A Downhill Day (Sec 6/7 Crew)

 

The 'Fern Fields' along the AT on Sec 7 

Funny how a somewhat 'easy' looking day on a project planning spreadsheet isn't quite the same as the reality on the trail! The plan for this two-person crew was to start at the end of Sec. 8A near the top of Humpback mountain and hike Section 7, then 6. Along the way, the water bars on 8A at the top of a steep hill would be cleaned out and the hill, which gets very weedy, would be weed-whipped. The brand new waterbars on Sec. 7 (put in on the April work Trip) would be checked to see if/how they were functioning and tweaked if necessary. In addition, Sec. 7 would be weed-whipped for the first time this season. On Sec. 6, which had been previously weed-whipped, Bear Spring needed attention and there was a big blowdown reported that needed another look-see. The water bars on Howardsville Turnpike also needed checking since there has been rain in large amounts over the last month. A day of downhill hiking .... checking a few waterbars, decimating a few weeds, enjoying the woods and the wildflowers ...... sounded like a GREAT day on the trail to me! The other person on the crew was David A., who has also taken on section maintaining duties earlier this year.

So how did the day go? I was absolutely exhausted when I got off the trail ...... and very, very happy! We had a terrific day, got a huge amount of work done, more than I thought we would be doing. The weather was great (the gnats were not, but that is what Deep Woods Off is for), the hikers we saw were friendly and appreciative, and we managed our time so well that we were back at the tool shed on time. Plus ..... it was downhill hiking (almost) the whole way!  Here is what we did:

 

Waterbar #2 on Sec. 8A after a good cleanout. Both waterbars are well-sited and effective and the steep hill below is showing no signs of erosion. We gave the hill a good weed whipping on the way to Sec. 7

At the end of 8A and the beginning of 7 is the blue-blaze down to Humpback Rocks. I checked the trail and gave it a weed-whipping where it needed it - mostly where the trail narrowed between rocks and trees or where 'heavy' weeds like Black Cohosh would eventually droop over the trail. Any stinging nettle was definitely swacked.

 

On both section 7 & 6, all the steps were cleaned off. These are the steps just above Belle's Rock on Sec. 7

 

Section 7 needed the weeds whipped back with particular attention paid to stinging nettle. I've never seen so much nettle on this section. On the left is Jewel Weed which is frequently found with nettle - notice the more rounded leaf edges. A nettle plant is on the right, with sharper, more serrated looking leaf edges.

The new waterbars are high on Section 7, in the 'Fern Field' area and just below the first switchback from the top of the section. They looked good and the runout ditches showed evidence that a lot of water had been going through them. The waterbars still looked a bit too shallow and especially on the lower one, the water appeared to have possibly breached the rock on the outside edge, so I wanted to dig them deeper.

 

David starts digging out the upper water bar and immediately hit rock, just below the surface.

Ruh roh .... that rock is getting larger by the minute! All we had was one small pick - no rock/pry bar. The rock turned out to be quite large and required a little ingenuity to get it out, but with good planning and David-power, plus a little help from me, out it came! Removing the rock saved a lot of extra digging - we actually had to backfill the hole (too deep).

 

Here's how the waterbars turned out. This was the first video I've ever made - obviously, I forgot to announce "lights, camera, ACTION!"

While we were working on the waterbars, two thru-hikers came by. You can read all about it on a separate post: Predator and Red Velvet

 

As we continued on Section 7, there was a pretty little waterfall that only appears when there have been lots of heavy rains. It is right next to the trail ........

 

....... and this is where all the waterfall water goes - that big puddle is smack dab

 in the middle of the AT.

Just above Bear Spring is a beautiful mountain laurel patch in an area the section maintainer calls "The Alpines". The laurels were in full bloom and you can see the pictures here: Mountain Laurel on the AT (Sec 7)

 

Bear Spring ...... running hard from all the rain.

Just above the switchback at Bear Spring, the trail is washing terribly, to the point that a small gully is forming. Below that switchback, the trail is also washing badly. Two waterbars will be added to the project list - needed ASAP. Somebody had pulled up the spring sign and put it down next to the trail, probably because the sign isn't visible south bound and the spring is easy to miss. Unfortunately, they put the sign in an area where water had been running and causing erosion - the hikers were using the eroded area as a trail, making the situation considerably worse. We put the sign back its hole and brushed up the 'outlaw' trail. When we go in to do the waterbars, we'll take a look at the sign location and see if we can find a better one.

Below Bear Spring, but before we got to Fan Rock, we ran into that blowdown. Here is the scoop on what we discovered/saw:  Big Tree Jr. - Still A Problem (Sec. 6)

Other than the erosion issues at Bear Spring and BT Jr., Section 6 looked great! We soon arrived at the Howardsville Turnpike portion of the section and even the huge water diversion bars/ditches were in good shape.

Pictures of the impressive stonework that supports the Howardsville Turnpike, once the primary, busy route between the Shenandoah Valley and the James River.

On the hike from the Humpback Rocks Parking lot down the BRP, there were some gorgeous flowers blooming .... a beautiful way to end a busy, tiring, but super productive day. The work would not have gotten done without David A. ..... he worked hard and the improvements to the Sec. 7 waterbars wouldn't not have "happened" without his efforts. Thanks, David!

~ Merlot

 

 

(Photos & video: Merlot)