Hi All –
It was certainly a rainy Saturday, but, not enough to put a damper on our work trip. A whopping 21 people showed up, despite the rain, looking for something to do on a dreary day, and, of course, they were not disappointed because there was a lot of fun in store. The group split up into 5 crews; the two mud crews, the sawyer crew, the blazing crew, and the picnic crew. The work day was to end early for our annual picnic dinner. The rain helped the early release along, which is probably a good thing; otherwise, knowing this bunch, it would have been hard to tear them away from the trail.
The first mud crew of Jim, Bob, Eric, Margaret, and Craig spent their time working on Section 1 south of Rockfish Gap. They covered a lot of ground rehabbing a total of 36 waterbars and removing the worst of the offending toe trippers. Along the way they needed to stop at a stream crossing to clean off muddy tools (and hands). Hmmm..I wonder why? This crew put themselves up for the 'Dirtiest-Looking' Crew award. Thanks for all the wonderful dirty work! Maintainers In The Mist (Sec 1)
The second mud crew of Dave W, Mark, Dave G, Theresa, and Bill picked up where the August crew left off on the west side just south of Dripping Rock. They installed two check steps along with a waterbar. They stopped to clean tools at Dripping Rock. I’m seeing a trend here. This crew could also get the “Dirtiest-Looking’ Crew award. Thank you for all the work in the mud. Rockin' It In The Rain (Sec 10)
The sawyer crew of Chris, Richard, and Dennis also picked up where the crew left off in August, by removing the tree that was found last month on the trail down to the shelter. They then headed up the back of Humpback Rocks to get the second tree reported down. On the way up they discovered two more trees on the Howardsville. Those downed trees multiply fast. Thanks for covering a lot of ground and clearing the trail.
The blazing crew of Fran, Taryn and Mary decided to start at Rockfish Gap instead of going up to the top of Humpback Rocks. With the wet weather, that was a good choice. They got to the first stream crossing and turned around and came back. Thanks for blazing the trail!
Finally, the picnic crew of Richard, Stephen, John, Chris and me. With the pending rain, the picnic dinner location was moved from Humpback Rocks Picnic area to the Sherando CCC Kitchen. This was a wise move especially with all the rain that fell in the late afternoon. Master Chefs, Richard and Stephen were at their finest. They have outdoor cooking down to an art and could easily win an Iron Chef Outdoors award. They cooked a wonderful dinner of hamburgers, hotdogs, veggie burgers and dogs, potato salad, pasta salad, baked beans, chips and for dessert pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Did I leave anything out? Thanks to this crew for preparing a wonderful meal for those wet and weary maintainers. It was great to have this time together. A Rainy Day Picnic! (2013)
Our friends Bob, Peggy, Art and Lissie joined us for the picnic. It was fun catching up with them about the good old days on the trail. Peggy brought her fabulous brownies for all to enjoy. Yum! Yum! Thanks for joining us.
A big welcome to our newcomers Bill, Mary and Taryn out on their first maintenance trip. And again a really huge THANK YOU! to all the crews for their hard work despite rain to make our 19.1 miles the best on the AT.
Take care,
Lori
No comments:
Post a Comment