Work Trip Report - ODATC - Oct. 20, 2012

 

 

Hi All,

The weather couldn't have been better for our work trip on Saturday with the leaves being at their peak. All in all, a gorgeous day to be up in the mountains. Thirteen people made the trip and were divided into four crews.

The sawyer crew included Ed P., Chris and Lynn. They were initially looking for 3 trees along the west side. Then scout Ed F. reported a couple of more along that section. In addition to the west side trees, they also got one on the blue blaze going down the Howardsville Turnpike. This group didn't stop at removing trees, they also replaced the weathered sign at Reeds Gap with a nice new one. They had some problems with weathered screws, so, Lynn volunteered get new ones and go back during the week to replace it, which she has already done. Thanks for making the extra trip Lynn!

 

The Dripping "Rock" crew of Dave W., Dave G. and Eric, were busy moving a big rock and put in another step at the entrance to the trail off the parkway. Now, I'm told that this was a pretty big rock, but, have seen no evidence so I'll have to give the award for the biggest rock moved for the day to the North Side crew, who moved a pretty big rock from the trail. I've included the picture of this rock for comparison.  ['Evidence' added for Dripping Rock! ~ Merlot]

North Side                    Dripping Rock

 See 'Note' at the bottom of the post!

The North Side crew of Jim, Christina, Lee and Ed F. did get a few more things done besides removing the big rock. From the summary I received they put in 3 new water bars, rehabbed 22 water bars, removed 1 large old stump, 2 LARGE rocks and probably 30+ smaller rocks rogued from the center of the trail. Whew! No wonder they were the last crew in, they just weren't ready to give up.

The final crew of Karen, Dennis (aka 'Easy') and me, worked from Glass Hollow south to the Howardsville and did a lot of sidehilling and removal of rocks from the trail. We did pass up a small area where the bees were active, but, otherwise made very good progress on that section. The highlight of the day was when we saw the bear run across the trail while we were going up to the Humpback Rock parking area on the blue blaze trail. Of course, the pictures I took didn't turn out very well.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful work on Saturday. Also, please welcome Lynn and Lee, this was their first work trip and they did fantastic. Our last work trip of the season is:

Date                           Location
Nov. 17, 2012              AT Work Trip


Thanks again!

Lori


Note:  Regarding the 'award for the biggest rock moved for the day', one of the Dripping Rock Crew had this comment:

"I believe we must give the nod to Jim’s crew for the bigger rock –BUT – how far did they move it and did they make any use of it? That’s the real rocker question!"