Hi All,
What an awesome day for our last work trip of 2012! The weather couldn't have been better, sunny and cool. The woods looked gorgeous. There were 16 people who made the trip and were divided into four crews. Two of these were sawyer crews out to tackle the 25ish trees/stems downed by Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy did offer some challenges, but, we were pretty lucky compared to other areas on the AT and the our section is cleared of all trees....for now. Our biggest challenge of the day, however, was getting out before dark!
The south sawyer crew included Ed Sr., Chris and Steve. They did some traveling around, getting the tree near Dripping Rock, then hiking up to the blue blaze at the top of Humpback Rocks to get the trees reported down along the section to the Howardsville and finally getting the trees on the Jack Albright Loop. They had a couple of trees that will have to wait for mother nature to bring them down some more to safely remove. Ask them about the tree that broke off but insisted on standing up next to the trail instead of falling down. Maybe it's trying to root itself again.
The north side sawyer crew of Jim, Eric, Christina, Dennis and Ed Jr worked from the Howardsville north to Rockfish Gap and had monster stump to deal with. After removing the tree itself, which was a chore, they had the assistance of 2 rock bars, their crew, 2 scout leaders and 3 scouts, but could hardly budge the monster. The decision was made to leave the stump and construct a very short, uphill detour. They then continued to clear blowdowns, stopped at the shelter to do some minor cleanup and also raked the leaves from the numerous steps and waterbars. For pictures, etc.: A Tale of Two (Difficult) Trees
The crew of Karen, Will, Margaret and Jeff, started on the AT at the blue blaze at Humpback Rock down the back of the mountain to Humpback Rock Parking. They spent their time moving rocks out of the tread, blocking cut-thrus, fixing switchbacks, cutting brush, cleaning rock steps raking out waterbars, clearing leaves from under the log bridge...whew. Never a dull moment. For pictures, etc.: "Gang Aft Agley" Becomes A Very Good Day
The final crew of Fran, Lynn, Barbara and myself worked on the trail starting at the Jack Albright Loop getting close to the overlook on the way down to the shelter. We spent time rehabbing a couple of waterbars and clearing out others, removing those rogue rocks from the tread and cleaning rock steps. The intention was also to take lime down to the privy but fortunately, the same scout troop that worked with the north sawyer crew on monster stump ran into our group first and volunteered to take the lime down. Thanks Troop 1422! For pictures, etc.: Rogue Rocks Meet Their Match!
This is just a short summary of our accomplishments that day. I cannot do justice in words to all the amazing work that really was done. All the crews worked extremely hard all day long and accomplished so much. For that, I'm extremely grateful. I know I was feeling the burn the following day. Oh, almost forgot, all crews did make it out before dark!
There are no more work trips this year. Don't be sad. We'll pick up again next year starting with the potluck in January!
Thanks again for a wonderful year. Our section of the trail would not look as nice as it does without all of your help!
Lori
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