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June 16 Terrace at new shelterOn Saturday I participated in the hardest work project I have ever done on the AT, myself and three others built a terrace in front of the new shelter that we built last year. The grade in front of the shelter turned out to be steeper than the planners had expected, so to give the hikers a level spot for picnic table it was decided to build a terrace. I thought we were gonna build one out of wood, like a front porch, man was I wrong.
We had to harvest rocks from the slope behind the privy, roll them down the hill to blueblaze trail, load them on a trail cart, then move them down to shelter area. While Cosmo and I did that, Pete and Dave mined dirt from behind shelter. The day started out very hot and ended with T storms. Luckily South Wilcox has an awesome spring that provided clear cold water for us all day. May 18 Goose pond cabinGoose pond is a beautiful pond in the Berkshires near the Appalachian trail, I am guessing in Lee MA. For years the pond has had private cabins on land owned by private owners, at some point ,one of the larger landowners sold their land to the National Park Service. NPS is the owner of the Appalchian Trail. On the land that was sold, their is two cabins, one of which has been run by the Appalchian Mountain Club as a place for hikers to stay, called Upper goose pond cabin. The cabin currently has 14 bunks and a space for caretakers. The AMC keeps volunteer caretakers on hand at all times to keep an eye on things. Yesterday we opened the cabin for the season. This involves taking wood shutters off the windows, hooking up propane tanks and stocking the cabin with pounds of pancake mix and syrup. A nights stay at the cabin is free(NPS rules) includes a pancake breakfast if you so desire. On the cabin grounds there is tent platforms and a canoe for use on the pond. We brought up a bear box for use at tent platforms. (I have been hiking in berkshires for 15 years and never seen a bear) but they tell me they are out there. The first week Pat Fletcher and his wife will be caretakers, then others will take over usually for the week. May 12 May 10, 2008Today I went out to The AT for a overnight ridgerunner thing. I parked my car at rte 20 in Lee MA, and started a 7.2 mile hike toward October Mountain shelter. In the parking lot I met a young couple who were going to lead a day hike in the opposite direction up to goose pond. The gentleman thruhiked last year under the trail name Bobcat,how many of those has there been. After chatting for a few minutes we went our separate ways. My first stop was top of becket mountain, were the blackflies were out in force. I use 98% deet, so they do not bite me, but the swarms can be awful. When the wind kicked up they would disappear in a hurry.
As a ridgerunner I am responsible for counting hikers and classifying them as Thru hiker, section hiker or day hiker. Bobcat and his group would be dayhikers. Another responsiblity is to report the state of the trail, how many blowdowns, drainage problems, illegal use of trail by motorised vehicles and even things like portable meth labs or pot farms. fortunately the latter two are not a problem in Massachusetts, as a rule. From becket Mt, the AT continues north for five miles thru October Mt.State forest. This section was in rough shape, no blowdowns had been removed and just south of County Rd the beaver pond had moved over the trail, flooding about 50 feet of the trail. The bog bridges were floating and some of the trail is under two feet of water.
From county road it is an easy 1.8 miles to October MT shelter, this area is my responsibility as a maintainer and I am happy to report that my drainage work from a few weeks ago was flowing fine. I made it to shelter about three oclock to find five guys set up, with a nice fire going and cold BEER, awesome. Around five oclock I set up my tent and discovered that I did not have my food bag. UGH, $%$$#&&*%$, I took it rather well, the gents offered to give me some food, but I would not have any for tomorrow and the 7 mile hike back to car. So, I took my pack, water, headlamp and headed south, passing two Thru hikers on the way. made it to car at 7:45 PM, and almost fainted i hiked seven miles in 2 hours 45 mins, basically nonstop, I made it quick run into McDs, cvayse i was starving, then drove thru Forest roads to a spot only half mile from shelter. The guys had been joined by more friends and we sat around fire drinking beers till 11 oclock.
In the morning they continued south for ten miles, they were out fro a weekend section hike, I took all the empties back to car and decided to join a work crew in Pittsfield, that was felling 100 foot hemlocks. these are going to be milled next week to become all aof the big beams for next years new shelter project. Joining me were Richard "the meat cutter", Cosmo, current AT comittee chair for Brkshire chapter and Pete Rentz, longtime volunteer and owner of the wood lot. I must say for a city boy it is wicked awesome to see a 100 foot hemlock come crashing down. We cut down four while I was there, then it was time for a three hour ride home.
Had a great two day weekend. April 26 MaintenanceApril 26, 2008
Today i was back out for more maintenance, it was drainage work. Very wet and muddy. There is a small stream that crosses the trail about .15 miles north of County Road. I had it draining well a few years ago but never really cleaned it out. The mud was shin deep and the path I cleared included removal of rocks, dead trees, live trees and roots. I brushed in a muddy track and laid new steppin stones, in a few weeks Ill head out again to check on it see if its still flowing good.
October Mountain state forest is a designated ATV recreation area here in MA, which means in the winter, those atv trails become part of the snowmobile rte. Some of the snow guys use the shelter, which is no problem as long the as they do not go on Appalchian trail, which they do not. The only thing they do is mess up the fire ring really bad, on this trip I intended to dig up this mess and make one huge ring, as I approached the shelter I saw folks who had spent the night. I was to about to tell them I had to put out their fire, but noticed they had done a superb job, better than me, at repairing it. Thanks much men
April 17 trail maintenanceLast week I went out The AT to begin spring maintenance on the section I am responsible for. County road north to Branch road. My section includes October Mt Shelter which was in good shape. This summer we are replacing the roof and making the privy into a mouldering latrine. Last year i assisted in contsruction of Mouldering privys at Nopel shelter and another shelter near Dalton can not remeber the name. These privy are much better than the current, sit on top of the hole in ground type.
I removed about a dozen blowdowns with my hand saw as well as 20 plus smaller branches tha you could toss aside. I do not count all the verysmall branches, which we are required to remove. Tomorrow I go back out with Slowfoot GA-ME 99 to remove a larger one and help him on his section. June 12 Building a shelterToday I traveled out to Appalachian trail in the Berkshires, to assist in building a new shelter. During the winter the shelter pieces were pre fabricated at the AMC Mount greylock toolshed.
Today it was moved by four AMC volunteers and the totally awesome Massachusetts DCR(department of conservation and recreation) Trail crew and ridgerunner. This was no easy task, but we mangaed to get it all over to Beartown state forest.
The new shelter will be beyond the exisiting MT. Wilcox south shelter along the AT. Dirt road access got us to location about .2 of a mile from the site, a rough trail was cut, downhill toward the AT then over to the existing blue blaze to the shelter.
The pieces which included 18 ft , 150 pound beams were all off loaded into a staging area. It was one flatbead and two RAM pickups full of wood and equipment. Thanks to Becky at the DCR for the trucks and labor.
It took all day, working in teams of two to move the majority of the big stuff down to the site. The walk back up was a killer. The AMC has a gas powered wheelbarrow with tracks, Pete operated that all day moving first the tool box, then the twelve humungous telephone type poles, that are buried in the ground to support the structure.
Work parties are schedule every Saturday and Tuesday thru July 3, Ill be participating in quite a few of them. Once I buy a new camera, Ill have plenty of pics. May 20 RidgerunnerYesterday, received my volunteer ridgerunner training from a very cool chick named Sara who workd for thr AMC in western Massachusetts. I was the only one who showed up, you see it was raining and the training included a two mile hike to Wilcox South shelter in Beartown State forest. I am officially a Volunteer ridgerunner along the AT in Massachusetts, as a volunteer I make my own schedule so I will go at different times during the summer my first trip sometime around the fourth of July, I hope.
By then i should have a new camera, I broke my stylus600 by stepping on it this past winter. May 18 pneumoniaOh man April vacation came around and I had pneumonia, so I could not hike. I have done some trail work, all blowdowns have been removed from my 4 mile section on the AT. Saturday I am heading to Beartown state forest for a one day seminar for volunteer ridgrunner program. a ridgerunner hikes multiple days on the trail and assists hikers, monitores camping and shelter areas, recoerds usage, teaches about LNT technique and acts as a link between hikers and the ATC. February 24 last yearLast years trip was a washout after ten days, I was so disgusted I could even think about hiking for months. This year is gonna be the year of hiking, In April I am hiking 90 miles of the Massachusetts AT and then IN July I will again attempt to hike the LongTrail in VT. Earlybird has hiked it so many times Ill never catch her in # of times hiked. Hopefully I will have enough money to saved to hike the whole summer. Before I have to go back to work. June 17 The time has comeWell I am all packed up and ready to go. My pack ways an mazing 38 lbs. I am making a real effort to keep my food weight down. The Long Tail has plenty of resupply points. Looks like the weather is going to be hot. I leave at 4AM , it is three hour ride, I will be hiking by eight. plenty of time for a break during the heat of the day. The ride is straight out rte 2. I will keep you all posted. have a nice day TChuck"Chef"Brown LongDistanceHiker ------------------------------ Sent via PocketMail Email Anywhere www.pocketmail.com May 26 Memorial day weekendI am leav ing in the morning for White Mountains in New Hampshire, I will be hiking a loop in the dry river wilderness, which will include Mt Isolation. The weather is looking good. April 23 day five 4/17/06Great night, so far the weather has been sunny and in the 80s. today its suppose to go up to 90, but right now its cloudy and windy. If i can make it to Muskrat creek shelter I will cover another 10 miles. The trail has been up and down but graded well. My body feels fine and mt pack is getting lighter every time I eat. Surprisingly I have no blisters, it is not often that I can hike more than a day without getting any. I have switched from the expensive Thor LO brand hiking socks to a Target brand rippoff, seem to be wicking the moisture better than the higher priced socks. I always wear Goretex boots, so my feet tend to get hotter than normal. No great views on this section today. Really the only view was from Mt Albert, just good physical hiking day. Standing Indian Mountain is an easy hike, at the shelter of the same name I met Ronnie from Ohio. A very talkative and interesting fellow. The last time I was at this shelter was six years ago, it was snowing and about 20 people stuffed in the shelter, while I tented.
After lunch I headed south toward deep gap, There I met Hatrack and Diesel. he is from NY and she is from the Netherlands. Cool. Second woman I have met from Dutchland. I hiked on the LT with Freisian Rhino in 2003. Deep gap is at the end of a USFS road with a small parking area and trash cans. I decided to lighten my load by getting rid of my trash. When I opened the the animal proof container a mouse jumped right at me. AHHHHGGG!!!YIKES!!! I jumped higher than the mouse. Hey, I have had bears jumped out of the rhodos two feet from me, rattlesnakes refuse to give me the trail and bald eagles swoop on me cause I disturbed breakfast and I have bareley moved an inch, but I HATE MICE!!!! The number one reason I do not sleep in the shelters, that and various bodily noises.
Of course when you hike down into a gap you have to go up the other side, not bad just slows the pace down. I have decide that in my old age tha I am only going to hike ten miles a day until I get my trail legs, unfortunately this trip will be over before just as this happens. I made it to Muskrat creek and decide to stay the night. I set up my tent away from the shelter, so i could avoid the Thruhikers. This has been the first time since my big hike in 2000 that no one has recognised me. Usually after introducing myself as "CHEF" I used to get hey arent you the guy who.... or " I have heard about you..." I am enjoying the aninomity. Tonight Rain maybe. It did get up to 90 today. The last half of the day was hot. And plenty of clean, TP free water. April 18 Day four 4/16/06The sleep demon visited last night, I could not fall asleep until one am, but once I did I slept until about eight. I did not leave camp until ten, my goal today was at least ten miles. Just a half mile up the trail was the summit of Albert mT. This is a 5000 foooter. Down here the tree line is above 6000 feet. Albert has a tower from the old days of fire watching. I did not go up, I can stand on the edge of a 12000 foot mountain, put a tower on it and I wont go up. I am afraid of heights I guess. I met another weekend hiker like me. At the shelter last night there was at least five folks trying to hike the whole trail. So far there has only been one jerk in the group. I guess its to early in the hike for them to get an attitude problem. Not many chicks. The weather is bautiful, sunny and hot and I am starting to burn. Usually the Irish/Danish side causes be to burn, only once, then my Scicilian side takes over and I tan, The chicks dig it. With sailing this year I should get some good color. Seven miles from my starting point are the infamous Carter Gap shelters, one old and one new. If you are hiking northbound like most thruhikers you see the old one first. This is an ancient broken down, three sided monster. I think I saw a nest up in there. Anyway all the AT literature mentions the newer one further literally 200 ft up the trail on the opposite side. I have read journal accounts of people coming in to the old one spending a miserable night, then continuing in the morning to find the beautiful one. HAHAHAH. Iiots. I am heading south and actually went to the old one on purpose. The water is down a hill behind the old shelter. When I say down hill I mean downhill baby. I needed just enough water to cook a meal here and get me three miles to Beech Gap, where I am currently camped. Beef stew was on the menu as I ate northbounders would come up and say with disdain"Is that the shelter" chef reply " no thats the old one" nb "oh...ya...thats right there is two of them". Maine is a long way dudes, get it together if you wanna make it. I did meet St. Bernard who was really cool. We had a safety session and he was good. The hike over to Beech gap was uneventful. The water source was shitty, literally. There was used toilet paper floating in the water. OH MAN, was I @#%@%%%^% and %^%%&^. I will have to warn the NBs tomorrow. Thats it for now. I am jamming with a new classic rock station out of Atlanta, 97FM. It is one of the no DJ's type station, I like that. Peace. Chuck"Chef"Brown LongDistanceHiker ------------------------------ Sent via PocketMail Email Anywhere www.pocketmail.com Day Three I am Hiking Sat 4/15/06Good evening everyone, here I am tent close to 5000 feet up. The time is 7:58 on Saturday night. I have had my dinner of Ramen noodles. My two water bottles are full and the classic rock is playing. Did I mention the Bud Ice, chilling outside. Something is missing, I can not figure what... This morning I awoke early to get breakfast, today it was HuddleHouse. My standard order is Two eggs over easy, bacon, toast and grits. The food was great and they served Pepsi. ALways a plus. This Huddle house gets total 67 on the Hiking Gourmet scale. I wanted to leave as early s possible, the motel had a shuttle leaving at nine. Last night when I got here, on a bench outside the motel office, was a fairly hot hiker chick,who commented on my pants(pink floyd). I paid little attention to her because she was white(most hiker chicks are) This morning I find out she is the neice of a guy I met in 2000, that was so cool. She is staying in town while her knee heels. Knees and blisters, those will ruin a hike real fast. The weather was hot, but now its cooling off real fast. I hiked 10 miles today and feel pretty good. Now I am gonna read and have cool beer. Goodnight Chuck"Chef"Brown LongDistanceHiker ------------------------------ Sent via PocketMail Email Anywhere www.pocketmail.com Day two Friday April 14 2006One word describes today DRIVING,no serious traffic delays. I left hotel around five AM, went across the road to Waffle House, a chain of breakfast stores. Now before I critique, I will let evryone know that my ultimate dream, or money dream is to own a chain of Breakfast restaurants. Anyway, If I were the breakfast king I could put people like this out of business. The waffle house is open 24 hours, just as I walk in to a nearly empty dining room the cook decides to "clean the grill". So I have to wait for 15 mins for the dude to clean the grill, they should be cookin the eggs in a saute pan any way. Idiots!! The trip around DC was uneventful and soon the xB was humming down I66 a small interstate that connects I81 to 495 in VA. It was hot all day and no AC. I arrived in Franklin around 630. I am staying at he Budget Inn, there are several hikers here in cluding a hot young woman who"really like your pants, Floyd, alright." I was wearing my Pink Floyd pants. Checked in, made arrangements to keep my car here and I will call for a pickup on Friday, further south. I ran last minute errands and by the time I got back all the hikers were off someplace. Packed and unpacked. Its real heavy, yikes. Tommorrow I hike. Chuck"Chef"Brown LongDistanceHiker ------------------------------ Sent via PocketMail Email Anywhere www.pocketmail.com April 15 Day one Thursday April 13,2006Thursday took forever to come. My plan to get out of town by eight in the morning worked out well. I was cruising down the the Mass pike on time. Usually I would travel the 90 to 84 to 91 to 95 rte, today I went 90 to 395 to the casino to 95. I figured I would try and raise some additional funds at the blackjack table. I arrived at bout 930 so I went to Krispy Kreme, they have several ofthem around the reservation. I got mine hot of the conveyor, mmmm!!! I went to the table I had won 350 bucks on Friday night. Two hours later I had won another 250, THANK YOU. Marcella I wish you there, I needed backup, some dude was blaming his losses on me. Hey I won. Back on the road I had hoped to make it all the way to Virginia, but events conspired against me. Minutes after I crossed the NY city line I hit bumper to bumper traffic. Road construction, accidents, Easter holiday and the evil Yankees day game in the Bronx, caused a huge trwaffic problem. What normally takes about hald hour took two. Further delays on the NJ turnpike, the Deleware pike and in Maryland forced me to get of the hiway north of Baltimore. Day one over, early start tomorrow. Good Night Chuck"chef"Brown ------------------------------ Sent via PocketMail Email Anywhere www.pocketmail.com April 05 Georgia Boundone week until I head south to NC, My plan is to hike southbound on the Appalachian Trail from Winding stair gap to Neels Gap(75 miles). By doing this I will have everything from Springer mt to Fontana dam done twice. My first big AT hike took me from Springer to Maine. 2000 miles in six and half months. Now I just go out for a week or more at a time.
The drive to NC is about 990 miles. Generally i drive from Boston to Shenadoah NP, about six hundred miles. my first stop is at the Skyline lodge. In 2000 during my big one I was in Shenandoah and had some bad weather days, as I approached skyline wayside I was going to tent in the campground, the weather did not aggree. A room was only 50 bucks so I stayed inside. Skyline is a beautiful old structure, had a lounge right downstairs. That was all I needed. While in the lounge the storm came, I sat at this huge window overlooking the mountains along with all the oldtimers who were driving to FLA.
I really enjoy Shenandoah and the drive thru it. Last April I saw no Thru hikers, most likely it will be the same this year. Most thru hikers are still south of there. April 02 Trail maintenanceYesterday I was back out on the AT in October Mountain State Forest in Massachusetts. Earlier in the week I had received an email from my section coordinater, she wants all blowdowns removed by May 1. The weather was awesome until 1pm when it began to rain, luckily I was back at the car by the time that happened. My section is from County road north to Mt Washington rd, approximately four miles. Included is the October mountain shelter. In MA most of the newer shelters are nice with bunks, loft space and a picnic table under an over hang. PLEASE PACK OUT ALL TRASH FROM SHELTER AREAS. I removed about dozen smaller blowdowns and trimmed some larger ones. The AMC will not let you use a chain saw unless you have taken their two day saftey course, which I want to do, but first I have to take a 16 hour wilderness first aid course, which i also want to do. Just need to find the time. My goal is this year to take at least the first aid course. So after you trim the big ones you report them to your section chief and they are removed by a chainsaw eligible type person. My section always has some large blowdowns, this year I had my first one caused by beaver devastation. See photo.
Another big thing is blazing , painting the white blazes on the tree. I noticed a few spots that need it especially around the shelter area. Brushing in is a method to control the width or direction of the trail. In many spots the trail widens or people make another trail. Its important to keep the trail impact to minimum. A few spots I closed off four years ago when I statred are revegetating perfectly. Already you can see several small trees growing in one particular area( future blowdowns). Next week I am going back to the shelter area to close off many small side trails and define the AT tread better thru this area.
One note, hear in MA we had the second driest March in 100 years, places on my section that have been wet for the four years I have been maintaining were dry yesterday, unless we get a wet April and May it could be a dry summer. March 26 Day 20 Thursday July 7, 2005My goal for today will 15 miles. The hike looks like a typical day, up and down, up and down. The days hike began about seven thirty. I have not a cellphone signal since monday, Im sure my mom is freaking out. Friday I should be able to get into a small town and use the payphone. Recently my dad switched to vonage internet phone. The service is only 25 a month, for an additional 4.99 a month we have a toll free number. So I can call from wherever I might be. On the hike today I met some folks from the Colorado trail foundation, the group responsible for the maitenance of the trail. We spoke for few minutes, I mentioned my isolation problems. The day before they met a woman and a man who were also hikng alone. They came alone, but met on the trail. They started hiking together and camping inthe same spots. I have not seen them, of course they are ahead of me. The woman from the colorado foundation said alot of people have the same isolation problem. The relocation they were working on was very nice. I made 14.4 miles today, that means 15.5 until the road that leads into twin lakes. 155miles from Denver. Chuck"Chef"Brown LongDistanceHiker ------------------------------ Sent via PocketMail Email Anywhere www.pocketmail.com |
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