The weather guys make things look doubtful for this Friday, but if they are by chance wrong (it does on occasion happen that they miss things) we will work Cat Gap again. There is a bridge I would like reworked in the manner we did the Green River Gamelands bridge a couple of weeks ago. Also I'm sure there will be some tread work to be done.

Weather permitting we will meet at the Pisgah Ranger station at 8. Check your mail Friday AM if the weather is doubtful.

Note that Krist Little has sent a notification of first aid / cpr classes for the sawyers. Be sure to get yourself enrolled for these classes if you wish to continue being a sawyer. Bill

Howard has another commitment this week, so we won't have the carts to start moving logs down the hill again. Instead lets go back to the MST trail at Balsam Gap (Grassy ridge mine overlook) and finish up repair of that section. We need about one more good days work to totally complete the section North of the ranger station, so lets get a good crew out and make it this week. This, of course, depends on the parkway being open and the bad storms presently forecast for Friday not happening. Asheville folks meet at Home Depot at exit 44 of I-40 at 8;00. Hendersonville people at Ingles at 7:20. Bring digging tools as the work left is tread repair. Piet, please also bring your sledge hammer, and so will I, so we can finish up any crush and fill needed. Alan we will meet you at the ranger station around 8:30. Please let me know if you are coming , and keep a watch late Thursday or early Friday morning for a call-off if the weather turns out as forecast.Skip

John Soldati's Wednesday Work Crew

Gentlemen and Ladies: Finally, after two months of very bad weather, for Wednesdays, we got a break. (Must have been that goat...found on US25 that we offered up to the gods). We will MEET at Weaverville at 8:00 AM. The Americacorps crowd should be there as well. Our goal is installing fog/snow posts (balzes) up and over Big Stamp, plus one or two other small projects, people and time depending. Mr. McDonald will be with us from Hendersonville. Weather looks real good...coolish in the early morning with some good heat coming up in middle part of the day. Bring hazel hoes...we should have all the other tools for posts with us. Thanks...as usual, REPLY. See all of you there. JS....note to Mr. McDonald I will be by your garage at 7:05 AM. John

Mike Lang/Barth Brooker Monday Crew

We're off to the AT this week! Spring is here and the hikers are migrating north. Time to clear the trails for them so they can get home in a few months and remember North Carolina as the best maintained trails along the entire hike. We will need to re-blaze the entire section and redo some tread work that is beginning to slough off. For the most part I expect the trail to be in good shape, but there is always some touching up to do. We will meet at the Mills River Food Lion at 8 (note we are back to 8 again) and car pool from there. As always, please let me know if you are coming out this Friday. Bill

Post Work Report: Thanks for lots of hard work on the AT yesterday. Got the tread improved, the blazes renewed, the campsite cleaned up and the spring back in working order. This section is ready for the through hikers who are by the way already showing up in large numbers. Thanks for the good work. Bill

Folks, Friday is good Friday and the start of the Easter weekend, so I don't know how many folks are going to be out doing trail maintenance, but if we have enough for a crew, we will go. I suggest we head back to the "beauty Shop" work on the AT section that runs though the pump gap loop. We finished the trail up to the first intersection with the loop trail, so this week we will proceed inside the loop with the same kind of clean-up and fix-up work we did earlier. Bring digging tools and loppers. Alan did all the cutting last week, so we shouldn't need a saw. Asheville folks meet at the Forest Service office at 8:00. Hendersonville people at Ingles at 7:20. Please let me know if you are coming. This is very important this week, because if we don't have 4 or 5 who want to go out, we will abort. I will send out a note Thursday evening letting you know if it is go or no-go. Skip

WORK DONE: Did tread improvement and lopping from the first intersection on Pump Gap loop trail to the second intersection. This is “beauty shop” work, but it puts the trail in excellent shape. There wasn’t much work to be done

John Soldati's Wednesday Work Crew

Mike Lang/Barth Brooker Monday Crew