Photo Album: Skyline Trail Photos
Skyline Trail Work Day Report - October 22, 2022
Prepared by Judd Volino, The Trail Center
Volunteers were probably slightly surprised how moist the air was first thing on Saturday morning of our work day. A strong fog bank created condensation coming off the trees in forested areas, too, making it feel like a rainy day.
Volunteers parked at the King’s Mountain Archers lot off the upper end of King’s Mountain Rd, in Huddart County Park. Volunteer coordinator Kathy checked everyone in and Judd and Jerel began shuttling folks a quarter mile up the road to the pull out where Hank had parked the trailer. Crew Leader Helen coordinated the distribution of appropriate tools into 3 piles for easier pick-up by volunteers after crew formation.
Trail Boss Judd provided the safety talk to our group of about 24 volunteers and staff at trail post #54 next to the water tank. Judd noted that we’d be working from the far end of the projects list, with lower numbered flags, and work our way back in the direction of the trailhead. This meant a 2.25mi hike for the farthest crew.
Tom M. was kind enough to independently start low brushing ahead of the crews with the motorized hedge trimmer, focussing on berry that had grown into the tread, some poison oak patches and lightweight shrub branches.
Karl led crew #1. Karl’s crew took a wrong turn onto a use trail under the power lines on the way in, which led to a delay in starting their work. Ultimately, they ended up working on flags between #33 back towards #40. This was in lieu of working flags #1-8 as originally planned.
Helen led the second crew, joined in the afternoon by crew leader apprentice Sam M. They began at flag #9, taking on the core work of widening the tread by brushing especially on the uphill side and removing sloughed dirt and duff from the inside edge of the trail. This crew also cut back some downed branches that were protruding into the corridor and removed previously cut debris to be less ugly on the sides. They also did some tread restoration in an area where a tree had fallen and the outside edge had broken down a bit. Later, some of the crew doubled back to flags #7 and 8 to do brushing an PO removal in those areas, and one drain at a low spot. The rest of the crew ended around flag #14.
Hank was third crew leader, joined in the morning by crew leader apprentice Sam M. His group began at site #15 to do some major tread restoration in a steep area. They continued to work north. One major improvement, led by Jerel, was cutting back the rootball of a downed tree to impinge less on the trail. The crew ended up reaching about flag #21. On the way back to the staging area, Hank’s crew (and Helen’s) removed debris generated by the hedge trimmer.
If we’re able to return to Skyline on a future date, we’d want to try to finish between flags 1 and 7 and from about 21 through 33 and some selected spots in the 40’s.
Thanks to Kathy for doing double duty and bring snacks that we distributed to volunteers after they were shuttled back to the parking lot. Also thanks for Hank for hauling the trailer and Ken and Jerel and Sam for working on tool packing.
