CMC Bi-Weekly Trail Maintenance News

08/03/05

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Looking Back....

 

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Wednesday, August 3
Purpose: Various
Location: MST-Commissary Ridge
People: 2

Summary:  We had four out today and got a lot of work done. Mr. Brooker came with a trimmer and hit the upper part of the B. Horse Trail, then hiked over Commissary Ridge to battle the high weeds near the very key trail post on the northbound MST trail that heads down to Black Mt. C.Ground. He join us to pull out large log used for cribbing a very bad section of the trail. We also had Don and Mr. Hamberger with us slugging away at rocks, dirt, high weeds and brush and pulling on the large logs used for this section that will greatly improve this spot beneath the power lines. We also worked farther down moving rock and busting rock to fill holes in the trail. It finally got pretty warm even up this high. We were out by 2:00 PM...a long day. Good job and lots of work. Official Report follows. JS

Leader: Barth Brooker
Date: Monday, August 1
Purpose: Weed Eating
Location: MST-Hwy 128
People: 2

Summary:  Nothing but weedeating. Too much trail to cover completely with only 2 people. We started at Camp Alice and went about 2 miles South. I walked about a mile in from Rt 128 to see how that portion is. It could use some cutting but plenty of trail is visible. That leaves about about half a mile in the center which I did not see. Since it is hard to justify a crew going into the center, I would call the trail done and I will keep in mind that the center portion should be visited at some point in time.

 

 

Leader: Piet Bodenhorst
Date: Friday, July 29
Purpose: Various
Location: AT-Big Bald to Spivey Gap
People: 11

Summary:  Wead-eated, cleaned waterbars and build several new water diversion channels. Did not finish job. Only got half way to shelter because of rain. The pie was good!! Much weed-eating remains to be done.

 

Leader: Bill Newton
Date: Friday, July 29
Purpose: Rained Out
Location: MST
People:

Summary: There is a pretty good band of showers just down on the Ga. border headed our way - I think we best stay off the hills today. Let's call it off and hope for a better day next week. John - please call Jim Hilton and let him know we are not going. Now everybody go out and watch the warm sun come out on a perfect day.....

 

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Wednesday, July 27
Purpose: Tread Work
Location: MST
People: 7

Summary: A very good day.  We were working in bright, clear 72 degree weather north of Commissary Ridge today with 7 solid crew memebers and our guest and very special reporter and writer, Tracy Mills.  We should see the results of Tracy's work published in a Friends of BRP pamphlet or major article in the future.  We appreciate Susan Mills tapping our crew to host Tracy in an all day trail session and we believe she got the full view of what and how volunteers work on trails.
It was Firescald memories with large amounts of rock being moved, tilted, broken and crushed.  We made a good start working down for 15 minutes worth of straight hiking (up) to the trailhead.  Five hours of real work.  So a start has been made.  We think if the trail is this bad it will take maybe two years to finish...with many visits up to section.  Next week we will haul a hoist in to join the bars and hammers resting under hemlock boughs.  We filled many holes and created some very good and strategic steps that were long overdo.  We cut water trenches to take water off long down slopes and did some heavy lopping as well.  A good day out.  Thanks to all.  Out at 1:25PM.  Official Report follows.

 

Leader: Barth Brooker
Date: Monday, July 25
Purpose: Weed eating
Location: MST
People: 5

Summary: Spent some time lopping and weedeating access trail from BRP Hdqr to MST. Spent time looking for item #444. Scouted North for about .75 mile and found no tree. Will ask Don Christensen about it. Completed item #480 at Rt26. Removed South tree and large knee high tree North of Rt26 plus large leaner and a very dead tree beside the trail. Item #480 North refers to 2" chest high tree across trail. Scouted for and did not find this. Did not specify how far North. Also a 2" tree ought to be removed by maintainer. If the maintainer is expected to spend hours and hours weedeating in extreme heat while negotiating all sorts of hazzards in the trail, he or she certainly ought to be able to deal with a 2" tree across the trail. Item #476 seems to have been gotten by Don Walton using his computer. You will have to ask him how he does it. Perhaps he could get the weedeating done in the same fashion.

 

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Saturday, July 23
Purpose: Section Maintainer Work Day
Location: MST
People: 3

Summary: Very successful.  I say this only because the two very good section maintainers who attended, Dave Wetmore and Ed Hauschild stated that they learn a lot in our one and half hours on the trail, as suggested in the outline and published in "Let's Go".  I had  a very good time instructing them as well.  We used the Bull Gap to R. Lodge section for on the trail development of the "Trail Eye".  JS

 

Leader: Skip Shelton
Date: Friday, July 22
Purpose: Various
Location: Jerry Miller Trail
People: 10

Summary: Weed-eat, Lopped, Removed trees, cleaned waterbars and reblazed No further work neede this year

 

Leader: Bill Newton
Date: Friday, July 22
Purpose: Weed Eating
Location: Pisgah Ridge Trail
People: 15

Summary: Today we worked the Pisgah Ridge Trail which is across the parkway from Graveyard Fields. We removed a couple of blow downs and ran six weedeaters to remove lots of grass and briars covering the trail. We had 14 workers who put in about 6 hours today. The Pisgah Ridge trail is in good condition now. Four of our group went to the Silvermine portion of the Alternate Mountain to Sea trail and cleared it today as well.

 

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Wednesday, July 20
Purpose: Tread Work
Location: MST
People: 15

Summary: Had five out today and we returned to State Rd 128 and the MST. Early we took out three trees south of State Rd 128 and the trail is open at this section. Needs some lopping at the junction of the road (State HY 128) and the steps need resetting and rebuilt. We filled 15 holes with rock crush all on the Buncombe H. Trail section toward the lower end of the MST and fairly close to State Rd. 128. The Crew also did some very heavy lopping and about 3/4 mile of string-trimming. Our large ditch built last week has taken all the water off the trail at that section. Trail could use more heavy lopping and at some time in the future and some more silt bars would help in about a 100 foot section too. Good day, no rain and pretty good working conditions around 63 degrees. Official Report follows. Thanks guys

 

Leader: Barth Brooker
Date: Tuesday, July 19
Purpose: Weed Eating
Location: MST
People: 2

Summary: Weedeating entire section(item 372). No break from weeds entire trail.

 

 

Leader: Alan Frank
Date: Friday, July 15
Purpose: Downtrees
Location: MST
People: 4

Summary: Work - cleared item# 319 - we didn't cut the tree but instead we all decided to keep the relo since the tree was laying in the middle of the trail and would require a lot of time - we placed stone steps to help and it looked great when we finished.  We all thought that this was a better choice and didn't alter the trail much as you can see the next blaze from our relo.
cleared item#438- this was a med. size tree and took almost 1 hour to hike to it.  There were no trees on either of the access trails.  The only trees were above the left access trail and they have been there since the hurricanes and only a fool would try to cut these down since they are well above our heads.
 

 

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Maintenance News....

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WOW what a great day!

John Soldati's Wednesday with the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway! Thank you John!!

Tracy loved every moment! We will look forward to sharing the info with you this year! It is FRIENDS great pleasure to provide the Carolina Mountain Club: with equipment when needed, reprinting of your trail brochure as needed, funding your Annual Fish Fry at the Folk Art Center providing FRIENDS T-shirts. FRIENDS is always are looking for ways to support the premiere trail club along the Blue Ridge Parkway -- the CMC!! Thanks for your support -- glad you liked the hats and Craisins too! Keep in touch! Susan

 

 
New MST Trail Construction---A few good men (& women) needed!

Hello all of you! Another opportunity to make history and give a little back for enjoying all our wonderful Western Carolina Trail. Reserve the date -- August 20, 2005 Join us in building the MST extension from Balsam Gap to Heintooga Road. Meeting Place Moose Cafe next to the Farmers Market at 9:00 AM or BRP Maintenance Office at Balsam Gap @ 9:30 AM or Woodfin/Cascades O/L on the BRP. @ 9:30 AM Tools.- Bring loppers, rakes, digging tools. If you do not have any, some will be available. Car pools will be formed. Please pass the word and bring all your hiking or trail working friends. Piet

 

 
A note of appreciation for our work out there

Please pass along thanks and job well done to those who did the weed eating and clearing on the Mountains to Sea trail in the vicinity of Black Balsam Knob and Graveyard Ridge area. The Monday Hikers did this section yesterday and it was wonderful not to have to fight high weeds and briars. Again, many thanks.

Signed,

Boyd Brasington Beverly Sloan Siro Del Favero Nancy Seymore John Bryant Doris White Lelia Cox Paula Robbins Dorothy Johnson KC Childs

 

 

Forest Service guidelines for creating the new "Rolling grade Dips"

 

Check out these sites. They show in detail the construction of a "rolling grade dip" which is the way we propose to drain out trails where possible in the future. Done properly it will drain the water, hardly be noticeable, and be self cleaning, preventing the annual cleaning of water bars. Bill Newton

Diverting surface water off the trail should be near the top of your list of priorities. Running water erodes tread and support structures and can even lead to loss of the trail itself. Standing water often results in soft boggy tread or tread and support structure failure. Water is wonderful stuff--just keep it off the trail.

The very best drainage structures are those designed and installed during the original construction. These include outsloping the tread and grade dips. We've already discussed outsloping. Let's move on to the next best drainage choice, grade or drain dips. The classic mark of good drainage is that it is self maintaining, requiring minimal care.

                                   Click here for more information:  http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/fspubs/00232839/page07.htm                                             

Click here for more information:  http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_building/gradedips_2.html

 

 

MST Coordinator wanted!

The  CMC position of Coordinator of the Section Maintainer System for the Mountains to the Sea Trail is open. This prestigious duty for the CMC includes supervising the 5 big sections of the MST (160 miles) which includes 100 volunteer section maintainers. The job is about 1/3rd recruiting of maintainers, 1/3rd communicating with all of the various federal and state agencies and 1/3rd management including recording and reporting all of the hours worked to various places. If interested, please contact Don Walton

 

MST Section Maintainers wanted!

The  CMC has 2 Alternate MST sections open. One is from Pressley Gap to Buckhorn Gap 2.7 miles and the other is Cat Gap to Neil Gap 3.0 miles. Both of these trails are in good shape and are waiting to start a love affair with an affectionate maintainer! If interested please contact Jim Tanquary, jdtanquary@juno.com or Don Walton at donwalton@bellsouth.net .