Privy Patrol!

The privy at the Paul C. Wolfe Shelter (Photo: Lori A.)

The Paul C. Wolfe Shelter has the best privy ..... lots of ventilation, a view, and it's just plain cute in a rustic sort of way! Yesterday, Lori and I went to the mountains to run a "Privy Patrol" maintenance trip. The goal was primarily to take lime to the privy and to check on both the privy and the shelter and make sure everything was neat, clean, and there were no serious problems that needed to be addressed.  It was quite a day ..... and carrying a 10 lb. (at least) triple-bagged load of lime in your backpack is NOT fun .... but being in the woods and on the AT made up for being 'beasts of burden' for a couple of miles. Ted H. (Ranger at Humpback Rocks Farm) had heard a saying that probably would be applicable ...... when we finally got to shuck those packs and unload the lime, we were "grinning like a couple of mules eating briers"!

So ..... here's our day, mostly in pictures.

Our first stop was at the Visitor's Center and tool shed to pick up the lime, a swing blade and some pruning shears.  The parking lot curb stone, sidewalk and paving project is complete and it looks GREAT!!  There are some other new structures as well.

 The parking lot - new curb stones, sidewalks, pavement and paint.

Left: New retaining wall & paved sidewalk

Right: New culvert

 Cardinal Flowers blooming at the corner of the fence near the culvert.

We decided to head over to the Humpback Rocks Farm Cabin to see what was going on (they were cooking pancakes) and to talk to Ranger Ted H., the historian for the farm and fount of knowledge on the area. We had a great talk with Ted and took pictures of what we saw:

A stunning view of Humpback Rocks from the sidewalk on the way to the farm - if you look closely you can see someone on top of the Rocks! (Photo: Lori A.)

Left: The garden at the farm.

Right: At the chicken coop, 'somebody' knows their picture is being taken!

The Humpback Rocks Farm is not only interesting, it's pretty too, with flowers and herbs planted all around the cabin.

We finally had to say goodbye to Ted and get back to work.  After making our way slowly to the shelter with the lime (thank goodness it was mostly all downhill!), Lori switched out the shelter register. The old one was all but filled up and it had gotten wet too, so a new one was needed.

The lime bags were toted to the privy and the all-but-empty bucket in the privy was about 3/4 full when the new lime was added. We also found that the privy door was open .... the "latch" was broken. The latch is a screw eye in the door with a cord loop tied to it and the loop goes over a nail on the privy itself. The nail had come out so the privy door wanted to swing open all the time. A view is nice ... if you are looking out at the creek, etc. You don't want the "view" to go the other way .... i.e. YOU are in full view when the privy is in use! Lori's 'eagle eyes' found a small screw eye in the shelter that we managed to unscrew with the help of her handy-dandy multi-use pocket knife. This screw eye replaced the nail and now the privy door can be 'latched' shut once again.

A 'new' screw eye on the right replaces the old nail.
(Photo: Lori A.)

While we were packing up to leave, this beautiful butterfly paid a visit to some nearby flowers ..... couldn't catch it on the flowers, but it flew about two yards from the shelter porch and came to rest on a rock  ................

The butterfly appears to be a Red-Spotted Purple, a mimic of the Pipevine Swallowtail, a butterfly distasteful to birds.  When they stay on the ground like this they are "puddling", obtaining minerals from the ground.  Only the males do this, it's sort of like a "Guy's Night Out" for Lepidoptera... (Photo: Merlot; Caption: Christina W.)

After leaving the shelter and on the hike out, we found still more work to do clearing branch debris and tackling a small tree that had uprooted and was hanging across the trail. The top had lodged against a tree and it was a considerable hazard because if it came down, anybody who had the exceedingly bad luck to be under it at the time would have been "toast".  We had our own fairly significant safety concerns while working on this tree and had to be very cautious, but after more work than we initially thought would be required to get the tree to dislodge, it finally did crash down, right on the trail. We took turns with the pruning saw and got all of the tree debris removed.

Hmmmm ......what to do with this? (Photo: Lori A.)

After a quick stop at the tool shed, we were finally headed down the BRP on the way home and saw three does and a fawn alongside the Parkway. The fawn still has its spots and cooperated long enough for a pretty good picture:

All in all (even toting lime), it was a great day!

Happy Trails everybody ...... see you on the next work trip!! ~ Merlot

(All Photos by Merlot unless otherwise noted)