Crew 2: Sinking Creek Relocation
working with Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club
click here for the full photo album
Week ten, Crew Two trudged back up Sinking Creek Mountain in
Southwest Virginia to finish up some unfinished business from the week before. Both
a cribbed rock staircase exiting a rock slide and a crib wall at the switchback
needed to be completed, and with a small crew of only five volunteers and two
Crew leaders they had their doubts about being able to finish both of these
technical projects.
The area where the staircase was to be constructed looked especially
hairy as the removal of a giant rotten stump had left a gaping hole in the path
and rocks for the switchback crib wall were having to be gathered from further
and further away. Could they possibly pull it together?
Although it was a small Crew, it luckily consisted of one
heck of a cast of volunteers. The Crew consisted of almost all alumni, several
being veterans of many years. The lesser experienced happened to be quick
learners just as much as they were hard workers. This mix combined with a few members
from the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club, who worked alongside Konnarock, gave
the Crew a fighting chance to achieve their goals for the week.
The Crew worked diligently and skillfully and made a trail
of it yet. By the end, both teams had accomplished their goals and were even
able to move on to more steps above their respective areas. The final count for
the week ended up being twenty steps and seventy cubic feet of cribbing, not to
mention the unseen mountains of crush that now lie beneath the surface of the
Trail - not too shabby for a Crew of seven!
The weather, albeit hot and muggy at times, could not hinder
Crew Two’s efforts. The dry weather actually made for easy digging as well as
safe working conditions. The only rain came on the final night in the field
we’ll after the week’s work had concluded. The thunder roared, lightning
flashed, and the rain sounded reminiscent of a freight train at times, but this
was only a celebratory applause to the week’s accomplishments.
The progress can almost certainly be attributed in part to
the number of calories consumed at the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club’s annual
Corn Boil. Each Club member, of whom there were many, brought a dish to the
potluck. The amount and variety of food was as impressive as it was delicious. The
Crew had a good time intermingling with the Club folks, and enjoyed meeting
likeminded people involved in the A.T. We simply cannot thank RATC enough for
their amazing generosity!
Other evenings were spent at Joe’s Trees Christmas tree farm,
which is quickly becoming a favorite campsite among volunteers. In the evenings
as the sun set, they would gather around the giant stump on the porch of the
farm store and listen to music on Spotify, enjoying the free wifi as well as
each other’s company. Some evenings, when they could still move after the day’s
work, they entertained themselves with a few games of Kan Jam, a frisbee
version of Corn Hole.
Once again, the Crew stopped by the Falls of Dismal for a
relaxing swim on the way back to base camp. While swimming, they attempted to catch
minnows and crawdads. Try as they might, they could not quite catch enough
crawdads for lunch so they stopped by a Mexican restaurant in Whytheville to
reward the week’s work.
Great job, Crew Two, for making a solid dent in this tough
project. Considering the small Crew size, the effort this week was quite a feat.
Until next time… HYAW!!!
--Brian Allgood, Assistant Crew Leader
The area where the staircase was to be constructed looked especially
hairy as the removal of a giant rotten stump had left a gaping hole in the path
and rocks for the switchback crib wall were having to be gathered from further
and further away. Could they possibly pull it together?
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