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[at-l] Trail Crew Report and Update
Well, I just got back from Konnarock Trail Crew yesterday, so here's a quick
synopsis of the week:
I drove into the camp and got out of my car to cries of "SCHUYLER!!!!!" It's
Charlotte and Cynthia. I've known Charlotte for several years (she helped
paint my house when we moved in) and Cynthia was a crew leader from last year.
Already off to a good start. I was kind of apprehensive as to whether or not
people would remember me since I was only there a week last year. But
Cynthia and others remembered me. (Charlotte was a ridge-runner in the Mt
Rogers area last year for any who ran into her.)
Charlotte went to KMart earlier that day and bought some of those temporary
tatoos of fish. So I stuck one on my arm. While waiting for it to "take,"
she ran through the introductions which I promptly forgot. No problem.
There's a week to learn people's names. I then went and looked up my
pod (cabin) and work assignments. Oh goody, I'm going to the same place I
went to last year, Porter's Ridge. At first I was a little disapointed because
I wanted to see something different, but then the more I thought about it the
more I realized how cool it would be to go back and finish the project that was
started last year. I would be on Dana's crew with Davy Ray as assistant crew
leader and Charlotte would be assistant crew leader to Cynthia. I went and
stuck my gear in my pod and walked back to the pavillion area.
Janet comes walking out of the pavillion smiling at me. Janet was the
assistant crew leader for my crew last year. Big smiles and hugs all around.
She's the camp coordinator this year. She gave me quick updates for the
others that were on our crew from last year that she knew about and then
we had dinner.
After dinner we split into our respective crews. My crew would consist of
Mark, Dana, Davy, Walter and Karin, Jeremiah, Chuck, and Greg. (Greg is Weather
Carrot and says hi to anyone who knows him. He specifically says hi to the
Owens and apologizes for not calling you guys yet. He's been busy.)
Last year we built trail from the railroad bed towards the shelter and got
about 2/3 of the way there. This year, we're starting at the shelter side and
working our way north to the part where we ended last year. Same type of
work, though, side hill construction. But there would be some new things.
Like there's a creek crossing of a very fragile outflow of a spring that was
built, and Greg and I did a grade dip. It's just an intentional sloping of the
trail for a short time to let water flow off of the trail better.
But anyway, I'm jumping ahead. After the crew meetings we played volleyball
for a while until it got too dark to see the ball. Then played pool.
I brought a lot of my best Dead tapes for the drive down and Jeremiah asked
it he could tape some of them. Sure. I don't mind listening to them again.
:-)
The next morning we loaded up and headed out by 8:00. We got to the parking
lot that we were meeting the ranger at by 11:30 and had lunch. Ranger
Dave showed up about noon and we headed up the hill. Instead of camping
on the AT like we did last year, we slept down the hill from the AT by
Big Rock Spring. While we're walking around the clearing looking for
places to set up tents, Greg goes "Whoa!!!" We look over to where he's
looking and there's a fawn laying still in the grass about 8 feet away.
Ranger Dave said the mother and fawn were probably drinking from the
spring and heard us come. The mother took off running and the fawn
instictively dropped flat so it couldn't be seen. The mother would come back
for the fawn in time. We all looked at it and took pictures. It was
tempting to reach out and pet it it was so cute, but we didn't.
We set up camp and then took the tools to the work site and worked for about
2 hours before heading back. When we got back to camp, the fawn was still
there. We were concerned what would happen to it if mama didn't come back.
But there was nothing we could immediately do, so we went about our business.
We cooked, cleaned, built a fire, and talked. The weather was just like
last year, rainy and cold. It didn't get above 55 degrees for the first 3 days
there.
The next morning came and the fawn was gone. wheeeew. The next 3 days were
just like last year, digging sidehill trail. Then Dana asked me to help Greg
with a grade dip and then go rehabilitate the trail that was dug last year.
Since no one walked on it, it sloughed in on itself from the back slope, so
we repaired all of that. Then one day at lunch, Dana asked for volunteers
to help the Natural Bridge Club members make waterbars up by the shelter.
I'd never done waterbar work before so jumped at the chance. Jeremiah and
I helped Sam, Leonard, and Ralph of the NBATC put in 5 waterbars. The big
thing that I learned about putting in log waterbars is that the water
shouldn't be hitting the log itself. You cover the log with an apron of
dirt and that's supposed to direct the water off of the trail. Not the log
itself. The log is just to give the berm some support.
On Saturday we opened the trail and just had some touching up to do. So we
closed the old ends of the trail and Dana and Sam blazed the new trail.
I think about a dozen or so thru hikers came thru and all were very appeciative
for our work. We were glad to have helped them. :-)
Then on Sunday, we went to another section of trail nearby that was EXTREMELY
eroded and put in waterbars. The plan was to put in rock waterbars at first.
So Davy, Walter, and I volunteered to put in the first one. Oops. That was
a mistake. First we had to walk over 50 yards in the weeds to find rocks
that were shaped right. Then when we started to dig, we ran into roots
at least 8 inches across. It took us 3 hours to put in 1/2 a waterbar.
At one point, Walter walked up the trail looking for rocks and came back
saying the rest of the crew had put in 3 waterbars already. sigh. Then we
realized out angle was all wrong and had to make it sharper. That in turn
made the waterbar longer than the others. Our waterbar ended up being about
20 feet long at an angle across a trail that was only 4 feet wide!!! But it
was solidly built! :-)
We headed back for camp and spent the last night comfortably with the temps
only going as low as the mid 50s. We were getting used to waking up with temps
in the low 40s and even 39 one morning. All week instead of me doing dishes,
I gathered and filtered water for the crew. Imagine that. ;-)
Janet and Zeb came out one night and helped us on the trail the next day.
On their way out, their truck got a flat tire. So they put the spare on
only to find it was only 1/2 full of air. But they eventually made it home
so all was well.
I can't remember which nights we did it, but we played various games around
the fire at nights. One was "Famous Names" where you go around the ring
saying the name of a famous person. Then the next person has to say a name
that the first name begins with the same letter of the first letter of the
last name just said. Like Willlian Forsythe -> Fred Astaire. If you say a
name that both names begin with the same letter (Marilyn Monroe) you
reverse direction. You couldn't repeat a name obviously. And then we started
pre-empting each other. Like if I said William Shatner, someone else would
tell the person up next not to say Samantha Fox. So they had to come up
with other S names. It went on for a while until someone said Frank Zappa.
The only Z one I could think of at the time was Zachary Taylor, which someone
told me not to say. So I think I finally thought of Zoe Bonham (John Bonham's
daughter).
Another game we played was wink murder. One person is the "murderer" and you
murder people by winking at them. The fun in the game is playing out the
horrible death you suffer while dying. If you know who the murderer is, you
can guess. The only problem was that as it got darker, the people with
glasses eyes were hidden since their glasses refelcted the fire!!
We also played Neep. One person goes away and the rest of the group thinks
up either an action or a position that people have to be in. Then the person
comes back. As they try various things, the rest of us go "NEEP NEEP" getting
louder and quicker the closer they go. Kind of like Hot Cold.
The last game we played was the "complete the story" game. It was about this
fungus growing in someone's (Dana I think) shower that ate the world several
times over.
The last night we were debating whether or not Time was truly a dimension
in a linear fashion. We basicaly agreed to disagree and finally it wound
down into us throwing sticks and rocks at each other. Dave DeManzo of the
NBATC just shook his head as we're throwing things at each other saying, "And
this is the same group that was discussing Relativitiy a few mintes ago."
The ride back to base camp was pretty uneventful. We beat Cynthia's crew
and cleaned up all of our gear. Then Zeb, Walter, Mark and I went on a
beer run. mmmmmmm beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer. The rest of the night was just
small groups of people either throwing frisbee, playing pool, listening to
more Dead tapes, or playing cards. It felt good once again to give something
back to something that means so much to me.
Then on a personal note, those of you who know me know that my wife is at
a dog training school in Columbus, OH. She's doing real well and having
fun with it, just misses me and the other animals. Though she does admit
that she's been too busy to really notice how much she misses us unless
she stops to think about it. I told her the same thing. The day she left
I hiked in to get TagAlong's pack, then Time to Fly and Katie Did spent
the night with me, then Richmond for work for 2 days, then Konnarock. Now
I've got a solid week and a half before I go back to Richmond for work to
realize how much I miss her. sigh.
--
S. Schuyler Stultz Recognition Research Inc.
schuyler@rrinc.com 1872 Pratt Drive Suite 1200
(540) 231-6500 Blacksburg, VA 24060
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