[at-l] Poll

[hopefl@xxxxxxxx (Lamar Powell)]

On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 14:59:18 -0800 (PST) Datto <datto_atl2@yahoo.com>
writes:
> Okay, it's a Sunday and who has hiking gear laying out in
> their living room right now?

I have stuff I'm washing and putting away. Yesterday I went to a section
of the approach to the Hike Inn (half way up Springer) to help do some
fixing up. The GATC had a really good turn out, I'd guess there was maybe
20 folks on hand, and this in spite of a prediction of heavy rain. As it
turned out, we worked all day without any rain. While I was driving home,
the forecasted rain started in.

The crew I was working with built a "turnpike." For those not familiar
with the term, a turnpike is a raised part of the trail that crosses a
place that is always muddy and gooshy. This is in contrast to a bog bride
which crosses places that have a lot more water than mud. Anyway, we cut
several locus logs that were already down. I like to harvest this kind
of wood because I just hate to feel a living tree. Some times there is no
option, this time there was. These tree were knocked down several years
ago by one of the hurricanes. After 5 or 10 years of being down the wood
was still solid enough to use.

To build the turnpike, we started by scraping off all the organic stuff.
Then we laid off two parallel trenches to hold the log in place, and a
diversion trench to channel the water away. Then we used the locus trunks
to form a rectangle that was about 18 feet long and maybe 4 feet wide.
When the rectangle was in place we began to fill the area with filler
rock. Then the filler rock was covered over with clay. We ended up with a
raised area 18 long by 4 wide and about 8 inches high that has a clay
top. The clay doesn't allow much water to seep through so it tends to run
off to the sides and into the diversion trench. The result is a nice
level and solid tread in a place that was so muddy that you'd sink up to
your boot tops. The last thing was to cover the clay with lots of leaves.
The leafy finish made the turnpike look like it had always been there.

All the rock and clay was taken from a pit we dug about 50 feet off the
trail. We carried it in bags and buckets. Today my muscle are feeling all
of that effort but it is actually a good feeling, one which I wish I
could experience more often.  Hopeful

________________________________________________________________
Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today
Only $9.95 per month!
Visit www.juno.com