Crew 1: Sinking Creek Mountain Relocation
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Hello trail enthusiasts! Konnarock Trail Crew welcomes you to our most recent update from our 2018 trail season!
Crew 1's fun trail building extravaganza at Sinking Creek Mountain, VA has finally come to an end! Week 10 was our fifth and final week working on the Sinking Creek Relocation project with the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club and we were able to bang out some great trail work with 5 Konnarock volunteers and RATC folks that came out this week.
It is amazing the work that has been completed in these 5 weeks by the awesome volunteers and the RATC! This week, we were working on finishing up the long rock staircase we began building the week before, cleaning up and re-vegetating the area we worked in, another set of rock steps, and a set of log steps at the beginning of the relo. With a much smaller crew than the week before, we would have been happy to just get the rock staircase completed, but this crew completed that within the first day and a half. Our crew consisted of some fun, eager, hardworking individuals: Clark, Leah, Ginny, Nancy and Abigail. A smaller group, but the week was nothing short of fun, laughs, Buffalo jokes and terrific trail building.
Day one started out with some head-banging tunes at 8:30 AM from the gas station speakers that got Jerry, myself and the crew real pumped up to start the week! After the first hike up, with the help of Jim from RATC, we put in a bunch of rock steps along with gargoyles in the 1/2 day we worked. Our 2nd day, our first full work day, we banged out all but one gargoyle for the last step in our 43 rock staircase! That evening we were joined by our 5th volunteer, Leah, who's been volunteering with Konnarock since 04'!
Our 3rd day, the morning was spent re-vegetating the switchback and the staircase before bringing tools down to work on the other two sets of staircases. After moving to the beginning of the relocation, work began with rock shopping, rock drilling, then splitting with feathers and wedges, and of course crush making.
We also needed to drill some holes into some bedrock for pinning rocks with re-bar to make the trail, leading up to our rock staircase. After another solid day of trail work, we hiked back down with the generator and the rock drill to lighten the load for the next days of carrying tools out from the last 5 weeks.
We did end the work day a little early so we could get back to camp and clean up for the RATC's Corn Boil. It is their annual pot luck dinner to thank the club members and trail volunteers for their time and dedication. The Konnarock Crew was thanked and introduced by the President of the Club, Jim Beeson, in front of the group which was pretty cool and then we enjoyed delicious and copious amounts of food and dessert. A lovely evening with a very large cooked meal and no clean up involved! We very much appreciated the Corn Boil this year! Thank you RATC!
One final work day was left at Sinking Creek and the crew persevered through some rainstorms to get as much work done as we could. As the rain picked up, Jerry and I told the crew that if the rain continued we'd call it a day, but the crew insisted to work through the rain and enjoy the last bit of work. The crew set 11 more rock steps, and set 3 log steps during out last day! Awesome job!
On our way back to base camp we stopped at Bluff City to check out some beautiful, technical work done by Konnarock a few years back. We also stopped at Dismal Falls, for a chilly but nice dip in the water, and then headed to Grayson Restaurant in Wytheville for lunch.
So our work at Sinking Creek came to a close and I'm so proud, pleased and amazed by the trail work that has been completed over the 5 weeks spent there this season. It was definitely some of the most intense rock work I have ever experienced. Thank you to the volunteers and of course RATC for your work this week and getting tons done for our final week.
Crew 1-- LUNCHTIME!
Hello trail enthusiasts! Konnarock Trail Crew welcomes you to our most recent update from our 2018 trail season!
Crew 1's fun trail building extravaganza at Sinking Creek Mountain, VA has finally come to an end! Week 10 was our fifth and final week working on the Sinking Creek Relocation project with the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club and we were able to bang out some great trail work with 5 Konnarock volunteers and RATC folks that came out this week.
Crew 1-- LUNCHTIME!
--Julia Smith, Assistant Crew Leader
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