I’m proud to say I’ve been given the responsibility to maintain a tiny piece of the Appalachian Trail. Duties include trimming weeds and branches that encroach on the trail, removing trash, and repainting the 2-inch-by-6-inch white rectangles (“blazes”) that mark the trail. (Luckily, “my” section of trail has neither a shelter nor a privy, so I don’t have to deal with those.)
Normally, these tasks would be done regularly from early spring to mid-autumn. But… 2020 meant we weren’t permitted to work on the AT for most of the spring and summer.
My friend Kim and I did get out there in July, combining an overnight camp with weed whacking.
My task this time was to clear and dig waterbars. These are shallow ditches, dug downhill at relevant spots along the trail, to help guide water off the trail. That cuts back on the number of muddy spots hikers have to slosh through. And they help fight erosion.
The weather was less than ideal when I arrived at the parking lot for the day’s work: The wind was blowing the mist and drizzle sideways. Forget about even being able to see any views.
Hoping that the weather would be a bit gentler under the trees on the trail itself, I bundled up and headed out.
And, yeah, it wasn’t as bad as I hiked down the twisty, rocky trail, looking for spots to dig my waterbars.
I only managed to cover about 3/4 of a mile – half the distance to Ash Gap. And that took me two hours!
I’ll be back in the spring to do some further work on “my” trail. Looking forward to it.