Week 1: May 2-6, 2018

Crew 1: Snake Den Ridge Rehab

 working with Carolina Mountain Club

click here for the full photo album



It's May 2018, and Crew 1, led by Jerry Kyle, tackled the first project of the season up at Snake Den Ridge and Flint Gap near Flag Pond, TN. We headed out Thursday morning with 6 volunteers, some returning and some volunteering for the first time with Konnarock. It was awesome to learn that 4 of the 6 volunteers have thru-hiked the trail, were transformed by their experience and were here so that people can continue enjoying the AT.






Two hours of driving and we arrived at the campsite, dropped the van and started hiking into the work site. We drove the truck up with the tools as far as we could, unloaded tools and had our tool safety talk. The hike from the campsite to the AT was about .4 miles and once on the AT it was another mile to where we would start work.

There at Flint Gap, log steps and drainage features were the biggest priority. The work day consisted mainly of getting the materials for waterbars, steps, and stakes from the surrounding area. Lucky for us, there was a fallen black locust tree that we were able to get all our materials from.

After bucking up the tree the crew started the work of splitting logs with sledges and wedges to get as much material from the tree as possible. We had people debarking the trees after splitting and myself and a crew member started cutting locust for stakes. Jerry and Rich (Konnarock Assistant Crew Leader class of  '91) went up the trail to start working on some deberming and tread definition. We worked for a few hours in the sunshine before hiking back to set up camp.

The following day, we enjoyed our coffee and breakfast, hiked in, stretched, shared some jokes (all better than mine) and started where we left off. More splitting,  debarking, and sharing stories as we got to know one another more. The weather was hot and sunny for the first two days, so mandatory water breaks were placed into the schedule. Pretty much the whole day was spent doing log step prep with Rich and Jerry working hard above Flint Gap to fix the berm, improve drainage and address trail creep problems.

Blue Jay (Joan) and Terry were debarking machines, while Magic Mike (Michael), Ginger Patch (Andrew) and Tortoise (Martha) continued working together to split materials. Right before we ended the work day, we did a log step installation demo so the crew could get right to it the next day. We had a shorter work day because we had dinner plans with the Carolina Mountain Club.

We were treated to an amazing dinner and ice cream with Paul (The CMC Trail Supervisor), Tom, and Anne (members of the club).


It was a great evening, getting to see the cute town of Hot Springs, NC and enjoy a dinner out! Thank you CMC for your generosity and support!

The crew agreed to work a few extra hours the next day, to make up for the previous shortened work day, and we were able to get a lot done thanks to beautiful weather and a hard working crew. We split up into two groups and started actually installing steps and waterbars. Morgan Sommerville (ATC's Southern Regional Director) came out to show his support and work with us for a few hours, which was awesome!

With a longer work day we were able to get in most of the steps and some waterbars before making the trek back to camp for burritos.

Saturday morning, Jerry and some volunteers cooked up an amazing breakfast of grits, eggs, bacon and spam. A great way to start the morning and be ready for a hard work day. With rain and thunderstorms expected in the late afternoon, our plan was to finish the steps on both sides of the gap in the first part of the day, then bump up the trail a little farther south of the gap before the storms moved in. The work required adding some steps into an eroding switchback, removing slough, cleaning up the backslope and closing off the old A.T.

With that work underway by the crew, two volunteers and I hiked a little farther south to where there was a stream crossing. We tried to keep water flowing, make for a better walk across the steam and add crush to the tread where water was pooling. With thunder in the distance, we finished work and headed back to the group to find they had finished their work and were getting ready to hike back to camp.


The rain started before we got going and most were caught in the downpour before making it to the kitchen tarp. We did some tarp maintenance when we returned to camp, and the crew drank hot tea to warm up after getting soaked on the hike out. We enjoyed one last crew dinner together, a delicious pesto pasta with sausage and veggies. A happy, dry, a little sore, fully stuffed crew headed to bed.


We had a pleasant morning having our final breakfast and slowly packing up tents and the camp. Rain came down on and off as we packed up, but it was a pretty smooth morning. We loaded up into the vehicles and headed for base camp. We stopped for lunch at the Bonefire Grill in Abingdon, VA before getting back to camp to unpack and clean.

The season is off to an amazing start if I do say so myself! Our volunteers for week 1 were awesome workers and great fun to camp, laugh and tell stories with. I am still overwhelmed by the volunteer support, work and dedication to the Appalachian Trail and this program. It's just amazing to have people come from all over the place to put in a tremendous amount of work to keep this trail a beautiful experience. I'm grateful to be a working with the ATC, the trail clubs and all the volunteers. Bring on week 2! Huzzah!

Log steps, drains and waterbars
features that keep the trail at 5 stars
crew 1 volunteers came to give back
so others can experience the AT track

young, old, alumni, or new,
thru-hikers, workers, and campers, made up this crew
Work, stories, laughs, and meals were shared
a week together in the woods, to what could be compared?

--Julia Smith, Assistant Crew Leader