RATtreks

Appalachian Trail Work Trip – 4-3-2013

My annual early Spring inspection hike for my section of the AT was a bit later this year due to the Winter weather conditions that did not seem to want to go away as we actually had some snow this year. As you will see in the pics there was still some snow in the higher elevations but this was the first decent day we had that we could get up to the mountain to check things out and get some cleanup done. When I say ‘we’ I mean my friend and fellow maintainer Doug Corkhill who is nice enough to drive several miles out of his way to pick me up at my trail head which is Spivey Gap, in order to take me with him to the top of Big Bald where his section begins. This allows me the luxury of doing my section one way from the top down with the only sacrifice being hiking an additional 2 miles from Big Bald to get to the top of Little Bald (Big Harry) where my section starts. Since I am not as young and spry as I used to be, this helps me out tremendously not having to start at the bottom and hike the super steep 5+ miles to the top of Little Bald only to have to hike it all back out although these days, going down is just as painful if not more so. It was a beautiful morning and although a bit chilly, it was a great day to be on the mountain. It is always a pleasure to be on Big Bald. I have been asked why do I continue to do this after 22+ years knowing how much I usually hurt for a few days afterwards, to which I can only reply, because it gives me great pleasure and who would not want to work in such a beautiful setting? Although it does not pay any money and actually cost me plenty to do it, the rewards I get from it are more than any amount of money can buy. Just look at the following pics and tell me who else has an office with this kind of view ?

Doug and I hiked together the 2 miles  to the summit of Little Bald where we take our lunch break on the summit rock there before he heads back to do his section and I begin my descent to do mine. I really appreciate his going the extra miles to give me a ride to the top as it makes the difference in me being able to do all of the section at one time and all it has cost me so far is to share my knowledge of trail maintenance techniques with him. Pretty good deal I say. There were some decent views off the TN side of the summit of Little Bald.

There were lots of limbs and debris to clear out of the trail and there were at least 10 decent sized downed trees that would require the chain saw crew but I was able to remove many small ones and saw some obstacles off the others to make the trail more passable until they could get to my section. They have all since been removed since I was there. The white blazes we painted last year are still looking very good and can be seen from long distances. I am hoping my new choice of paint holds up for several years.

The hardest part of this trip was cleaning out the numerous waterbars. This requires a lot of digging with a fire rake which really takes a toll on my diseased back but, I managed to get them all done from Little Bald down to Whistling Gap and the saw crews finished them from there on to Spivey Gap a week or so later. I really appreciate the help from those guys for sure. I also took a lot of time to snip a lot of woody growth that grows down at boot level which causes a lot of issues when weed whacking in the summer time along with trimming back several trees and laurels. If not for volunteer trail work, Mother Nature would quickly make the trail disappear regardless of how many hikers continue to hike on it.

By the time I made it to Whistling Gap I was pretty much worn out so I took a long rest break there and admired the blue blazes that Linda had repainted there last year before beginning the climb up towards High Rocks. I had already decided that I was not going to be able to dig out any more water bars and was hoping that once I completed the long climb up to High Rocks that I could rest up there awhile and then cruise the last 2 miles downhill to the car hopefully without incident. Of course that was not to be as just up the first hill I came across a mangled mess of a large blow down that had the trail more or less blocked. Hikers had been making their way around it, and it was way too large for me to cut, but I was able to cut enough limbs and drag several more out of the way to open up the trail until it could be removed. This took a few minutes !

After that was done, I trudged on up the rest of the hills to High Rocks.

After spending some time up on High Rocks, I climbed down and around the bottom of them to continue my journey as there was still 2 miles of trail to check.

I was happy when I made it to the lower relo where the trail is way more level and better graded which makes for much easier hiking. There has been a lot of hikers through here already as the trail looked very clean and worn as if it had just been dug !

I am always tempted to take some shortcuts when doing this part of my section but I needed to check all of the trail so I had to stick to the main trail the rest of the way out. When I reached the bog bridges I found the water had made its way out of the branch and was running right down the trail making a mucky mess. I did some digging to reroute it back into where it belongs. These will soon dry up anyway but this is the first time I have ever seen it out into the trail but we have had one of the wettest years on record.

From there is was just a matter of going down the serpentine stairway we built years ago and then down through the old hemlock forest , now all dead due to the pine bark beetles until I reached the creek crossing and the car. It was 7:30pm when I saw the car and it was a welcome sight as I was pretty much dragging along at this point and was hurting in more places than I care to mention. It had been a great day in the mountains and I was happy that my part of the trail work was done until it comes time to cut the summer growth which I usually do sometime in late June.