CMC Bi-Weekly Trail Maintenance News

08/17/05

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Looking Back....

 

 

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Wednesday, August 17
Purpose: Rock Work
Location: MST-Commissary Ridge
People: 6

Summary:  Today with five regulars and a guest (Bob Hoeppner, a friend of standout trail crew member Bill Carr) we tackled Commissary Ridge for the last time this year.  We are about one fourth down from the trailhead that curls off of he Buncombe Horse Trail.  Again we were surprised by the number of hikers on this section with Mt. Mitchell being the draw for them to move up from Black Mt. Campground.  We welcomed one of our old and trusted original Wednesday Trail Crew members, Mr. David Bair, who showed us he has the same skills in rock work and swinging a sledge hammer.  Along with Mr. Carr and friend and David, we had Don Christensen and Charlie Hamberger out as well.  We traveled another eighth mile or so down from where we stored the heavy gear and filled more holes, moved more rock into steps and dug large and sometimes very deep water trenches.  In addition, we lopped as we hiked down.  Finally at 12:16 PM we started the long trek up with the heavy gear and we were out by 1:40 PM.  A good day.  We will hopefully with other crews hit this section in the late spring and early summer next year.  We may go over there late fall, weather permitting, and see how our ditches are holding up.  The key to this section is large, very large water drainage.  Four trips in succession is enough for any crew...unless the US Forest Service wants to pay us.  Official report follows.  Good job and it was super to have David back and working with Bill's friend Bob.  JS

 

Leader: Piet Bodenhorst
Date: Friday, August 5
Purpose: Weed Eating, Signage, Lopping
Location: MST-Cowie to Three Trees
People: 13

Summary:  Closed items # 398/399/400 Weed-eating, signage, lopping and draining of wet areas. This sect. is done for this year.

 

Leader: Barth Brooker
Date: Monday, August 15
Purpose: Weed Eating, Signage
Location: Snowball Trail
People: 6

Summary:  Covered 1.5 miles lopping, weedeating, tread work. Covered 2.0 miles for tree removal. Work still required. Wooden steps about 15 min. from Bee Tree need fixing. Presently they are an accident waiting to happen. The rest of the trail starting at the Lookout tower to about .5 miles from Hawkbill Rock need similar work to the what we did today, i.e., lopping, weedeating, trees, etc. You can remove items 200, 201, and 202. They are not necessarily done but they are too vague to leave on the system. At least one more trip is required to finish the trail. Call the item work to be done 'various' for lack of a better definition. You can put my name on "accepted by" if you wish. The stair repair should be a separate item because the access to the two items will be different.

 

Leader: Bill Newton
Date: Friday, August 12
Purpose: Weed Eating
Location: AMST-BRP Butter Gap
People: 19

Summary:  Today we had 19 workers out and planned to work the Art Leob from the parkway down to Gloucester Gap and maybe on to Butter Gap. However we found the road from Gloucester to Deep Gap (471?) was closed due to construction. As we already had dispatched five workers up to the parkway and had no way of notifying them of the problem, we had to send three hiking up to Deep Gap to meet the five working down from the parkway to inform them there would be no ride awaiting them but that they would have to continue walking out to Gloucester Gap. The remainder of the nineteen workers ran weedeaters and saws to clear the trail from Gloucester to Butter Gap and up the trail toward Pilot Mountain. We will have to return to work the section over  Pilot Mountain after the road construction is completed.
Had we known the road construction was going on we would not have worked this section, but we had no knowledge of this.
Bill Newton

 

 

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Wednesday, August 10
Purpose: Rock Work
Location: MST- Commissary Ridge
People: 7

Summary:  More of the same the third Wednesday in a row. Back to Commissary Ridge with more holes filled with crushed rock, more steps placed and more drainage ditches put in. We may have seen "some" evidence of what we've been told of a paid crew's work earlier this year (Spring?). We came across two large, now almost filled -in ditches that were to take water off the trails and three large silt bars cut from hemlock. The only thing is, they were not backed with stone and all three (so far as we've seen) were back filled with deep muddy water. So we filled them in with crush rock. We finished the trail relo up above the dangerous section for 28 feet and it is solid and a great improvement. We had 7 out today and welcomed Mr. Carr back from his big Alaska bike trip. We appreciate the gear for Mike Carstensen as he is needing it and doing well for being the newest member of our group. We now have a pretty long hike in and back up to Commissary Ridge and made it back to the trucks with time to spare before rain blew in. Lots of work today and we will go back next Wednesday...all the heavy (and expensive) gear is stashed and hidden beside the trail. We will make the decision to either stay for one more trip after next week or hang it up and hike out with the gear....Some of us are longing to hit the Appalachian Trail again, as we know of work to do up there. Out at 2:00 PM. Official report follows.

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Maintenance News....

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Felix Metzler is back Home!

Just got off the phone with Felix. He is back home having spent 5 days in the Hospital. He is doing very well and so is Jean. He is feeling much better and he had inflammation of the intestine which caused pain, high fever and chills. He thank us for the card and picture of the A.T. (just north of Street Gap). He asked about David Roberts and what we were working on at this time. So I shared with him all that we've been doing up at Commissary Ridge. We had a good half hour visit on the phone and he asked me to say hello to everyone on the crew and crews. Some day he still has hopes of coming out with us to sit and walk a little when we are close to an access point. That's about it for tonight. See you guys next Wednesday. JS

 

Workdays on the MST

August 19,20,21 - 2005, Sparta NC - The N. Ashe Task Force will be building the MST from NC-18 to NC-16. Please RSVP to Allen de Hart at adh4771@aol.com  or 919-496-4771. The homepage has more detailed info about this work trip.

August 20, 2005 - Waynesville, NC CMC Workday - Come join the Carolina Mt. Club (CMC) build the MST from Balsam Gap (south) to Soco Gap (Blue Ridge Parkway) near Waynesville, NC. Please RSVP to Piet at pietboden@aol.com 

August 24, 2005 - Eno River Workday, Durham NC - Come join the park staff put the finishing touches on this trail from Umstead Road to Guess Road. Please RSVP to Jason at 919-383-1686

Save the Date - September 24, 2005 - National Public Lands Day - www.npld.com

 

 
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

 

 

 

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 .