Week 2: May 10-14, 2018

Crew 2: Sinking Creek Mountain Relocation

working with Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club

click here to see the full photo album


Week 2 of the Konnarock Trail Crew season is complete! Crew 1 headed up to Sinking Creek Mountain near Newport, VA for a week of rock work. This week our crew was made of 10 military and non military students from the University of Central Missouri (Go Mules!) and 3 other awesome volunteers from surrounding states. This is the third year UCM students came to take over Konnarock and get some great trail work accomplished. The other 3 volunteers, all past thru-hikers, came to learn some trail building skills and make their mark as well.

We had a pretty intense hike, especially with rock bars and sledges in our hands on the first day. About a mile and a half walk up, each day, I'd say the crew enjoyed the challenge and the awesome experience of walking on the Appalachian Trail. We had beautiful weather, sunny and humid, but really had no reasons to complain. And every day on the hike down the crew loved dunking their head or feet in the refreshingly cold stream.

Our tasks for the week were mainly to begin taking two large rock fields and putting the trail through them, along with placing some rock steps. We worked in 3 mini teams for the most part and worked alongside Jim Webb of RATC (Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club) a couple club volunteers, and ATC's own, Kathryn Herndon-Powell, to put in some hard working hours on this relocation project.

I enjoyed this experience working with the Mules because they all seemed so genuinely interested in trail work, service learning and being a team. They had deep personal questions and reflections at the end of each day that we were able to participate in. I was introduced to a new AMAZINGLY fun and addicting game called "Werewolves", which is similar to Mafia if you've ever played. That was a nightly ritual that I just couldn't get enough of. I'm pretty terrible at it but I hope to continue playing and improve my skills.

The preparation the UMC students had done for this week really showed when we were out in the field as well. They were so eager to help, work hard, and provide assistance in any way they could. Around camp at Joe's Trees (which was a pretty glampy campy experience) they were more than helpful cutting veggies, making delicious meals, and cleaning up.

The crew this week moved a great deal of rock, built rock crib walls and made an absurd amount of crush. The "Clark School of Rock", led by multi-year Konnnarock alum Clark Britt, created some extremely nice rock steps this week. People who had never used a rockbar or a sledgehammer became pros in the field.

We put hot sweaty dirty hours of work this week and decided that on our last day we would take the crew to see Cascade Falls, and get some lunch and ice cream, a well deserved treat! The hike and the waterfall were breathtaking and enjoyed by all. After a few minor hiccups for lunch and ice cream, we satisfied all our food and sweets cravings and headed back to base camp for cleaning and the end of the week celebration! 

It's amazing what we can accomplish in a week, personally and in a group, physically, mentally and emotionally. Most of the work done by the crew may not be seen when the final trail is done but their work is what will the keep the trail in place for years to come! 

Werewolves, cherrywine, rockbars, crush, all in supply

Crew 1 came and made their mark, literally

Friends made, rocks moved

Just give it a few Konnarock days 

UCM students and volunteers are changed

Trail bonding, villagers making it through the night

Joe's Trees- the name of the campsite

Rock settin', stone steppin', reflectin'

OK jokes, new perspectives, stretchin

To the Mules from Missouri, Bisquick, Pony and Boy-Howdy, we thank you

As do the hikers as they pass through

For working so hard on the Appalachian Trail 

Just sorry to say there won't be any checks in the mail.  ;)

HOORAH!

--Julia (JU-ly) Smith, Assistant Crew Leader 

Week 1: May 2-6, 2018

Crew 2: Rocky Bald Rehab

working with Nantahala Hiking Club

click here to see the full photo album


Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, trail aficionados of all ages, the Konnarock Volunteer Trail Crew’s 2018 season is officially in session! Crew 2, led by Crew Leader Brian Allgood and Assistant Crew Leader Josh Reynolds, kicked off another summer of A.T. maintenance with a trip to the Nantahala National Forest in NC, south of the Smokies, for some much-needed rehab work on the slopes of Rocky Bald.

 The summit of this bald features a short blue-blaze trail up to a scenic overlook, but the A.T. itself is deeply gullied where it climbs steeply to the blue-blaze junction. Years of hiker traffic and water erosion have caused the gullying, and so the goals for Week 1 were twofold: first, install stone water bars to improve drainage on the trail; second, install as many stone check steps as possible to harden the tread surface, slow the flow of water, and prevent further erosion.

Crew 2 began the week by setting up camp on a Forest Service Road off of Burningtown Gap, which involved condemning a rotting timber bridge and installing a set of stepping stones to mitigate a dangerous stream-crossing. Other essential tasks like digging a privy and setting up the kitchen tarp proceeded smoothly thanks to a seasoned group of alumni volunteers. By the time camp was looking ship-shape, it was early evening and soon an inaugural dinner of Hoppin’ John was cooked up, a dish so delicious and charismatic that it inspired the composition of a poem by one volunteer.

The following day, work was finally able to commence. The day began with the first and most arduous of the daily hike to work - a 0.5 mile walk up a bushwhacked access trail to the A.T. followed by a 1.8 mile trek along the A.T. itself. With heavy rock work tools in hand, the first day’s hike proved to be quite the challenge, but it did nothing to daunt the spirit of crew members eager to tackle a project.

The work immediately required the quarrying of large (the bigger the better), flat rock slabs to be used in water bar construction. Fortunately, slab-shaped rock seemed to be the rule, rather than the exception at this site, and it didn’t take long for the crew to pry loose a variety of solid material. Where some of the rocks were a bit uneven in shape, the crew was able to make ample use of stone shaping tools like the carbide-tipped “stonebusters” and the larger rifting set in order to split and chisel the material to perfection. Success is never guaranteed when shaping stone, but the rock on the aptly named Rocky Bald proved surprisingly cooperative and it didn’t take long before water bars started to take shape along several strategically located drainage
points.

Construction was far from easy, however, thanks to the presence of large, embedded rocks under the soil in some of water bar locations. The creative problem-solving so inherent in trail work was certainly needed to maneuver in and around this challenging soil. In some cases, the underlying rock was able to broken up thanks to Konnarock’s new carbide hammerpoint tool, while in other cases a slight shift of water bar location proved to be the simplest solution.

 Quarrying rock and digging narrow trenches was accompanied, of course, by copious crush production. At least one crew member was always occupied with this tasking of smashing bigger rocks into gravel - used for locking structures firmly into place. As the trail work saying goes, “you can never have too much crush.,” and this was proven true throughout the week.

As the water bar construction progressed from day to day, the work shifted to installing stone check steps in order to stabilize the tread and slow down the flow of water in the steepest sections of gullied trail. Getting the steps to sit just right required a mix of patience, teamwork and the careful application of crush. By the end of the third work day, two solid steps had been set in addition to the five rock-solid water bars already constructed, drainage swales had been dug and future step rocks quarried. The Rocky Bald project work reached a stable ending point and remains on deck for a second week of major step construction to come on Week 2.

The members of Crew 2 were joined on several days throughout the week by members of the Nantahala Hiking Club, who hiked in to lend a hand with the hard work. In addition, several volunteers met the crew in the field, boosting the numbers of what was initially a very small roster for the week. Thanks to the dedication of all who made the effort to come out, an impressive quantity of quality work was installed in spite of the remoteness of the work site which meant close to 5 miles of hiking each day.

The Nantahala Hiking Club also provided a phenomenal treat to the crew - a trip out to breakfast at the Nantahala Outdoor Center on the way home on the morning of the last day. The NOC’s signature River’s End Restaurant served up some seriously substantial portions - biscuits, eggs, piles of homefries and all manner of fried veggies were enjoyed by the hungry crew member thanks to the generosity of the NHC. Special thanks to Don for meeting the crew and representing the club at the breakfast!

Finally, with many volunteers going their separate ways, a small contingent of crew members journeyed north, making a brief stop at Second Gear in Asheville to peruse used outdoor equipment, and eventually returning to the much beloved Sugar Grove Base Camp for dinner and a t-shirt ceremony. Considering some unconventional logistics, the week ended up being successful and a solid start to the 2018 season. A big thank you to all the volunteers for dedicating their time and effort, and answering the call to maintain and preserve the Appalachian Trail. Thanks as well to Konnarock’s camp coordinators, Janet and Becky, for getting the season off to a good start with delicious meals and logistical support. Stay tuned for Week 2 at Rocky Bald for the culmination of this ambitious rock work project!

--Assistant Crew Leader Josh Reynolds

Week 1: May 2-6, 2018

Crew 1: Snake Den Ridge Rehab

 working with Carolina Mountain Club

click here for the full photo album



It's May 2018, and Crew 1, led by Jerry Kyle, tackled the first project of the season up at Snake Den Ridge and Flint Gap near Flag Pond, TN. We headed out Thursday morning with 6 volunteers, some returning and some volunteering for the first time with Konnarock. It was awesome to learn that 4 of the 6 volunteers have thru-hiked the trail, were transformed by their experience and were here so that people can continue enjoying the AT.






Two hours of driving and we arrived at the campsite, dropped the van and started hiking into the work site. We drove the truck up with the tools as far as we could, unloaded tools and had our tool safety talk. The hike from the campsite to the AT was about .4 miles and once on the AT it was another mile to where we would start work.

There at Flint Gap, log steps and drainage features were the biggest priority. The work day consisted mainly of getting the materials for waterbars, steps, and stakes from the surrounding area. Lucky for us, there was a fallen black locust tree that we were able to get all our materials from.

After bucking up the tree the crew started the work of splitting logs with sledges and wedges to get as much material from the tree as possible. We had people debarking the trees after splitting and myself and a crew member started cutting locust for stakes. Jerry and Rich (Konnarock Assistant Crew Leader class of  '91) went up the trail to start working on some deberming and tread definition. We worked for a few hours in the sunshine before hiking back to set up camp.

The following day, we enjoyed our coffee and breakfast, hiked in, stretched, shared some jokes (all better than mine) and started where we left off. More splitting,  debarking, and sharing stories as we got to know one another more. The weather was hot and sunny for the first two days, so mandatory water breaks were placed into the schedule. Pretty much the whole day was spent doing log step prep with Rich and Jerry working hard above Flint Gap to fix the berm, improve drainage and address trail creep problems.

Blue Jay (Joan) and Terry were debarking machines, while Magic Mike (Michael), Ginger Patch (Andrew) and Tortoise (Martha) continued working together to split materials. Right before we ended the work day, we did a log step installation demo so the crew could get right to it the next day. We had a shorter work day because we had dinner plans with the Carolina Mountain Club.

We were treated to an amazing dinner and ice cream with Paul (The CMC Trail Supervisor), Tom, and Anne (members of the club).


It was a great evening, getting to see the cute town of Hot Springs, NC and enjoy a dinner out! Thank you CMC for your generosity and support!

The crew agreed to work a few extra hours the next day, to make up for the previous shortened work day, and we were able to get a lot done thanks to beautiful weather and a hard working crew. We split up into two groups and started actually installing steps and waterbars. Morgan Sommerville (ATC's Southern Regional Director) came out to show his support and work with us for a few hours, which was awesome!

With a longer work day we were able to get in most of the steps and some waterbars before making the trek back to camp for burritos.

Saturday morning, Jerry and some volunteers cooked up an amazing breakfast of grits, eggs, bacon and spam. A great way to start the morning and be ready for a hard work day. With rain and thunderstorms expected in the late afternoon, our plan was to finish the steps on both sides of the gap in the first part of the day, then bump up the trail a little farther south of the gap before the storms moved in. The work required adding some steps into an eroding switchback, removing slough, cleaning up the backslope and closing off the old A.T.

With that work underway by the crew, two volunteers and I hiked a little farther south to where there was a stream crossing. We tried to keep water flowing, make for a better walk across the steam and add crush to the tread where water was pooling. With thunder in the distance, we finished work and headed back to the group to find they had finished their work and were getting ready to hike back to camp.


The rain started before we got going and most were caught in the downpour before making it to the kitchen tarp. We did some tarp maintenance when we returned to camp, and the crew drank hot tea to warm up after getting soaked on the hike out. We enjoyed one last crew dinner together, a delicious pesto pasta with sausage and veggies. A happy, dry, a little sore, fully stuffed crew headed to bed.


We had a pleasant morning having our final breakfast and slowly packing up tents and the camp. Rain came down on and off as we packed up, but it was a pretty smooth morning. We loaded up into the vehicles and headed for base camp. We stopped for lunch at the Bonefire Grill in Abingdon, VA before getting back to camp to unpack and clean.

The season is off to an amazing start if I do say so myself! Our volunteers for week 1 were awesome workers and great fun to camp, laugh and tell stories with. I am still overwhelmed by the volunteer support, work and dedication to the Appalachian Trail and this program. It's just amazing to have people come from all over the place to put in a tremendous amount of work to keep this trail a beautiful experience. I'm grateful to be a working with the ATC, the trail clubs and all the volunteers. Bring on week 2! Huzzah!

Log steps, drains and waterbars
features that keep the trail at 5 stars
crew 1 volunteers came to give back
so others can experience the AT track

young, old, alumni, or new,
thru-hikers, workers, and campers, made up this crew
Work, stories, laughs, and meals were shared
a week together in the woods, to what could be compared?

--Julia Smith, Assistant Crew Leader

Meet the 2018 Konnarock Crew Staff!

We're happy to welcome back four returning staff members and introduce two new faces as the 2018 KCrew Staff!

From left: Josh, Janet, Becky, Jerry, Julia, and Brian

Crew 1 will be led by Jerry Kyle (returning for his fifth season as Crew Leader) and new Assistant Crew Leader Julia Smith.

Brian Allgood is back for his third year on staff, but first time as Crew Leader. He'll be leading Crew 2 with the help of returning Assistant Crew Leader Josh Reynolds.

Both crews would be lost without the support of our fantastic Camp Coordinators, Janet Gibbons and Becky White. Janet has been a part of Konnarock, as both staff and volunteer, for too many years to count, while Becky has jumped in with both feet for the first time this year.

If you want to know more about these characters, you'll just have to sign up for a week on crew so you can come on out to Sugar Grove and ask them yourself! Schedule and registration info at appalachiantrail.org/konnarock