The recovery from the winter storms damage begun in earnest last week.
Gerry has been a reliable sawyer for the initial forays into Section 1 of the Watauga MST
This is a typical noodle pile, or "pick up sticks" drop.
The chainsaw worker goes ahead and cuts the noodles into moveable pieces.
John has been the main assist crew worker for the first two work days.
The assist crew comes behind and picks up and removes all limbs from the trail.
It is an endless process of lifting, rolling, or tossing cut laps.
Every 10 to 15 feet there are pickup sticks to be cut and removed
After the larger limbs and branches are removed, this is what the foot tread typically reveals.
The next level of helping is to remove the "toe trippers" and "ankle turners" from the foot tread.
However, we do not want to remove all of the debris.
Debris that can easily be walked upon without tripping becomes duff or trail bed cover.
What would you pick up in this photo?
A days work and Gerry heads out. Thanks Gerry!
Gary is helping with pick up crew work. Notice he is wearing goggles. I recommend goggles even for pick up. If you are ever "face whipped" by a twig, you will wish you had had goggles on your eyes!
Sometimes entire tops fall an create many legged walkers.
They have to be selectively cut to figure out where the supporting limbs are embedded in the ground.
Sometimes it is hard to figure out the supporting branches so time and caution must be used in cutting.
Shelton whittles away at this walker to prepare it to roll out of the trail.
Even the sawyers have to move debris to get to debris to cut!
Gary steps in to remove the large debris from the trail bed.
But after clearing, it is a beautiful sight to recover the tread. Notice the debris is piled to the downside of the trail and when possible aligned parallel to the trail.
The placement of the debris helps reinforce the fill side of the trail and reduces the impulse to cut trail by hikers.
Piling on the inside of a switchback is the trick to blocking switchback cutting, a huge "no-no" on all trails!
Cut this switchback and you will get tangled knee deep in laps. On the positive side, it is sooooo easy to walk around the switchback now that it is cleared!
When you come to volunteer you will likely be working on recovery of trail that looks like this.
Pile your pick ups to the down side and use a leaf rake to flick the "Toe Trippers" and "Ankle Turners" off the trail. Do not remove the crushable debris. It will create duff and help prevent erosion.
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