The 'No Margarita' Bars (Sec 1 Crew)

The northern end of the R2R AT section begins at the Rockfish Gap grassy field.

(Photo: Merlot)

Christina W. sent in this comment and a link to pictures she took Saturday:

Here are the pictures from Saturday's worktrip:  It sure was a busy one with THREE new and ELEVEN rehabbed waterbars (and not one margarita :-(  ).  

Crew Pictures

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Crew leader report:

The water bar crew consisted of Christina W., Dennis S. and Jim S. (crew leader). We started by judiciously weed whacking and pruning the open field at RFG (Rockfish Gap). There are several benefits to keeping the corridor narrow and the vegetation at least 6" in height. There is no tree cover here, so any rainfall will have full soil impact and will cause severe erosion if the vegetation on the ground is clipped too close or if a wide, muddy trail exists. Keeping the corridor narrow is working by keeping the hikers (and water) on the trail.

Even though constructing water bars usually starts at the top of a hill, we started at the bottom, since the erosion was worse as the trail enter the woods. The trick was to catch the runoff coming down the AT AND the runoff from a culvert which drains the parking lot along the BRP at RFG, and to not block a side trail which enters the AT just as the AT leaves the woods. Christina worked on the largest of the water bars at the woods edge and Dennis worked on 2 smaller water bars working north to the BRP - since the erosion is not bad towards the top of the hill, the water bars can be smaller. I rotated between the 3 water bars and helped brush in the sides. Two more new water bars will probably be needed, but we'll watch how the water flows off the trail to see where and how many water bars will be needed to complete the project in the field.

We spent the remaining 2 hours rehabbing 11 water bars which had been installed on previous work trips. Water bars are like cars and homes - they need constant maintenance. The three of us had a very productive day and worked great as a team. Christina took great photos and always kept the conversations interesting. All of us celebrated a very productive day. 

~Jim S.

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Note: Christina was on the crew for One Burrito, Please & Hold The Salsa! last spring ..... I think I'm detecting a theme here! (Thanks for the link/info Christina).