Day 1 SNP SCA
5/19/06
Today, I got a quick orientation to Shenandoah National Park and was introduced to more people than I could possibly remember the names of. In the morning, Steve and I also finished up some paper work and outfitted me with some gear; radio, corona saw, first aid, etc?
Steve has been the man in charge of everything backcountry; trails, visitor impact, shelters, and much more. He has a few employees working under him including 3 trail crews, and several others responsible for various aspects of the backcountry.
At about mid morning, we drove out to Front Royal at the northern end of the park to check a self registration station half a mile into the park on the Appalachian Trail. Quite a fancy setup compared to other registration stations I have seen in national forests out west. We posted a bear poster and collected the filled in registration forms. Shenandoah National Park requires all backcountry campers to fill out free registration forms and attach a copy to their pack.
After hiking back to the truck, we drove into the park at the Front Royal entrance station and began the scenic tour of the park on Skyline Drive. A few miles later, we drove down a fire lane to Gravel Springs Hut on the Appalachian Trail. A log across the trail was my first chance to try out a corona saw. Tomorrow I?ll be helping the north district trail crew clear some trails with similar but larger corona saws and crosscut saws. Steve gave me a little information on the shelter and pointed out a marking left by the civilian conservation corps from the 1930?s. A thruhiker named Riverside who started on April 1st was resting near the shelter.
We also checked out the three nearby campsites and removed a fire ring that was only a few feet from a ?no fires? sign. A little later, Steve explained to me how creating campsites on a slope was much more effective than they had anticipated. Since the only flat spots were established campsites created by park staff, campsite expansion was greatly reduced and the impact was contained to a few spots. There was also less chance of disturbing archeological artifacts since few people lived on such steep slopes.
A few more miles down Skyline Drive we checked on a volunteer group from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club that was rerouting a section of the Appalachian Trail away from some radio towers. The PATC does quite a bit of work on the AT in the park and maintains the AT shelters. The group was moving along well and Steve explained to me how often the most expensive and time consuming part of a project was completing the archeological survey before any soil can be moved.
We kept on moving south along Skyline Drive, checking backcountry registration stations along the way until we reached Thorton Gap, eventually making our way back to park headquarters. Steve had me log into the park intranet and begin entering the registration forms into a database program. This enables the park to identify heavily used trails and campsites and check to see why a vehicle might be parked in the same place for a week. It only took me a few minutes to get a feel for the program, but it will probably be a month until I can identify all the place names. At about 4:30, I was finished for the day and made my way back to my house. Tomorrow will be a long day as I start at 7 and will be working with the trail crew.
Today, I got a quick orientation to Shenandoah National Park and was introduced to more people than I could possibly remember the names of. In the morning, Steve and I also finished up some paper work and outfitted me with some gear; radio, corona saw, first aid, etc?
Steve has been the man in charge of everything backcountry; trails, visitor impact, shelters, and much more. He has a few employees working under him including 3 trail crews, and several others responsible for various aspects of the backcountry.
At about mid morning, we drove out to Front Royal at the northern end of the park to check a self registration station half a mile into the park on the Appalachian Trail. Quite a fancy setup compared to other registration stations I have seen in national forests out west. We posted a bear poster and collected the filled in registration forms. Shenandoah National Park requires all backcountry campers to fill out free registration forms and attach a copy to their pack.
After hiking back to the truck, we drove into the park at the Front Royal entrance station and began the scenic tour of the park on Skyline Drive. A few miles later, we drove down a fire lane to Gravel Springs Hut on the Appalachian Trail. A log across the trail was my first chance to try out a corona saw. Tomorrow I?ll be helping the north district trail crew clear some trails with similar but larger corona saws and crosscut saws. Steve gave me a little information on the shelter and pointed out a marking left by the civilian conservation corps from the 1930?s. A thruhiker named Riverside who started on April 1st was resting near the shelter.
We also checked out the three nearby campsites and removed a fire ring that was only a few feet from a ?no fires? sign. A little later, Steve explained to me how creating campsites on a slope was much more effective than they had anticipated. Since the only flat spots were established campsites created by park staff, campsite expansion was greatly reduced and the impact was contained to a few spots. There was also less chance of disturbing archeological artifacts since few people lived on such steep slopes.
A few more miles down Skyline Drive we checked on a volunteer group from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club that was rerouting a section of the Appalachian Trail away from some radio towers. The PATC does quite a bit of work on the AT in the park and maintains the AT shelters. The group was moving along well and Steve explained to me how often the most expensive and time consuming part of a project was completing the archeological survey before any soil can be moved.
We kept on moving south along Skyline Drive, checking backcountry registration stations along the way until we reached Thorton Gap, eventually making our way back to park headquarters. Steve had me log into the park intranet and begin entering the registration forms into a database program. This enables the park to identify heavily used trails and campsites and check to see why a vehicle might be parked in the same place for a week. It only took me a few minutes to get a feel for the program, but it will probably be a month until I can identify all the place names. At about 4:30, I was finished for the day and made my way back to my house. Tomorrow will be a long day as I start at 7 and will be working with the trail crew.
Tags: sca