We are on Black Mountain, in a saddle between two hills. Going north on the A.T. is our current worksite. It started with new steps at the road but most of our work will be building a series of steps to the top of a steep hill. Because this hill is very steep, the old/current trail took the hiker uphill using steps with very high step ups causing a very unpleasant and unsafe hiking condition. The steps were not anchored in place and are being washed loose and in some cases the steps are already missing, having loosened and rolled down the hill. To offset the steepness of the hill we swept our new steps in a wide arch, adding a couple of short turns and in order to put in steps with a lower step up. In doing so we make the A.T. just a little bit longer.
This weekend it was still very hot. But unlike previous weekends the last two weeks were filled with a lot of rain. The stream we have to cross to get to our worksite was swollen. The place we have used to cross the stream was now under swift moving water. So we walked along the stream to find a safer place to cross. A couple brave volunteers used a large log to cross the stream and made it OK but the rest of the crew felt it was safer to hike out to the road and cross the stream using a bridge on an old woods road. We found a short cut to the woods road that came out just short of the bridge. We continued to use the bridge the entire weekend. Even with the heat we had a great volunteer turnout.
We are still working 2 sites in this area. One is building new steps up hill #1 and another is near the top of hill #1 where new treadway and steps were needed. In order to build the new treadway we needed a new crib-wall. During heavy rains, a lot of water rushes through this area and erodes the trail. We built in a water management feature into the crib-wall to address that problem before we added any new crush and soil. After the heavy rains in the last two weeks, our water management feature worked great with no erosion to our new trail. This weekend we placed another 9 new steps going up hill #1 and 3 new steps and two water-bars on the upper section after the crib-wall.
The Appalachian Trail is always changing and evolving. All along the A.T., work crews, like LDTC constantly relocate and rehabilitate portions of the trail to protect nature and to enhance the Appalachian Trail hiking experience.
All of our projects take a lot of effort and as always, all done by volunteers. Our experience crew and crew leaders are eager to teach volunteers of all abilities the skills needed to build hiking trails.
Speaking of volunteers, not everyone can make it everyday and that’s OK with us. Some volunteers come out everyday while others can only make it to 1 or 2. Don’t feel that you have to commit to an entire project or even a weekend, any help is appreciated and being a volunteer you can come and go as you see fit.
We're a community of volunteers who build, protect and maintain hiking trails. We invite you to join us. You’ll be glad you did.
