[at-l] Storm Damage

[greyowl at rcn.com (greyowl@rcn.com)]

I have not been able to get to the trail.  We had really 
heavy rains and the Delaware Crested in Easton yesterday.  We 
were lucky, just about a foot of water in the basement.  The 
house two house down from us will need to be demolished.  A 
lot of roads are out.  Bath and Portland (they are closer to 
the trail) both had flooding and I am sure that the trail in 
PA has extensive damage. For once the people in the Phillie 
area got a lot less rain than we did.

Cheers,

Grey Owl


---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 22:19:07 -0400
>From: "Jim and/or Ginny Owen" <spiriteagle99@hotmail.com>  
>Subject: [at-l] Storm Damage  
>To: at-l@backcountry.net
>
>I don't know what it is like on the AT, but from what we saw 
this weekend, 
>if anyone has contacts with a local maintaining club, now 
would be a good 
>time to volunteer to help clear the trail of storm damage, 
especially 
>anywhere from the mid-Atlantic south to Florida.
>
>Jim and I did a day hike on the Catoctin trail, about two 
miles from the AT, 
>in Maryland.  While parts of the trail weren't too bad, most 
of the damage 
>being erosion from the heavy rains, there was a section just 
north of MD 77 
>that was totally completely impassible due to blowdowns.  We 
thought it 
>looked as if one of the 30 tornados on Friday night must 
have hit that 
>section of trail.  We would detour around a downed tree, 
then around another 
>above it, then go a bit higher to get around the next one.  
We couldn't even 
>get back to the trail after a while, we had detoured so far 
off the route.  
>We stumbled through rocks and downed trees for about 3/4 
mile.  We ended up, 
>quite happily, on a road that we used to skirt the rest of 
the damage.  We 
>ran into a ranger on the road, who talked to us about the 
trail conditions.  
>We then were able to find the trail farther up the way, did 
about five more 
>miles, then came back to the point of reentering the bad 
blowdown section.  
>Just as we were getting a last drink of water before facing 
the dreaded 
>downfall, the ranger passed by and asked, "Would you like a 
ride back to 
>your car? It's on my way."  Given that it was already 6:00, 
we were quite 
>happy to say yes.  Trail magic of the best kind.  Driving 
down the road, we 
>saw an area of solid blowdowns that had been chainsawed.  It 
was below the 
>section of trail we had been hiking.  Jim said, "It looks 
like a microburst 
>passed through here."  "We think it was either that or a 
tornado" said the 
>ranger.  Unfortunately, they only have one volunteer who 
comes twice a year 
>to clear the trail.  He's due next month.  Until then ---
>
>But it reminded me of the hurricane damage last fall.  That 
took weeks to 
>clear up, even on the AT.  So, if you plan to go hiking, be 
aware that you 
>may not be able to do big miles on your favorite southern 
trails, and if you 
>can, volunteer to help clear.  The amount of rain that they 
had in the 
>mountains with the three hurricanes so far this year have 
created quite a 
>problem.  We saw it in the Shenandoahs last week, lots of 
erosion and downed 
>trees, and that was before the tornados on Friday night and 
the rains on 
>Saturday.  We're off next weekend to see how our section of 
the Midstate has 
>held up.  It is far enough north that there shouldn't be 
much more than a 
>summer's worth of sapling growth, but you never know.
>
>Ginny
>
>
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