ago taught us that the CCC scouted boulders like this and then routed the trail to connect them.

Examination of a collapsing crib wall to be repaired later this year. This damage is from falling trees knocking loose the upper layer of stones.

Breaking up a fire ring and later camouflaging a noncompliant campsite near the Compton summit.

A good ridgerunner has a good eye for trash. I’m standing on the AT.

North Marshall noncompliant fire ring.

One way I size up new ridgerunners is how far they are willing to carry rocks without prompting. This guy is an all star. I learned this from Lauralee Bliss.

The idea is to make it more difficult to reestablish the fire ring.

Fire ring removed. Ash pit camouflaged and a log place to cover the soot scar on the rock face. Nice work!

Take a break.

Original AT marker! Very rare.

Summit of North Marshall. Spring is definitely visible.

Hikers beat up the trail. The ridgerunners are the eyes and ears of the maintainers. This is a project the maintainer can fix with a little muscle and a pick-mattok.

This is a noncompliant campsite adjacent to an overlook. The rangers have piled logs all over it year after year and the users pull them off. Maybe time to iceberg it. That means burying rocks as a means of area denial.

Practicing the chopsticks method of TP tulip extraction. Ladies, use a pee rag or kula cloth, please.

Met up with Sabine at Gravel Spring. She’s wearing every item of clothing she brought. Did I say it was cold?

Loading the last of the trail trash into the car. Headed for the dumpster. End of patrol.

Sabine headed for my house to wait for her partner to arrive. Meanwhile my daughter is moving and bought some stools for her kitchen island. Ever the physicist, Sabine cut the stools down to size with scientific precision.

Flash forward a couple of days. A park visitor was missing. Rangers hiked into Gravel Spring a couple of days earlier with laminated posters; asking the ridgerunner to keep an eye out and post one at the next shelter.

No avail. Our phones lit up with notifications from the park service to volunteer to help search.

Joining dozens of professional SAR organizations, PATC volunteers mobilized and pitched in.

We bushwacked briar and blackberry thickets until the deceased was found outside our search area.

Good crew. Hard day. So sad. It felt good to be of service to a fellow human being and his family.

National Parks are special places. They have been set aside that way. Sometimes they serve us. Other times we serve them. This has been a peek between the covers of a book whose story continues day by day. It is not a simple story of delight and disappointment, old friends, and a sad ending. It is simply what happens behind the scenes.

Sisu

Endless Blowdowns

January 14, 2021 / jim fetig / 8 Comments

Shenandoah National Park, January 12, 2021 — It was 23 degrees at the Compton Gap parking lot. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. So we were masked and armored to the best of our ability against the cruelty of winter.

The reason we were there is as mundane as the presence of Nature. The never ending parade of trees blown down across hiking trails had marched on. In its wake were a list of barriers to breach. There we were. Armed with fuel, oil and a Stihl chainsaw, ready to assault and clear what might be described as potholes on the hiker superhighway.

Think about it. We’re the Hoodlums Trail Crew. Masks are totally apropos.

We managed to clear 5 blowdowns from the AT. As the day warmed up, we were as overdressed as any group of rookies that ever were.

We’d never encountered a blowdown like this until today. Then there was another one just like it. Blowdowns are like puzzles. The first time wasn’t perfect. The second was a charm.

We salami sliced this beautiful red oak because it was covered in poison ivy. Didn’t want to manhandle a large log.

After clearing five blowdowns on the AT, Wayne and Dave headed for the Elk Wallow Trail to test this ancient two-person crosscut. I drove to Jenkins Gap to checkout the AT section for which I am responsible.

Woops. Found a five-incher across the trail a few feet north of the stone steps for those who know this area. Everything else was clear so took the time to clip green briar and blackberry which are easy to see in winter. These brambles are vicious, ripping hikers skin and clothing. Some can grow a foot per week in summer. Hope I made a dent in their progress.

Same blowdown looking south.

Day’s end. Relaxed. Off the grid. At one with Nature. It was like riding into the sunset.

Sisu

Trail Design Workshop

December 4, 2020 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

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Determining the slope angle.

Shenandoah National Park, December 2 – 3, 2020 — We gathered for our sustainable trails design, construction and rehabilitation field training in the Compton Gap parking lot where we engaged in initial introductions, orientation and safety talk.

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We were leaders from the park staff and PATC who are involved with backcountry trails and the park’s historic legacy.

As each of us spoke in turn, the sharp wind assaulted our clothing like a rusty razor shaving a drunken sailor’s belly. It attacked the tiny gaps, exploited thin layers, nipped exposed skin, and stung our nerve endings with the efficiency of a serial killer wielding an ice pick.

Still, we focused on the subject at hand, sustainable design, restoration and maintenance of Shenandoah’s hiking trails.

Did I mention that the wind chill was cold?

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After the preliminaries we crossed Skyline Dr. and began marching on the AT up the north side of Compton Peak. The trek leads to a nice viewpoint to the west and to the east the best example of basalt columnar jointing in the park. Needless to say this section of the trail is popular and receives a lot of traffic.

The route was originally built by the CCC and some of their stonework still stands although, after 80 years, is breaking down. Our mission was to learn how to identify it and sustainably restore it for another generation to use.

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Brinnon Carter, Cultural Resource Program Manager, discussed CCC trail design. Those who have hiked on the north side of Compton know the trail passes two very large boulders. That, it turns out, didn’t happen by accident.

Along the way we discussed water/erosion management, design criteria including selecting ascending and descending grades and other design criteria such as the amount of traffic and two-way traffic considerations. Most of this is not new, but the review fit the context of the primary purpose of the workshop which was to identify and preserve the CCC’s work.

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In the afternoon we walked to the north boundary kiosk discussing the merits of keeping the trail on the old roadbed and ways of aligning it for a more esthetic hiker experience. Some Myron Avery’s old maps were informative.

While Benton MacKaye envisioned the Appalachian Trail, it was Myron Avery who scouted the route and got it built. He also was the founder of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. For more, click here.

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The stillness of the second day’s dawn at Thornton Gap was remarkable in contrast to day one. While the ambient air temperatures were similar, the wind was elsewhere afflicting other people, and thankfully not us.

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Stephanie passed out excellent homemade cookies to help fuel our climb to 3,300 foot high Mary’s Rock. Info on Mary’s Rock here.

Our purpose on the climb was to examine the CCC’s crib walls and learn how people and nature have caused changes over the previous 80 years. The question was how to catalogue, grade and monitor them for maintenance and restoration. Climbing while masked didn’t prove to be a hardship.

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We stopped several places to look at examples of the CCC’s work and learned how to identify it and assess the condition. Along the way we found two of these painted sticks abandoned at different places along the trail. I brought one home to burn in my backyard fire pit. Please, Leave No Trace!

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Lunch was pleasant absent the wind. The program featured a well-known local comic.

After lunch we moved southward to the White Oak Canyon parking lot. From there we examined the Skyland horse, Limber Lost and a bit of the White Oak Canyon trails. The last is one of the busiest in the park.

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You can discuss the placement, effectiveness, merits and demerits of a waterbar ad infinitum.

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Limberlost Trail is the only ADA handicapped accessible trail in the park. We divided into groups and walked along entertaining discussion questions, the answers to which were debriefed to other groups.

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Once back in the parking lot we filled out a matrix informed by our group discussions.

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The workshop finished with each of us briefing back to the group what we had learned and its future application. Meanwhile there is a ton of CCC work to find, identify and catalogue.

Sisu

A fork in the road

Yogi said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." So I'm following the white blazes.

Shenandoah National Park

July is Dirt Month

Busy. Busy. Busy.

Where Ya Been?

Please be seated.

The Great Blowdown Hunt

The page turns.

Hoodlums Crew Week

Oh, Shenandoah. So many stories.

Endless Blowdowns

Trail Design Workshop