A Remarkable Blowdown

October 23, 2017 / jim fetig / 1 Comment

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Shenandoah National Park, October 20 – 21, 2017 — Imagine finding a 50-year-old locust tree prostrate on your favorite picnic table like a drunk passed out in a dark alley. Most of us didn’t know this stately friend had a problem. Regardless, there it was.

The Hoodlum’s crew weekend was off to an exciting start.

We suspect the last gasp of one of the recent hurricanes was responsible for doing a number on this poor tree that used to live at the Hoodlums trail crew hangout at Indian Run. The tree’s lush leaves fooled us. Termites had found its heart. It was weakened and didn’t need much to do it in.

The dead picnic table wasn’t the locust’s only victim. Our recently repaired reflector fire took a glancing blow significant enough to pop a few rocks loose.

On its way down or on a bounce, the dearly departed tree crunched our backup picnic table too. To add to the misfortune, we replaced the wood in each of the picnic tables only a year ago. Damn!

The good news is that the Indian Run maintenance hut suffered no damage. Amen!

Hasty clean up cleared usable space.

The fire was built on schedule.

The Hoodlums worked Saturday as scheduled on various trail repair projects with a small work party assigned to clean up this tree. Bottom line: We’ll have enough firewood for a next year.

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I was in the park earlier on Friday to work on the AT section I maintain and to get ready for a large work party assigned to help me finish rehabbing its erosion control structures and remove two blowdowns. After all of the leaves are down, I’ll make a trip to rake them out of the waterbar drains and put this puppy to bed for the winter.

A dirt waterbar called a grade dip. We’re getting away from using logs and stone whenever possible.

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A downed apple tree in an old orchard through which the AT passes.

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My guess is that a bear was climbing the tree an broke off a large limb.

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There were dozens of apples on the ground. This is unusual because the bears and deer love them and normally by this time, they are no longer on the market. The mast (food) has been excellent this year. The immediate area is full of oak and hickory trees and the nuts, apples and berries have been overstocked in contrast to two years ago when there was virtually nothing because of drought.

The potluck theme was Oktober Fest.

The kraut and brats were yummy.

Rigging Workshop

September 25, 2017September 26, 2017 / jim fetig / 5 Comments

PATC Rigging Workshop, Sharpsburg, MD, September 24, 2017 — When you have to drag big rocks or logs, or bridge a creek, how ya gonna git ‘er done? That’s what we learned this weekend at the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club rigging workshop for trail maintainers.

Rigging is mature technology. It’s used every day in construction and factory settings. Sailors know it well. The same principles that lift tons of concrete 25 stories in building construction or off-load container ships are the same ones trail maintainers depend upon to safely move 1,000 lb. rocks and ginormous logs, rootballs and bridge stringers.

That bridge across the creek? Guess what? Riggers used high school physics to calculate the “working load limits,” “sling tension,” “share of load,” “choke angles,” and many more factors required to safely drag, lift and place large objects in the right position deep in the back country where lumber sexual street cranes fear to tread.

The first four hours were spent in the dreaded classroom drinking from a fire hose pumping out basic concepts, safety rules, vocabulary, equipment familiarization, calculations, and expectations for the weekend.

Flashback to Vietnam era military training, “If you don’t learn this, you will die in Vietnam,” the sergeants would extol with the subtlety of jackhammers.

Well students listen up, a snapped steel cable or rope pretty much functions like a weed wacker except with enough power in the right circumstances to maim, decapitate or de-limb your ignorant butt. The consequences for carelessness or ignorance range from disability up to and including death!

After fully appreciating the weed wacker metaphor, I thought, “Why do I want to learn this stuff?”

“So you stay in one piece,” my guardian angel’s voice intoned.

“Oh!” I replied.

I noodled for second. My guardian angel takes responsibility almost nothing so I knew with the motivation of a lonely guy at closing time that I was on my own.

With that ugly metaphor in mind, my eyes and ears locked in on doom prevention for the remainder of the weekend.

Another take-away from the workshop. The price of my toys continues to escalate. This little sucker is a grip hoi$t. This model can move a ton although there are larger and heavier models that can handle much more. Want to win a tug of war? Get one of these babies!

Properly attached to the anchor and ready to go.

But there’s more to it than a grip hoist. Ya got your pulleys, shackles, chains, ropes and the know-how to properly hook them up. Time for a second mortgage if you want to buy the toys. Otherwise you use PATC equipment.

First practical exercise, rigging and dragging a BFR weighing an estimated 750 – 800 lbs.

Checking everything twice.

Have rock. Will travel.

Added a pulley to change direction with the speed of molasses. Slow and steady is good in this business. The rock bars help keep the front end from becoming a dozer.

View from the grip hoist operator

Slow lane.

Summary day one:

A lot to learn. Most of the info delivered by fire hose spilled on the classroom floor. I am going to practice this skill in small bites and learn to get the math benchmarked and develop valid rules of thumb. You can lighten the load you have to carry into the backcountry if you closely calculate. Me? Until I learn a lot more, I’m going to over engineer everything and eat the weight.

Day two. Highlining.

In the density of the predawn darkness I’m awakened to the purr of a golf cart somewhere between the door of our 10-bunk cabin and the awesome laminated-beam pavilion across the gravel. Our kindly hosts at the Shepherd’s Spring (Church of the Brethren) outdoor retreat center were delivering hot coffee for the second morning in a row. You rock ladies!

I’m cocooned in an Army poncho liner (quilt) with ear phones jammed into my ears, half listening to old time radio’s “Boston Blackie” and dreaming of special times and places.

The wake up cue nudged me from dreams to reality. You see, I normally respond to the gentle rhythms of dawn and dusk. I wanted to stay but … the crunch of the coffee wagon on the gravel was overwhelming as a bone is to a dog.

“Add coffee, instant human.” The pending chemical assist was an awesome incentive to get the jump on the day ahead. My feet hit the floor in a dead sprint for the Thermos. I was not alone. A nutritious breakfast in the dining room followed.

The words ‘high line’ connote a cable strung high in the air with a suspended load dangling below. Fake news! Not true. Do that and you might die in the woods grasshopper.

Instead, a high line suspends the load no higher above the ground than necessary. (Physics nerds and engineers know this.) A taunt line under high tension decreases your working load limit, and that dear friends confers zero advantage. The more U-shapped the parabola, the better.

Rigging the high line. High means way up in a live, solid tree with a choke configuration and a pulley. That’s the spar. It’s anchored to another tree directly to the rear. Hiking in the ladder has to be a joy.

Rigging a chain basket to carry the BFR. This one’s about 500 lbs. Like Santa, checking it twice.

Setting the grip hoist at a 90 degree angle with enough distance to pull the amount of cable necessary.

Inserting a dynamometer allowed us to see the actual forces at work.

Click for more on dynamometers

Ready to rock and roll.

Ready. Steady. Go.

BFR on the move.

Exercise over.

Please do not try this at home. This blog is not a ‘how to’ for anything. It is a story about our rigging workshop this weekend. We hope it helps you understand more about what it takes to keep hiking trails in good working order and how dedicated volunteers give of their time to advance their skills.

Of note. Many women have taken this workshop and are actively involved in PATC rigging projects. Ladies you are welcome. Please come.

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

Workin’ for the Trail Boss.

July 17, 2016July 17, 2016 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

The Hoodlum trail crew gets briefed by the Trailboss, patron of the infamous Roller Coaster. Photo by Mike Gergely

Somewhere on Loudon Heights, WV, July 16, 2016 — There’s a somewhat secret two-year-long project to relocate the Appalachian Trail on Loudon Heights as it descends to Harpers Ferry. By the end of the year, the job will be done.

The pitch of the existing trail reminds people of a church steeple. Such a challenging slope does not facilitate erosion control. Worse, it passes through preserved civil war battlefield entrenchments, which as par for the course, unthinking/uncaring hikers damage by removing rocks to make fire rings. Neither practice, rock displacement nor fires, is appropriate on such hallowed ground.

The AT is constantly being relocated. Someone once told me that less than 5 percent of the trail is original. Not sure that’s accurate, but in this case, a “relo” makes common sense.

So, you need hard work done fast, “Who ya gonna call?” The Hoodlums, of course. In reality, we were building on the good work of crews that came before us and set the stage for those to follow. Nevertheless, the Hoodlums were delighted to answer the call and do our small part on a brutally hot and humid summer day.

The new treadway gently hugs the mountain’s contour lines. If it had a label, it would scream in bold print, “New gentle lower calorie formulation!”

I overheard someone say that his dad said the same thing mine did, “If you don’t go to college, you’ll end up digging ditches.” So much for education. If I was paid for this, I join a union; but as a hobby, it’s fun and the camaraderie is fantastic.

Trail work is like pulling teeth Big old rock molars. Emily knows the physics of leverage.

Then there’s the detailed work of removing roots and smaller stones. Later another crew will smooth out and level this rough cut. Our job this outing was to break ground.

It takes a village to make a trail. Our northern Virginia ridgerunner, Sara Leibold,(foreground) joined us for the day. The trail building added a new dimension to her experience.

Head Hoodlum Janice and Hoodlum Julie got dirty and had fun.

Some rocks are bigger than others, but eventually they all succumb to brute force and a little bit of know-how.

Like distressed jeans, some new trail comes complete with pre-blowdowns. We just worked around and under them. Trailboss attacked them with gusto!

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At the end of the day, we retired to Blackburn Trail Center where Mrs. Trailboss, who just happens to be the chair of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy board, rewarded us with a scrumptious dinner! It doesn’t get better than that. Sisu GA/Me ’14

Weedwhacking

June 19, 2016 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

A ray of light perfectly aligned with my eyes under my hammock fly this morning at 6 a.m.

Shenandoah National Park, June 17-19, 2016 — It was North District Hoodlums trail crew work weekend. I usually go to the park on Friday early to work on the section of the Appalachian Trail for which I am overseer and personally responsible. Saturday we do crew work. Sunday we clean up any odds and ends we didn’t get done on our AT sections.

It’s been raining like crazy on the east coast for the past month. In fact, it’s only recently warmed up. Add water to vegetation and you get jungle! Jungle is habitat for the ticks that are the vector for Lyme Disease. What to do about that. The only logical thing is to chop back the jungle.

Weed whacker Man – a superhero if there ever wasn’t one.

I spent two whole days week whacking. First was my trail. Second was a section that belonged to a dear fellow who left us for the charms of Milwaukee. Did I mention that it was hot? At least there were two of us the second day – we are a crew, right?

The idea is to cut the salad back about double arms length from the center of the treadway. The hikers should not touch vegetation as they walk. No vegetation. No ticks (well, almost).

I have an informal campsite on my section. No fires allowed people. They build them anyway and risk the fine. I break up the fire rings by tossing the rocks a long way away. This knucklehead obviously had an unsuccessful fire, not to mention ample signs of raging diarrhea. Poetic justice. Damn right. I’m sparing you the shxtty pics, but I always document the scene of the crime.

The third week of June is prime thru hiker season. Time for the annual Hoodlums hiker feed. We cooked burgers and hot dawgs for about 30 thru hikers. Turns out that they were all very nice folks. That’s not always the case this late into the season.

Sometimes we see dramatic views. Worth a whack so to speak.

Love the evening ambiance.

Next up: I’m about to hike 55 miles through northern Virginia with Denise, the friend with whom I hiked Georgia. She’s here and off the trail on “vacation.” After that, I’ll be out for 240 miles with this year’s group of excellent ridgerunners. Can’t wait to get moving!

Channeling my inner 3-year-old

May 27, 2016 / jim fetig / 8 Comments

Shenandoah National Park, May 23 – 27, Spring Trail Crew Week — Three-year-olds love to splash in water and play in the mud. That’s what we did all week.

The upper part of the trail to White Oak Canyon is full of springs. The trail is always muddy. It follows that hikers don’t like to get mud on their shoes. Therefore, when they encounter mud, they hike around it. The trail grows wider and the environmental impact spreads.

Last year the park service trail crew tried to improve the drainage, but winter frost heaving did a job on their work. This year, with our help, it was time to dig it all up and start over. So we ripped up 224 feet of rock wall and built it back using a different technique.

It was muddy – and we loved it!

The structure we built is called a lateral drain. In this case the water seeps in from multiple sources all along the length of the trail, so the ditch catches and directs it to a place where we can get it out of the way.

The ditch is dug and the rock gets lapped-stacked for stability. The rock on this section came from a commercial source. Call it an invasive rock species. There wasn’t enough natural rock to do the job.

So much for the pick and shovel work.

We live at the newly renovated Pinnacles Research building which is an old CCC facility. I was there earlier this month for the Leave No Trace master educator course.

When we’re done working, we load up the government van the park service provides and head back to Pinnacles.

The first one dives in the shower while everyone else grabs a beer.

When we’re clean, we head to town for dinner when we don’t BBQ. Millennials aren’t the only people with their heads up their phones. Our excuse is that we’re off the grid in the park, so we read email and catch up on the news when we can. At least that’s our story – an we’re sticking to it. With no TV or WIFI, once we’re back, it’s early to bed.

Sometimes we work with logs. They’re faster, but don’t last nearly as long as stone – maybe 15 years with luck.

Debarking logs improves their life in the ground by removing the medium by which bugs and other rotting agents grow.

A young woman was hiking down the trail only to look up and be greeted by this guy (serial killer-looking maniac). Imagine the look of panic on her face! I was rolling in the mud laughing. BTW, he’s a retired State Department Russian expert!

Once debarked, into the ground they go. These are long-lasting locust logs BTW. (For all my friends, including Karma, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail this year – the water might be welcome about now.

We always love working with the park service trail crews. In this case, some may remember Eric “the human crane” from last year.

Our partnership with the park service, working side-by-side, is close and mutually beneficial.

We finished up Thursday morning. With time on our hands, we wondered over to the Elk Wallow trail (between Elk Wallow and Mathew’s Arm campground) to remove several blowdowns blocking the trail. One took an entire hour to slice up.

Calling home from Skyland where we ate dinner last night.

Contrast.

Didn’t know I was doing an Oreo commercial – honestly!

The MacLoed. The Swiss Army knife of trail tools.

The Secret Word

October 19, 2015October 19, 2015 / jim fetig / 9 Comments

Standing near the old apple orchard. The saw is for cutting logs used to construct waterbars and check dams. The red pants are Kevlar chainsaw chaps.

Shenandoah National Park, October 17 – 18, 2015 — Remember the secret word on Graucho Marx quiz show “You Bet Your Life?” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Bet_Your_Life I have a new one for ya.

According to the Urban Dictionary, a “lumbersexual” is a Metro-sexual who has the need to hold on to some outdoor based rugged-ness, thus opting to keep a finely trimmed beard. Sometimes their wardrobe includes plaid flannel shirts and leather work boots. Well, this weekend was my best imitation – or maybe was I just testing my latest Halloween costume idea…

This was the final regularly scheduled Hoodlums work weekend of the year. I took a crew of four including myself on my AT section to finish the rehab started earlier this year.

My arrival was timed for dawn plus a few minutes to beat the traffic. It’s peak leaf season the the peepers cars clog Skyline Drive bumper to bumper for all 105 mikes if the park.

This morning it was 28F when those of us who camped at Indian Run popped out of our mummy bags. I slept toasty and warm. Hated to get up but for the warm coffee.

This morning it was 28F when those of us who camped at Indian Run popped out of our mummy bags. I slept toasty and warm. Hated to get up except that the thought of hot coffee twisted my arm.

I spent this morning inventorying all the erosion control structures on my trail. Along its 1.3 mile length, it has 58 waterbars, 45 check dams, 3 swailes, 14 stone steps, 20 feet of stone retaining wall and one stone culvert.

I spent this morning inventorying all the erosion control structures on my trail section. Along its 1.3 mile length, it has 58 waterbars, 45 check dams, 3 swailes, 14 stone steps, 20 feet of stone retaining wall and one stone culvert.

The Appalachian Trail is administered by the National Park Service. it’s budget is based in part on the amount of infrastructure that must be maintained. All 2,189.2 miles of trail are being inventoried by its various overseers like me. I think they are going to count a lot of “stuff.”

Milam apples were the most common type grown in the area. Not sure these are those.

My trail skirts an old apple orchard that was part of a farm when the land was condemned to create the park. You can see were the bears have trampled the vegetation enroute to their Oktober Apfel Fest.

Autumn is slowly asserting itself. The colors are shifting from the the energy of spring toward the reds and greens of the Christmas season. Snow and a quiet winter sleep are just over the horizon.

For more on lumbersexuality see: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/magazine/article4277725.ece

Cowboy Candle

September 21, 2015September 21, 2015 / jim fetig / 4 Comments

This is a cowboy candle. More about that in a bit.

Shenandoah National Park, Mathews Arm Campground, September 18 – 20, 2015 — Come September mother nature begins nodding off as she contemplates her year’s achievements and a well-deserved winter rest. Her spring creations are mature now having flourished in the embrace of warm summer sun and slaked by rain. It’s time to lengthen the nights, turn down the heat and prepare to swaddle in blankets of white.

With the humidity having been wrung out of the autumn air, my car pulled in just after 8:30 p.m. Friday evening. I’d been helping with a thru-hiker event at an REI store in Virginia that nailed my feet to the floor until after six — dead into the locked jaws of outbound D.C. area traffic.

The penalty of “rush hour” tacked a vexing extra hour to my trip, thank you very much! Traffic is the only thing in Washington that isn’t in a hurry.

As I shut off my ignition, it was dead dark and I was much later than I wanted to be. I still had to find a spot, pitch my tent, cook the a la foil steak resting in my cooler, and get some rest before the starting gun popped Saturday morning. The night was warm with a gentle breeze that allowed me to snooze on top of my sleeping bag.

The workshop is a cooperative effort between the Hoodlums trail crew and the Shenandoah park rangers.

Our workshop is an excellent training exercise limited to 30 participants. They are divided into three groups classified as novice, intermediate and advanced trail maintainers. People come from other geographical areas and maintaining clubs to take part.

I led an intermediate level group of five to build check dams and water bars on my section of the Appalachian Trail.

I led an intermediate level group of five to build and rehab check dams and water bars on my section of the Appalachian Trail.

So much for the work. The best part is socializing at the bookends of the day. We each contribute to a kitty so that we can hire caterers from Pennsylvania who have been with us for years. All we have to do is schmooze and have fun.

The Park Service sets up an awning for us. Thanks to good weather we didn't have to use it.

The Park Service sets up an awning for us. Thanks to good weather we didn’t need it.

I could get used to car camping. Unlike backpacking, if you think you might need it, you just pitch what ever ‘it” may be into the trunk of your car. That’s why everyone brought a cooler full of beer!

Saturday night is the only “official” night of the workshop. One of our rituals is torching a “cowboy candle.” A log about three feet long is chainsawed into eight standing and numbered sections. Everyone bets on the upright they think will be the last one standing.

This year about 90 percent of us bet on pillar number seven. It was up wind and seemed a bit thicker than the others. Wrong! It was the first to go. 🙁

As we cheered for our cowboy candle favorites, the breeze sharpened in a way that signaled that we were on the doorstep of a new season. From now on, the year will age quickly. For that reason, we have only one more monthly work trip left in our regular season. Sometimes there’s a November encore trip, but that’s nature’s call as much as anything else.

It could have been the food, the friends or even the beer, but on Saturday night I snuggled into my trusty sleeping bag and was lost in dreamland before my head dented my inflatable pillow. The morning dawned crisp. I turned up the collar of my fleece as I shivered in line for coffee.

Steve Dannenfeldt and his daughter Shelby were in our group. Steve oversees the trail atop Compton Peak where my section terminates. His trail leads to the columnar basalt formation about which I’ve previously written.

Unfortunately people in three separate groups were stung by yellow jackets. Paperwork! I was delighted that our group didn’t find any.

An Abundance of Goodness

August 25, 2015 / jim fetig / 17 Comments

Four basic tools of the trail maintenance and forest fire trade. From the left: Mcloed, Pulaski, Rogue hoe, pick mattock. Add a five gallon plastic bucket, a shovel, a pruning saw and you've pretty much got the whole set.

Four basic tools of the trail maintenance and forest fire trade. From the left: Mcloed, Pulaski, Rogue hoe, and a pick mattock in front of a brand new waterbar we used them to build. Add a rock bar, five gallon plastic bucket, a shovel, a pruning saw plus an occasional cross cut or chainsaw and you’ve pretty much got all the toys.

Shenandoah National Park, VA, August 15 – 21, 2015 — This was a physically demanding and productive week in the park. I love to sweat, so thanks to the weatherman, we were virtually swimming in goodness.

The itinerary was chock full of fun. Saturday marked our monthly Hoodlums work day. We enjoyed an excellent turnout for mid-August vacation season.

I groaned a bit when the short straw put my crew on a weeding expedition down a side trail that hadn’t seen much love this year. In about five hours, six of us weeded two miles of trail with swing blades because a chunk of it is in a designated wilderness area where motors are not allowed. We also cleaned 42 check dams and six waterbars, and cleared one blowdown!

I removed this blowdown with my Hoodlums crew using a 20 in. pruning saw.

I removed this blowdown using a 20 in. pruning saw.

Note the rise of the tree trunk on the right side of the photo. I knew there was stored energy to be released, but not that much.

Removing a blowdown isn’t newsworthy except for this. Note the rise of the tree trunk on the right side of the photo. I expected a bit of a jump, but not all the way to eye level. It’s a good example of how bucking any down tree can be hazardous.

Immediately after the Hoodlums clock expired I hustled 50 miles toward the southern end of the park to meet up with Lauralee Bliss for a two-day ridgerunner walk, after which I hurried to join the crew I’d be working with for the remainder of the week. I was a day late, so I knew I needed to work extra hard to make it up.

The first project was fixing a mud hole created by a spring further down Overall Run trail than we were able to get during crew week in May.

The spring leaks from multiple locations and undermines the trail tread,

We don’t call Eric Jenkins the human crane for nothin’!

Our solution was to build a culvert drain and a raised turnpike to the upper/dryer side of the trail. We left the muddy part untouched because the water also rises from underneath.

Finished product. It’s always great to work with the National Park Service crew.

The second day on Overall Run we corrected another mud hole using a slightly different solution. Rain ended the day early.

The following day we rehabbed the treadway on the Dickie Ridge trail and built several new waterbars and grade dips to improve drainage. The weather was worthy of a Finnish sauna.

New waterbar under construction.

Side-hilling to level the treadway and move it up hill enough to keep it from causing erosion in some areas.

Compacting a new grade dip.

It was THAT kind of day!

The heat was quickly depleting all of us, so we broke early. I decided to spend the extra daylight checking on my Appalachian Trail Section and I was glad I did.

I found this blowdown on my trail section.

Just after cutting the first branch, another small tree came crashing down. It scared the scat out of me!

Half done.

Finished.

Found this illegal fire ring at an informal campsite on my section. Since destroying the last one early this spring, no one had rebuilt it until now.

Launched the rocks as far away as I could. Maybe planting poison ivy or raspberries in this space might help solve the problem, ya think?

The weather broke on the final day. The temp dropped 20 degrees and the humidity halved. Yea! We worked near the Elk Wallow wayside building a couple of new grade dips and waterbars. We also repaired a huge waterbar where rain cascades down the trail like a river.

Waterbar, one each.

Your August 2015 trail crew: Cindy Ardecki, me, Brian Snyder, Noel Freeman, and David Sylvester.

Blowdown Boulevard.

On the Road

July 29, 2015August 10, 2015 / jim fetig / 14 Comments

Chainsaw sculpture at Bears Den Hostel, Va.

Northern Virginia, July 17 – 28, 2015 — In deference to Garrison Keillor, it wasn’t a quiet week anywhere around my town. It was busy as could be.

We had the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) biannual meeting at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va. where I led two hikes – more to come on that, followed by a trail construction day with an environmentally oriented youth group from Yonkers, NY called Groundwork.

In between a small group of North District Hoodlum sawyers schlepped our chainsaws up to Bears Den on Saturday to buck two large dead trees that were felled by professional arborists.

Did I mention that the daytime temps averaged over 90 F with high humidity the whole time? So there I was, producing infinite amounts of sweaty washing while our still-under-warrenty washing machine awaits a new motor. No, I have not sublet any space at our house to anyone named Murphy.

The first hike was a strenuous 16-miler from the Reno Monument on Maryland's South Mountain south to Harpers Ferry, WV. The heat took its toll.

The first hike was a strenuous 16-miler on the AT from the Reno Monument on Maryland’s South Mountain south to Harpers Ferry, WV. The heat took its toll.

Monument to Civil War journalists at Maryland’s Gathland State Park.

The second hike was a five-miler on the First Manassas civil war battlefield on the 153rd anniversary of the battle to the day. It was hard to imagine what it was like for the soldiers who wore woolen uniforms in suffocating heat and humidity. This is at the “stone bridge” for those familiar with the battle.

We started the morning with a preview of the battle in the visitors center.

This stone house and former tavern served as a hospital during the battle. The battle’s culmination point on Henry Hill is just above this structure.

At Bears Den. The sawyer was approximately 80 feet in the air. Couldn’t pay me to do that. This dead tree plus another threatened to block the access road if blown down in a storm. The need to preempt that is self evident.