Week 4: May 25-29, 2019

Crew 1: Battery Cliff Rehab

working with Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club


click here for the full photo album


On week four, Crew 1 set off for Battery Cliffs doing a rehab project in a section that has been really degraded by water. A lot of rockwork and drainage will be necessary to solve this problem.

This week we set up a highline which was incredible to see in action. We were like a machine moving rock and managed to fly over 70 huge rocks in just a day and a half. The teamwork with this crew was awesome which was definitely what allowed us to fly so much rock so fast.

We had an expert tree climber with us who helped us rig up the whole system on day 2 and once it was set up everybody was assigned a job to do. We all ended up liking what we were doing so much that we never really switched up positions so everybody ended up being a pro by the next day.

On day 4 to wrap up the week, the crew put in two rock water bars and a few steps to help control the water issue before we come back for week 5. The last day of the week was our drive day so we got to sleep in a bit before we hit the road.

In our off time this week we got to adventure some. On day 3 we went into Waynesboro for our mandatory weekly ice cream stop. Then on day 4 after work we went off to Sherando lake and swam around to clean off, some people even brought out some soap. It’s a beautiful lake that we will most definitely be returning to next week ( they even have hot showers there ). 

On the last day of the week on the drive back to basecamp we stopped at Dinosaur Kingdom 2 which was an incredibly enlightening experience. We learned the secret history of the civil war, saw plenty of prehistoric creatures, and entered a room that defied the laws of physics. We even got to chat with the creator of this surreal world for a bit. It was probably the strangest place any of us had ever been in our lives. You can’t leave Dinosaur Kingdom 2 the same person as when you go in.

Ultimately we couldn’t have asked for a better crew and it ended up being a great week full of
weird adventures and really good work.

--Sarah Ellsworth, Assistant Crew Leader