Week 7: June 22-26, 2018

Crew 2 : Gooch Gap/Justus Mountain

working with Georgia Appalachian Trail Club

click here for the full photo album

Yet another adventure in trail-building has come to fruition as the month of June draws toward its end. With the completion of Week 7, Crew 2 has officially finished up the third and final tour of its southernmost project in Georgia for the 2018 season. Working in the Chattahoochee National Forest and partnering with the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club (GATC), the crew once again split its time between Gooch Gap and Cooper Gap to complete a variety of structure-building on trail relocation projects.

The primary focus of the week was on the locust log staircase that had been started at Gooch Gap during Week 6. This ambitious project had involved the use of saddle-notches to lock steps and crib logs together. This method results in an elegant and durable structure, but requires some technical finesse and lots of time to get right.

Volunteers definitely got to brush up on their woodworking skills this week. The construction of the staircase required a variety of steps, including sharpening loads of wood stakes, debarking locust logs, transporting the logs from the road access to the project site via GATC’s signature “Zebmobile” contraption, and digging trenches to set the logs appropriately.

The most involved part of the process was making the custom-fit saddle notches on each log. This required the use of a divider to scribe the proper notch shape on to the log - a task that involves a lot of attention to detail. Next, with the help of a chainsaw, the crew leaders cut a series of “kerf cuts” into the log according to the line scribed on to the log. Crew members then used a combination of axe and chisels to chop out the notches and smooth them out so that one log will then fit snugly on top of another, in a “Lincoln Log” fashion.

As with any trail structure, the log steps require huge amounts of crushed rock in order to cement the components into the ground. Several crew members were always occupied with sledgehammers on this integral task. Some people love the meditative exercise of smashing rock after rock after rock, while others find the task unspeakably tedious. In either case, crush-production is an absolutely essential part of sustainable trail building.

As the staircase project drew closer to completion, only a few crew members could be involved in the tight-quarters area of step installation. The rest of the crew and club volunteers dedicated substantial time to “junking” up the downhill slope on the outside of the staircase.

Since hikers often instinctively avoid walking on steps, it is important to provide subtle psychological nudges to push hikers on to the steps - therefore on to the most sustainable trail surface that is most resistant to erosion. The junking process involved carrying in some very big rocks with the rock net, as well as plenty of smaller rocks, branches, and brush. By the end, the staircase looked by far to be the most appealing path up the trail.

It took two work days (slightly shortened due to afternoon thunderstorms) to complete the staircase. The result was an impressive structure that Crew 2 can rightfully be proud of. Georgia, being at the most popular starting point for thru-hikers, sees an enormous amount of hiker traffic every spring and this staircase will definitely mitigate their impact on this steeper section of trail.

The remaining day of the Konnarock week was spent back at Justus Mountain, a half mile in from Cooper Gap. The goal for Justus was to install some more rock steps on a section that had been started the week before. This switch from logwork to rockwork was a nice way to mix things up within the same crew week, and the team worked very well on this project.

All manner of rock work tasks were on display at the Justus work site. These included using the porta-wrap to belay some particularly huge rocks safely down the hill slope, smashing prodigious amounts of rock into crush, and wielding the rifting hammers to shape a huge slab into the perfect step rock. By the end of the day, Crew 2 had installed a total of 9 rock steps. More might have been installed if it wasn’t for the rapid arrival of a fearsome thunderstorm which darkened the sky and soon began pelting the crew with rain as they packed tools out from the work site.

The sounds of wind and thunder mingled with the sounds of machine gun fire and mortar explosions emanating from nearby Camp Merrill - the mountain phase training camp for the Army Rangers. It was quite a dramatic scene, but it wasn’t the only time Crew 2 experienced the influence of the military.

 For the third week in a row, the crew stayed the grounds of Camp Merrill, staying in the gymnasium building and enjoying the flushing toilets and showers - in addition to the plentiful noises of artillery and landing helicopters. On one morning, the crew was eating breakfast when several hundred fully uniformed Ranger students filed through the breakfast area to attend church services - definitely not something that happens on a typical crew week!

Week 7 included a couple more fun sideshows along the way, like a visit to two separate waterfalls, a stop for ice cream at Blue Creek Farmhouse Market, and some intense evening games of basketball in the Camp Merrill gymnasium. Of course, no week in Georgia would be complete without a party at Tom Lamb’s house. Tom is the Trail Supervisor for GATC and always opens his home to Konnarock at the end of the project week. Though a thunderstorm prevented the traditional Etowah River tubing trip from occurring, volunteers still got to enjoy Tom’s beautiful home and legendary hospitality. A fantastic spread was provided for dinner, board games were played, and a screening of a Georgia documentary, Deliverance, topped off a fun and relaxing evening.

Crew 2 enjoyed Tom’s home-cooked breakfast of eggs, grits, biscuits, and tomatoes in the morning before heading out and beginning the drive back to VA. The crew made sure to prolong the drive just a bit with a stop for lunch at a Konnarock favorite, Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack in Asheville, NC. After indulging in fried chicken of varying spice-levels, the tired but well-fed crew completed the last leg of the journey and arrived at Base Camp in Sugar Grove.

As always, a gigantic thank you to all of the volunteers who came out to spend a week doing hard manual labor on the A.T. - the work is hard but rewarding and it would not be possible without willing workers. Thanks as well to the members of GATC for coming out to help with the project work, supporting the crew by cutting log steps ahead of time, and of course for hosting the crew on the last night. The value of the unique partnerships between the ATC and the trail maintaining clubs has been fully evident during the weeks in Georgia this year.

 An additional thanks, as well, to the U.S. Military staff at Camp Merrill Army Ranger Camp for allowing the Konnarock Crew to enjoy luxury accommodations and an unforgettable “camping” experience the past three weeks. The contacts at the Camp did everything possible to make sure the crew’s needs were addressed and this is greatly appreciated.

And with that, another blog post comes to an end. Another unforgettable Konnarock adventure is forever chronicled for posterity. Although the season is now more than halfway over, that still leaves 5 more action-packed weeks of trail work to supply plenty more tales. Keep an eye out for the next exciting account of Crew 2’s escapades. In the coming weeks, the crew will spend some time in North Carolina, digging brand new trail for a relocation. Until then, be sure to share the blog and tell your friends to volunteer for Konnarock!

--Assistant Crew Leader Josh Reynolds