Hi
All –
What
a wonderful day to end our maintenance year. While most of our lucky
crew of 13 people spent the day in the fog, this didn’t dampen
their spirits and an incredible amount of work was accomplished. The
group split up into three crews, the rehab crew on section 1, the
sawyer crew on sections 5 & 6, and the long distance crew who
hiked sections 8a, 8b, 7 and 6.
The
rehab crew started out at Rockfish Gap on a mission to complete a
season-long project to reduce the amount or water running unchecked
down the AT, rehab and maintain the waterbars that had been built
this season and in previous years, and to finish removing and
rebuilding outdated waterbars built in 1992 when the trail was
rerouted. Starting in April, they met the challenge over the season
by rehabbing all 44 waterbars on section 1, removing and adding some
along the way, and even had time to repair a set of stone steps. Wow!
What a wonderful way to end the year! A big thanks to this work
trip's hard working crew of Jim, Christina, Mark, Bill and Karl for
their incredible effort. Rockfish Crew: A Season of Progress (Sec 1 & 2)
Four
experienced sawyers, Ed Sr., Richard, Chris, and Eric made up the
sawyer crew and their goal was Big Tree Jr. After Chris and Eric took
a detour to Glass Hollow overlook to remove the only other tree
reported down, they all met up at Big Tree Jr near Bear Spring and
came up with the plan to tackle its removal. Words cannot do justice
to the feat accomplished that day. This was a difficult challenge
which the sawyers have been looking forward to all year. Our blog
tells the story the best. Check it out. This is a testament to the
high caliber skills of all our certified sawyers and how they
expertly tackle all these difficult obstacles on the trail. Thanks so
much for your skill and expertise in removing trees from the trail.
The
long distance crew started out at Humpback Picnic area on the blue
blaze to the AT, marking where waterbars are needed to stop erosion
along the trail. This crew of Karen, Ed Jr., John and I were the only
ones to see sunlight on Saturday, with some spectacular views from
Battery Cliffs and Humpback Mountain overlook where we looked down on
the fog in the valley below. It was quite a treat. We did accomplish
a lot of work along our journey cleaning out waterbars, removing
rocks from the trail and clearing part of a tree that was
encroaching. Since we ended up at Humpback Parking, we saw the demise
of Big Tree Jr first hand. It was a long distance to cover. Thanks to
everyone on the crew for your endurance and hard work. 6-Mile Crew (Sec 6,7 8A & 8B) ; The Fog Comes On .... And Stays!
It
is sad that our maintenance year is over, but, we have more to look
forward to in 2014. As
always, a really huge THANK YOU ☺
to all the crews for
their hard work to make our 19.1 miles the best on the AT.
Also,
mark your calendars for our Maintainer Potluck, January 18, 2014!
Take
care,
Lori
No comments:
Post a Comment