February 8, 2008 Trail Update

Traildogs - Friday Feb 8 Trail Update


Friday morning 8:30 am 27 degrees as we begin gathering at the rally point on the Hickory Nut Mt. Rd about a mile from the summit. The morning sun is just burning through the mountain mist that rises up from the deep valleys on both sides of the road as we greet each other. Today's pack is an unlikely group of mostly 60+ retirees, a university chancellor, an engineer turned tri-athlete, a librarian, a grocer, a telephone executive, a rancher and a surveyor who have come to continue our assault on the mountain summit. Each of us is layered in warm work clothes instead of the suit, ties and formal attire of another life. Each has a lunch pack and fluids some have hidden caches of Tylenol and Ben-gay for desert but all have a yearning to get started to relieve that itch you get from working on a project like this.

We troop off the side of the road onto a 80 year old logging road that drops sharply down about 150 yards to the freshly dug earth of the new trail. Once on the trail the kicking comedy begins as we march along each one of us unconsciously kicking loose rocks, pushing soil into small holes and pulling at the ever present roots as each one attempts to make this trail perfect until someone laughs and says " don't look down or we never get to the tool cache".

Up ahead the USFS three amigos, Tom, Joey and Josh, are warming up the two machines and assessing the challenges ahead as the traildogs open the tool cache go immediately to work on completing the tread, breaking down the berm and moving stones. We decide to break into two teams, one to stay with the machines and a second three dog team will hike back down the trail to construct water bars and remove some large roots from the trail. This three dog team includes a first time traildog, Georgia recently relocated from Louisiana, who joins the down hill team to view the newly dug trail for the first time. This team goes to the base of the trail where it levels out onto the valley floor to construct a large trail cairn to mark the beginning of the long ascent to the summit. While two of team build the cairn one of our team creates a natural break area to the right of the cairn on the bank of the small stream where just a few days ago we had a great wiener roast at lunch. The area has been dubbed Hot Dog Springs in honor of our roast.

By days end we have moved further along this craggy face of the mountain as our machine operators push boulders move logs and continually push forward. Everyone speculates on how far we have to go to reach the summit. When asked by someone new to the dig we jokingly say "about a half a mile". Three of us decide to hike ahead of the machines at day's end to see where the next turn in the long switch back is located however our tired legs give out before we get there so I guess it will have to be about a half of a mile.

Next week we will rally at the same point on the Hickory Nut Mt, Rd about 3.1 miles from US 270. We will start at 8:30 but come when you can and leave when you want. Bring a lunch and plenty of fluids as our lunches together as we the view mountain flowing down from our resting place is always a great time to guess how much further and how long it will take.

Thanks
Jerry