Chef's Long Distance Hiking

On 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.

Goose 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.

Today 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, 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

 

 

 

Last 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.