Crew 1: Jerry Cabin to Big Butt Relocation & Rehab
HOO-YAH! Week 12--We made it! Crew 1's final week of the season ends on a high note with great work, lots of laughs and good times to remember. Jerry and I had a wonderful group of volunteers to finish out the season with.
It was nice having volunteers who we had worked with during previous weeks and also one who had never experienced trail crew before. An awesome mix of people making the week full of hard work and fun. We had Leah (1000 volunteer hours completed), Alec (Adult Male BBQcubian), Billy (Liver Musher), Pat (livin' the good life), Ruth (most confused witch), Rebecca (privy lover), Rich (Konnarock crew leader for life) and Abigail (loudest apple chewer)--Thank you to each of you for making the last week so awesome!
One last crew meeting to let everyone in on the project ahead, which was our second week doing the Jerry Cabin to Big Butt Relo & Rehab near Erwin, TN. One last time loading up all the tools necessary to get the trail work busted out, and the camping gear to make our home at Buzzard Rock once more. Each moment of this week has felt bittersweet, so I tried to soak up every second and not wish anything away, even the difficult uphill hike back to camp everyday.
To start out our final week we took a little excursion to The Appalachian Caverns, to see some really cool caves 200 feet below the surface we walk every day. With an entertaining tour guide and some pretty amazing sites down below, it was a once in a lifetime experience. We hopped back in the vehicles and headed to downtown Erwin, TN, for a generous lunch at the Hawg-N-Dawg BBQ, on the Carolina Mountain Club. Thank you CMC for lunch and showing your support to Konnarock! To our delight we also got to get some ice cream next door at "What's the Scoop!" What a treat! What a fantastic way to start the week.
Feeling grateful, Crew 1 drove on down the road to Rocky Fork State Park where we started our long, slow and very careful ascent up the 10 mile forest service road. After days of rain here in Erwin, putting chains on the Konnarock van was needed and ensured a safer drive up the road. We made ourselves at home on Buzzard Rock, setting up camp, tents, and the kitchen where we then made our first killer meal of pesto sausage pasta.
Heading out on the trail for work our first day, we felt fresh, clean and excited to do some trail building. The volunteers enjoyed the 2.5 mile trek to work immensely! With PPE on and tools at the ready, we had the crew get to work in 2 separate groups. One with me, finishing up some log steps on the relocation we dug last week while the other group started digging the other relocation on this project. Some volunteers who had never set a log step, had plenty of opportunities to build and learn some new skills, which was super cool.
We had Leah on crush duty and made all we needed to be able to stabilize the steps we built. Holes were dug, logs placed, stakes hammered in, crush pounded in and new log steps now lay on the trail that would make the AT a little longer! We had volunteers do some finish work on the trail that was dug, clip roots and dig a drain before celebrating this new relo with some blaze painting!
Painting a blaze is a rare, extremely awesome opportunity that some may never get to experience. I was grateful to paint blazes twice this season. Ex-Konnarock crew leader, Rich, couldn't believe after all the years he's worked, he never got to paint a blaze, and his daughter, whom is setting foot on the AT for first time, gets to paint one! Both loved being able to paint a new blaze and open up this new section for people to walk for generations.
The crew walked together painting a few blazes and then we worked on closing the old section of trail, adding some check dams into it to slow the water down and slow erosion.
We enjoyed some BBQ burgers, beans and watermelon for dinner and enjoyed Smore's by the fire that evening.
On Day 2, Crew 1 (a little messier and a little sore) made the trek again through the marshes, briers, rhododendron thickets, and the bog of eternal stench, to put in another hard day's work out on the trail. Digging on the second relocation section continued after a little sidehill instruction. Heads down, tools in the dirt while Jerry and I worked on felling a tree to use for log steps in this trail.
Once the tree was cut up, volunteers hauled them down to the trail and started debarking with a draw knife and perseverance. The steps would go in two different spots along the trail, so we split the crew up and had everyone working on either setting logs, making crush, debarking, or cleaning up the back slope and the tread of the relo.
We paused work for a bit in the early afternoon to let a thunderstorm pass. The crew then chugged along, step after step, making a better hiking experience for all. We also put some log crib in on both sets of steps to hold in crush and support the outside of the steps. The steps were all crushed in after driving wooden stakes as far we they would go. With the steps complete the crew got to brushing in along the outsides of the trail, leafing the trail and putting some rocks, logs, and branches to keep hikers on the steps/trail. The old trail was now closed off and the work for the day was done. We were visited by Ben Barry from SORO who came out to check out the progress that was being made.
After a long hike in the woods, carrying some tools with us back to camp, dinner was underway with Spicy Thai, the crowd favorite, as our meal. We enjoyed some fried green tomatoes as an "ordervie." Yum! The evening ended around a campfire with a mighty fine game of Werewolf!
One more hike in and one more hike out. One more day of trail work and the season would be done. The crew now much smellier, more wild, and closer to nature, we made our way along the path to bring you a better AT experience!
It was the hottest day we had but this group of volunteers stopped at nothing to do as much rehab as we could in those final hours. We worked hard as trail maintainers, in groups of 3, on areas of the current AT that had a bad case of trail creep. With pin flags stretched out as far as the eye could see, we divided to conquer the trail creep.
We made our way down the trail heading back to camp as we finished sections. Water breaks happened often but the crew was pushing hard to rehab like champions. Volunteers worked on lopping rhododendron back to prevent pushing hikers down and cut back brush that was heading into the trail. An absurd amount of trail creep was fixed and the rehab was a wild success!
After the volunteers gave it their all, one final push, we counted our tools, shared the load for the hike back and made our final hike back to our camp for the last time. We decided on our crew chant for the week and were filled with excitement and anticipation to share it with the Konnarock family and the end of year party!
A beautiful evening shared among friends on Buzzard Rock, we ate, we laughed, we became werewolves, witches, seers, or villagers around the campfire. A taco dress up dinner to end of week on the Big Butt project.
The next morning we packed up our camp, looked out into the mountains and valleys on Buzzard rock and hopped in the vehicles to take a nice slow drive down the mountain. We reached the bottom, WOO--and challenged ourselves one last time to take a very chilly dip in Rocky Fork creek before heading back to Sugar Grove. Four of us completed the task while the others documented from a warmer drier setting.
We stopped for some amazing pizza at Scratch in Johnson City. Highly recommend that place! "Pizza tastes better after a walk in the woods"-sign at Scratch Pizza. How fitting!
Got back to base camp, cleaned, hosed, washed before a large dinner and end of season celebration. Janet and the Mount Rogers Trail club folks supplied our dinner and desserts and it was a merry time. Both crews had one final ceremony, Pete Irvine from the Forest Service got up and thanked Konnarock and all the volunteers for their work this season. Josh Kloehn made an award winning speech thanking the seasonal staff for their work and also the volunteers for coming out.
Crew 1 finally got to do our chant. Crew 1 yelled--Hooyah!.....Then "Big Butt", (repeated by each crew member as they did the wave) then all yelled "Bypass"! It was a hit. For our little celebration we had each volunteer stand up while we shared little one liners about each one all while the Rocky theme song played. We got to present Leah with an ATC vest for completing 1000 volunteers hours over the years! Congratulations and thank you, Leah! The night continued with celebrations, good-byes, music and cheer.
What a season it has been! What a joyful experience. It wasn't without it's challenges but we would never grow without them. Working on the Appalachian Trail this summer has been a real pleasure and I can't thank Jerry and all the volunteers who made this such a positive and meaningful experience.
Be on the look out for some videos I will be putting together from the trail crew season. Thank you also to everyone who did an "interview" with me! Hopefully it will help get the word out and get more people giving back to the trail, getting in the woods, and building skills, relationships and memories to cherish.
Thanks also to the Konnarock staff, Jerry, Janet, Becky, Brian, Josh, and Ridgerunner Kyle, it was fun being family with ya'll!
Thank you to our week 12 volunteers and to all who came out to work on the Appalachian Trail with Konnarock this summer! Till next time--Happy Trails!!!!
--Julia Smith, Assistant Crew Leader
Representing Buffalo, NY :)
It was nice having volunteers who we had worked with during previous weeks and also one who had never experienced trail crew before. An awesome mix of people making the week full of hard work and fun. We had Leah (1000 volunteer hours completed), Alec (Adult Male BBQcubian), Billy (Liver Musher), Pat (livin' the good life), Ruth (most confused witch), Rebecca (privy lover), Rich (Konnarock crew leader for life) and Abigail (loudest apple chewer)--Thank you to each of you for making the last week so awesome!
Thanks also to the Konnarock staff, Jerry, Janet, Becky, Brian, Josh, and Ridgerunner Kyle, it was fun being family with ya'll!
No comments:
Post a Comment