April in Section 3 Volunteers ~ THANKS!

We have been busy trying to recover from the winter storms and working on Section 3 in April.

John and Marietta discuss starting out the day along the Blue Ridge Parkway MP 278.5. Notice Marietta's unique balancing act (or is she planning to slice her apple?)

One of the remaining challenges in Section 3 is this crossover blow down of two Oak Trees.

In the upper center of this photo you can see our trail which goes directly under the foreground tree and uprooting the trail ahead with the root ball.

Chris and Marietta consider the challenges of this problem to remove.

There is much light work to do. Here Marietta is removing the light twigs and small branches from the trail. After the sawyers and the swampers have removed the debris there remains finger size and smaller twigs to be raked out of the trail.

We want to leave the leaves :-) and only remove the ankle turners and toe trippers. NOTICE: Marietta is wearing eye protection! Even lifting and moving small twigs and branches can slap your glasses off or scratch your eyes. I recommend safety glasses for all trail work.

John follows behind the sawyers removing small limbs and laps that were missed.

This is a typical entanglement of pick up sticks.

The ice dropped and snapped and piled many layers of large limbs.

Each limb and pile must be methodically worked through before any branches can be removed because they are so terrifically intertwined.

Two of our sawyers are beginning to solve a small crossed pile of branches.

Gerry steps in to remove a limb from a larger fall before starting on the trunk. Thanks for all you help this month! Wild flowers are starting to bloom along our sections of the MST!