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| Session One Crew |
Day Zero & Day One
Day one of the first Rocky Top crew session of the season
was actually the second day of the “Great Pack-In,” an event where various
horsemen packers contribute to getting Rocky Top’s tools, gear and food up to
the crew’s campsite near the Appalachian Trail and Snake Den Ridge Trail
intersection in the park. The day before, or “Day Zero,” a set of five horsemen
packers took up roughly half the gear for the crew, with the remainder going up
alongside the Rocky Top crew as they hiked up to the A.T. on day one of the
session.
The participating volunteer groups for the Great Pack-In
were the Southern Appalachian Backcountry Horsemen, the Backcountry Horsemen of
North Carolina, and the Smoky Mountain Trail Riders – a total of ten volunteers
helped carry all of Rocky Top’s tools and gear up for the season, as well as
its food supplies for the first week. Thank you to everyone who volunteered for
this first session!
The Rocky Top crew itself began with a very small crew –
only one volunteer, Lenni, made it out for session one – but the crew
would go on to more than make up for its size through its quality and quantity
of completed work.
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| Pack horse at Cosby |
For the trail crew, day one consisted of hiking up Snake Den Ridge Trail from Cosby Campground to the A.T. and then to Inadu Knob. All told, this hike is six miles long and gains over 3500 feet of elevation. With tents riding up on the horses, the crew had relatively light packs to carry up and was lucky enough to have perfect weather for the duration of the steep climb.
Once the crew of three – one volunteer, one crew leader, and
one assistant crew leader – arrived at the top, they met with the horsemen who
were letting their steeds rest before heading down. After a brief and thankful
exchange, the crew got to work setting up camp – putting the food away in
bear-proof containers, setting up a kitchen area, digging a trench privy,
changing out the bear-fence battery (the crew leaders had set up an electric
fence a few days earlier for Day Zero’s gear to hang out in), and setting up
tents. The crew also noticed that their rain barrels were pretty much empty.
There had been almost no rain the week prior.
Day one ended with the crew heading to bed, knowing tomorrow
would mean a trip down to the spring on Snake Den, about a mile from camp. All
were excited though for the beginning of a trail crew session and for kicking
off the entire fall season.
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| Lenni digs for a waterbar |
Day Two
The crew awoke to a cool and foggy morning and gathered all
their water bottles, two 6-gallon jugs, and two freighter packs and headed down
to the spring. While playing word games, the crew filled up all their bottles
and both jugs, hoping to cut the number of spring-trips down to as few as
possible if the next seven days decided to stay dry. Then the crew – now
unofficially dubbed the “Three Musketeers” – managed the short but intense hike
back to camp to begin filtering water. Once the three arrived at their
destination, one thing was on each of their minds – water conservation for the
week. “Let’s do that as few times as we need to,” someone offered.
Once enough water was filtered to fill personal bottles for
the work day, the three set off to the top of Old Black, about a mile and a
half south of camp. The project goal for the season would be to finish the
trail work needed on this stretch of the A.T., beginning with priority needs
first and foremost. With water-fetching having taken up most of the morning,
the crew spent half a day installing water bars and grade dips. Near the end of
the day, the three took assessment of the trail work needed along the way back
to camp, marking priority needs with flagging as they went.
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| Installing a waterbar |
Day Three
The Musketeers had their first full work day, stopping at
Deer Creek Gap on the way to work in order to stretch and tell safety tips and
jokes – a ritual they would do each work morning from thereon out. It was a
clear and sunny work day. This was great for digging more water bars and grade dips,
but poor for rain barrel reserves. The crew had a satisfying if not tiring day
and headed back to camp where they played the card game “spades” after dinner,
something they would come back to again later in the week.
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| View from deer Gap |
Day Four
Today was the crew’s “hump day” since, at its end, they
would have four more days left of their eight-day session. Chris, the
Trail Specialist for the southern regional office of the ATC, joined the crew
for some water bar-installation and came bearing a few of the biggest Fuji
apples the crew had ever seen. Thanks Chris!
Chris camped out with the crew that night with the intent of
hiking past Old Black in the morning, assessing the work for future years’
crews as he went. The crew played more word games to past the time and reveled
at the addition of a fourth helping hand when it came time to do dishes.
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| Breaking rocks! |
Day Five
Cloudy skies teased rain during the middle of the week, but
alas, none was to be had. With Chris hiking out past Old Black for the day, the
crew worked on putting in more water bars, grade dips, and some much-needed log
steps. The Musketeers found this day one of the more exhausting.
Back in camp, it was a very early turn-in after dinner. By 7
PM the crew was back in their tents, listening for signs of rain. A pattering
of rain drops began for about ten minutes, but then petered out. It was almost
guaranteed now that the crew would need one more trip to the spring before they
headed out.
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| Pounding stakes! |
Day Six
Today the crew worked on a muddy area near Deer Creek Gap,
installing about 20 feet of log turnpike. Once the logs were cut and more or
less laid in place, the brunt of the work amounted to removing excess mud from
the middle of the turnpike and finding enough rock to crush and fill in where
the muddy path used to be. Locating and digging up rock, rotating to crushing
that rock with sledge hammers, and then going off to find more rock was fun but
exhausting work. The crew worked on the turnpike while enjoying the shade of a
few trees, watching as Deer Creek Gap was lit up by rays of sunlight all day.
Back at camp and after dinner, the crew played more spades.
This time they relaxed next to a nice camp fire, one they made especially for
their backcountry location by building a dirt mound on top of a fire blanket
and then adding their kindling on top of the mound. Knowing they would have to
hike down to the spring again in the morning, the crew enjoyed the peaceful
allure and warmth of the fire.
Day Seven
This was the day the Musketeers finished the turnpike! Before
that though, the crew did another hike down to the spring, taking this time
only the two 6-gallon jugs to fill for the last two days. The crew found this
trip much more manageable.
After hours of work, the crew had finally crushed and filled
enough rock to adequately harden the tread surface of the turnpike. Now hikers
would have a mud-free area to walk. The 20-foot-plus section of turnpike would
now encourage hiking straight through the trail, rather than around, mitigating
any undesirable widening of the trail itself.
Christine Hoyer, the park’s Backcountry Management
Specialist, came to join the crew later in the day. She worked with the crew on
widening drainages north of Deer Creek Gap and taking off a built-up grassy
berm on the downside edge of the trail. Berms build up over time on trails and
trap any water from draining off its edge. “Knocking off the berm” helps
encourage future water drainage off, rather than down, the trail.
Christine came back to camp with the crew to spend the night
and hike out with the crew the next morning. The three took inventory of food
and gear needed for the next week and began to prep the campsite for the crew’s
off days.
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| ... and after! |
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| Before the turnpike... |
The hike out! Camp is always abuzz the morning of day eight
– people are excited to have finished a crew week and are looking forward to
the return journey. The crew packed up all their belongings, put up tents and
any remaining food supplies into rain- and bear-safe containers and, finally,
replaced the bear fence battery and turned on the electric current for their
days off.
Goodbye Rocky Top camp! See you on Session 2.
Thank you Chris and Christine for coming out to
work with the crew this week!
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| Love the Smoky Mountains! |
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