Work Trip on the Appalachian Trail – 6 – 29 – 2018
Cutting the annual growth along my section of the AT came a little later in the year than usual due to circumstances beyond my control. Add in an unusually warm and wet season and you get jungle type growth, some of which were taller than I am ! Suspecting this would be the case I decided to use a weedeater rather than the normal ‘sling blade’ method that we usually do. I like to use a weedeater every so many years anyway to give it a ‘good haircut’ and this was a good year to do that. Like anytime I go to the mountains I like to get an early as possible start and this trip would be no exception. My son Tyler and I started before daylight getting everything ready and packed into the Jeep so that as soon as our old friend Tommy ‘Bol’Dar’ Warden arrived we could depart on our quest.
After a quick stop at the grocery store for some snacks it only took about 30 more minutes to get to the locked forest service gate that we use to access my trail section. The lock is a piece of crap and can take awhile to get open but, Tyler has developed a technique for doing it quicker than anyone else so he gets elected for this task every time now ! The old forest road has hardly been used any in the last 20 yrs aside from a few trail maintainers so it is no longer in very good shape. being mostly overgrown now the gravel has all but disappeared and I am told quote; “the Forest Service does not want to do any work to it as they would prefer it simply revert back to Nature”. Since this is the only access to my trail section besides walking in several miles from either direction, I think they should change their stance on this. I plan on speaking with someone in higher authority about this soon.
That being said, the road was very wet and due to my Jeep having straight tread tires on it, was a bit slick going up the steep parts but, the real danger was on the return trip where it was hard to keep it from sliding off the low side of the road. It is a long way down on the low side so if that was to happen it would be catastrophic. I doubt seriously if a vehicle could even be recovered from there or if it would even be worth recovering. We made it without issue as I have a lot of off road driving experience but, I will not be taking that Jeep back until it is lifted with big, knobby tires on it !
As expected the weeds were pretty bad although the big stuff is always in the higher elevations. Coming in at Whistling Gap the weeds were not that bad so I carried the weedeater ahead on my shoulder to climb to the higher and more overgrown parts of the section leaving Tyler and Tommy behind start using the sling blades. I made it about a mile which was almost to the upper relocation before the weeds got bad enough to use the weedeater on. This slowed me down and I was soon caught up to by the others. Tommy brought up the rear as he was doing a lot of hand snipping of the limbs and other woody growth that encroaches the trail each year. This is a time consuming and tedious job that is very tiring and hard on the hands but, it is invaluable to have someone do this for you otherwise, we would have to do it on the way back down the mountain and most likely would not get done before dark so another trip would have to be done to finish it up. Tommy has helped me do trail work on this section and many others for over 30 years. Even back when we were renegade maintainers and were not members of nor did we acknowledge maintaining clubs. In other words, the good old days !
It was slow and hard going with the weedeater. I am used to doing it downhill and not while going up the mountain because the past several years my friend Doug Corkhill who had the section next to mine (Big Bald to Little Bald) would graciously go out of his way to pick me up at Spivey Gap and drive us around to the top of Big Bald to allow me the luxury of walking my section one way, top to bottom, mostly downhill. We had some great times on the mountain as I would teach him maintenance techniques and help him with his section while we hiked towards where mine would start on the summit of Little Bald. He no longer has that section as he moved out of the area due his work. I do miss him and the one way trips he provided for us. Now I have to start at the bottom and work my up then hike back !
I did over a mile of really thick, ‘tall as me’ weeds until I ran out of energy as going up Little Bald (aka Big Hairy) is steep and VERY rugged. It is a tough hike nevertheless to hike AND use a weedeater !! Thank goodness for my son Tyler who took over for me and finished up the last mile or so to the summit. This is by far the hardest part. I gladly took over his sling blade and started snipping too. I was very happy when we all finally reached the top and could sit on the overlook rock on the NC side to rest, eat some food, and consume some liquids. We spent at least an hour there as I was very tired and did not want to move !


After our late summit lunch we then went over to the TN side and worked on the overlook there. It is one of my favorite views. The hike down was quicker but, we did do some more snipping and weed whacking to groom the trail some more. It is always a pleasure to walk back down the trail you just worked hard on to enjoy the fruits of your labor. It was a long and very hard day but, we accomplished our goal. The entire trail section was cut and left in excellent shape and will not need anything again until late Fall after the leaves are all down. That is, unless we get some bad storm damage.



The ride err, slide back down the old forest service road was a nail biter for some but, we managed to get back without sliding off the mountain. I wont be able to go back however, until lift and tires are on the Jeep. Until next time,,,,
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