Crew 1: Jerry Cabin to Big Butt Relocation & Rehab
It's the second last week of the Konnarock Trail Crew season and Crew 1 has just finished up another successful week of triumphant, transcendent, trail building!
This week we were headed to the "Jerry Cabin to Big Butt Relocation & Rehab" near Greeneville, TN, where the maintaining club of the region is the Carolina Mountain Club. It was in the total opposite direction from Sinking Creek Mountain where we have spent the last 4 consecutive weeks.
With a new crew, 4 new Konnarock volunteers and 2 returning, we packed up tools, camping gear, and all the essentials for the week ahead and headed south from Sugar Grove, VA.
After about 2 hours of driving, we arrived on the Rocky Fork Trail where we had anticipated a slow trek up a road for 10 miles to our campsite for the week. Another 2 hours later, we finally arrived on top of the ridge, at Buzzard Rock, which has a spectacular view, where the crew could see how high up we drove and mountains for days. We took to digging our privy, sump hole, putting up our kitchen tarp/area, and our personal tents for the week. With only a little time left to spare for the day, half the group went along with Jerry to clear the overgrown trail which was the beginning of our walk in to work everyday, while the rest of the crew got to preparing dinner for the evening.
The next morning, following breakfast and stretch circle, of course, we started our first 2.3 mile hike in with as many tools as the crew could carry to the work site. Our work this week would focus on a new relocation near Jerry Cabin shelter avoiding a steep, eroding section of trail. The first step in creating the new section of trail was clearing and brushing the corridor of the woods that would become the trail.
The trail-to-be had already been flagged out prior to the crew's arrival for it's precise location by ATC staff. The chainsaw was used to cut up trees that had fallen in the place where the trail was to go. The crew eagerly got to the work, lopping, sawing, and moving whatever was needed to dig the trail next. During our lunch break we walked to the Jerry Cabin shelter, not far from our work site and chatted with some fellow hikers and checked out the area. We then did a demo for sidehill digging for the crew, to show them how to dig trail and why it's done that way. Not long after, heads were down and the digging commenced. This crew picked it up fast. Another 2.3 miles back to camp and the work for day 1 was complete.
At the end of day 2, the new relocation was almost done being dug! The crew was lined out and with very little direction, worked tirelessly all day. We were joined by the section maintainer from the Carolina Mountain Club for a few hours which we greatly appreciated! Thanks Shaun! That night we had our first campfire and played a few super fun games of Werewolf before falling asleep to rain and thunderstorms. Morning came with sunshine and no rain for our 3rd and final day of work.
With the relocation almost completely dug, we downed a black cherry tree to use for log steps within the trail. The crew was excited to learn about log steps after many back breaking hours of sidehill digging. We had different crew members debark the trees, both for the step and the wood we'd be using for stakes. After debarking we had a group of volunteers gathering rock (as it was scarce) and people making crush, and also taking turns setting the log steps.
With the relocation basically done and 3 log steps set, we concluded our work for the week. We hiked out the harder, uphill 2.3 climb back to camp, enjoyed a delicious meal, followed by S more's and Werewolf around the campfire. It was dark at this point and we ended the night with some amazing views from Buzzard Rock, of a thunderstorm off in the distance and a few shooting stars.
The next morning we packed up our camp, drove the long 10 miles down the mountain and stopped off the Rocky Fork Trail to take a very cold dip in the creek. Only one volunteer was brave enough to go all the way in the water. A tad cleaner than we were (even if just our feet), we drove off the trail towards Bristol, where we'd have lunch at the Burger Bar.
We had a very yummy, filling lunch and checked out downtown Bristol a bit. We learned that the Blackbird Bakery sells roasted organic coffee from Sugar Grove, VA! Of course, I got an iced coffee before driving the rest of the way back to base camp for cleaning, dinner and T-shirts. Great coffee!
With only 3 full work days because of a long, slow, drive in, a 2.3 mile hike in and 6 volunteers, it was really awesome to see that the relocation we focused on this week is almost complete! I think everyone had a great week and we hope to see all of them out on the trail again!
Week 11 was a great success thanks to a ridiculously hard working group of volunteers.
My favorite joke from the week, from Miles from Madison, Wisconsin: "I used to be addicted to soap, but now I'm clean."
Thank you to our volunteers this week who did a really great job out there on Crew 1! (*whisper* "Hoo-yah")
--Julia Smith, Assistant Crew Leader
The next morning we packed up our camp, drove the long 10 miles down the mountain and stopped off the Rocky Fork Trail to take a very cold dip in the creek. Only one volunteer was brave enough to go all the way in the water. A tad cleaner than we were (even if just our feet), we drove off the trail towards Bristol, where we'd have lunch at the Burger Bar.
With only 3 full work days because of a long, slow, drive in, a 2.3 mile hike in and 6 volunteers, it was really awesome to see that the relocation we focused on this week is almost complete! I think everyone had a great week and we hope to see all of them out on the trail again! 
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