April 6th Sipsey Willderness Clean-up

“I talked with Glen Gaines, the Ranger for the Bankhead Area. He is putting me in touch with Mike Cook (recreation coordinator). He sounded like he was in disbelief that pple wanted to help. He said that they want us to work with their new student wilderness ranger, and together find a project and how to work on it. He said once i talk with Mr Cook and the Student Ranger we could pick a trail, but he said the Sipsey River Trail that starts near Thompson Creek is in the worst shape. I told him there were 10-15 of us, from southeast...he then asked my university, high school and where i live now (shrugs)
He asked what we were willing to do or what we wanted to work on.
I told him we'd like to concentrate on small to medium blowdowns, and campsite repair/removal.

I will be contacted back monday and will have more info.

Please keep info on this thread to important items.

My e-mail is opie1979@yahoo.com
and i will give my cell to anyone that e-mail me asking for it.

I appreciate all suggestions, and help.”

“Will we get Free Parking?”

“Some folks at the Hiking Alabama webpage do a good bit of maintenance on the Pinhoti. Would yall like me to notify them as well, or is this a TT only gig? I was mainly thinking of the web community as a whole.”

“Thanks for bringing that back up...I will put a note down to ask Mr Cook about that.

Free Parking?
FS tools/boat or cart for trash?”

“Only if they are as fun as the ECT bunch. If so, Bring them on!
Of course we'll make them clean the parking lot.
BOL!!!!”

“I am soooooo there!”

“Looks like I'm still going to have a work conflict. I'm trying to reschedule. I hope I can. This sounds like a great trip.”

“Guys, I think this project really shows character.. and since I obviously are devoid of any -- I don't guess I will come.

Seriously, OPIE -- make sure you include me. Don't know if I can be there, but I SURE want to. This is the sort of thing that gives back to the earth all the sights and sounds that are forever indelibly etched upon our memories.”

“...for this trip. Already cleared by the wife to go. She was all up for me taking out more trash.

Just another question...are we gonna cancel for inclement weather, or are we gonna pick up trash in the rain? Just curious...

I guess details like where we're gonna camp Saturday night can be left for when we figure out which trail we're gonna be working on.

Oh crap, I just had a great idea. I wonder if instead of setting up camp somewhere, we should just bivouac in the cabin that's off of the 201. OPIE, maybe you should ask the rangers what the intended use of that place is, is it private property, or is it available for use by groups. It has 8-10 army bed frames in it, basically springs with no mattresses, but there's no reason why we couldn't push them aside and sleep on the floor if we wanted to. Plus, if it is raining, we should be dry at least, assuming the roof doesn't leak. When I was there last July, it looked like it stayed dry inside.
Just a thought, but if we did stay there, we'd only have to pack our stuff in about 2 miles, then it's about another mile or two to the head of the river trail, with nothing but tools, lunch, and water.”

“10 a.m., EST
I foresee mebbe an orientation and safety meeting at the FS workcenter on Hwy (6?) at 8 a.m. on 4/6. There we can meet each other and the student-ranger. Hopefully, the ranger will have the itenerary set.

That will also allow us to have a brief intro and demo of some of the tools and equipment - both ours and whatever we mooch off the FS - and a brief discussion about safety considerations. It would be great if we could park inside the workcenter fence, and get transported by the FS (or maybe even walk from there). The workcenter is closed on Sunday, but mebbe the S-R will have a gate key.

Or,
we drive from there to the trailhead.

Either way, we could be on the trail by around 9:30 or so.

We'll prolly scatter in several directions, and converge at the designated campsite later in the day. Or mebbe not. Whatever.

Mostly, I think the FS workstation would be the logical place for the initial rendevous...”

“Is there any special safety gear we should bring along besides gloves? Will this question be answered when OPIE talks to the FS?”

“Make sure the FS doesn't require steel toed boots.”

“all this is being noted and i appreciate all the serious questions and ideas

Steel toes/safety glasses?
Parking?


Will know more Monday”

“I've been on several trail building / maintance trips and was never required to wear steel toe boots or safty glasses. I would recomend gaitors.”

“I have a source for leather gloves if everyone will give me approx. sizes I can bring the gloves. S, M, L, XL”

“FYI these are FREE. To all that particpate.”

“LARGE”

“If I don't have to work I'll be there. I work maintenace at an industrial plant in decatur. Due to the nature of maintenance work I don't know until the last minute if I'll have to work the weekend. I'll keep in touch to see where and when. Anywhere will be fine with me.

BAMA”

“is this the location of the FS workcenter: ”

“is this the location of the FS workcenter: Black Warrior Work Center 2nd try”

“If that's not the exact location, it's pretty damn close. I'm surprised that Yahoo! Maps worked that well.”

“they don't - I was working from the administrative map - all 15 meg of it and then navigated my way using Yahoo Maps so as to see where it was in the over all view.

If interested and you have some time to kill here is where I pulled the admin map from : Bankhead NF warning this sukka is big”

“opie,

Did you get my e-mail?
If you didn't, count me in.”

“Another thing that's handy when doing trail maintence is those 14 channel FRS radios.”

“I picked up a couple of those this week WD. A local tech place had some Alinco's cheap, $29.50/each. I've tried them out already, and while they aren't the greatest, they do seem to work well enough.”

“I have a set and so I'll bring both so someone can use my other one.”

“I was out cutting some blowdowns today in Saint Marys WA - first day carrying some weight after recovering from my leg infection - just about finished on the Mine Bank Tr. - however hiking back up Mine Bank I really sucked wind - oh well - it was so bad that I think I'll skip the Sipsey Clean Up - I'll be with y'all in spirit but I don't think I am in good enough shape to be much help - I'll probably be working in Saint Marys Wilderness that weekend - by working alone I don't hold anyone else up and I don't kill myslef trying to keep up (smile)”

“Hope the leg gets well soon.”

“the leg is almost 100% - very little pain and no signs of the infection any more - my wind / stamina however was really bad - I may go to the doc and have it checked - be just my luck I'll have some sort of lung infection or worse.”

“back from my weekend partying at UA..i got everyones e-mails, and will contact everyone once i get details.”

“Black Warrior Workcenter is on Hwy 33, just north of Hwy 6 (I didn't go to yer link, HOI) on the eastern border of the Wilderness Area. It's within a few miles of several trailheads.

Steel toes not required.

Sun glasses will suffice as safety glasses.”

“no word from ranger today..will call him tommorrow...i'll be on a business trip wednesday till late sunday...”

“Don't know if you saw this on the other thread, so I'll post it here too.

There is about a 24" Hornbeam, possibly a Beech, down on the Bee Branch trail, just up from the junction with the River trail. This thing is huge and is pushing the trail waaaay out of the treadway. Heading up river there is another fairly large blowdown just before the Bee Branch junction, but it is mostly the top limbs of a large tree, not much trunk, but it does block the the trail fairly completely. I don't know if y'all will be tooled up for something of this size. As mentioned, I do have two-man saw, but will be in Savannah that weekend, or I would be there for sure. I have a sneaking suspicion that this won't be the last work trip for this group.”

“I think I know the one your talking about. It was there late last year. It's a streach getting over it. That's going to take a BIG Chainsaw. It would probably be easier to just reroute the trail IMO.”

“Opie, count me in for this one. I'll send ya an e-mail.”

“walkindude - isn't this blowdown in the wilderness area? if so it is a big crosscut saw job and not a big chainsaw job (grin) - I have done blowdowns in that range (24 inch) and it does take a while but then I did them alone - might not be so bad with two or four people and a crosscut saw.”

“Hey all you lucky people who have the TIME to enjoy the outdoors, even if it is work cleaning the outdoors. I am completely disliking my schedule at this point and the "real" job world...you know, that J.O.B. that comes after college graduation, ah! Blah! I just want to play in the mountains of NC all the time and live care free! That's not life, who am I kidding! Well, if time permits, (unlikely) I would love to come and work and hang! Thanks for listening to me wine for a minute. Wa! :)”

“Maybe soon you'll get some time off to go play in the woods.
Good Luck”

“Confirm on the Wilderness status of that blowdown. No chainsaw allowed.”

“I have a 24" saw...
and a three-foot Pulaski.

No problemo.”

“LOL gojo - I might just show up to see you try it (grin) - of course if I do I'll come with the five footer and a come-along.”

“Can anyone help out at the clean up? I would love to help out. How rugged is the area that will be cleaned? Only reason I ask is that I should( hopefully) be recovered form some surgery I had back in January . Wound still has not healed but should be by then.I will not been in the greatest shape since I have not been able to do much since January. Just wondering. . .”

“southerngal,,,I am sure there will be plenty of need for "lighter" trail maintenance,,,,trash pick up etc.,,,,you are more than welcome to join us,,,”

“Chilli36
Do you know who all will be there.
Leatherneck and I may come on Friday. I can't tell from all of the post who else is coming.”

“I'm there unless something at work absolutely keeps me in the office. Lookin forward to finally meeting everybody.”

“I will be there Friday night also. I am confirmed for this one and have commitment from my company that I will not be sent out of town or otherwise prevented from attending. Our company "encourages" (more like mandates) communtiy service (which is not necessarily a bad thing). This qualifies as my comminity project for the first half of the year. Nothing like working for a chain of command who all backpack.

So far:

rabbitman
leatherneck
trailhound57
chili36

who else?”

“I'm in. Where are you camping Friday night, chili?”

“ok a review of the thread gives this count

OPIE
rabbitman
leatherneck
chili36
bitpusher
tango 313 (bringing gloves)
walking dude
HogOnIce
gojo
moontrailbabe (maybe)
bama (maybe)
southergal (probably)

anyone else in on this?”

“I'll try to make this trip but can't make any promises right now. I'll follow the thread just in case.”

“But we can do alot of damage, nonetheless.


The extent of my maintenance experience is the two trips I've done with The Friendly Ranger, and the 1.3 mile trail I'm currently building.

The Ranger often works alone, but is usually paired. If she has help, they will carry a Pulaski, pruning saw, shovel, and heavyweight bag for transporting ashes. If she's alone, she will prolly carry no more than a saw or shovel.

Our options are open, but include removal of deadfalls and blowdowns, repair of water bars and washouts, cleaning fire rings and dispersing the rocks, and trash pickup. If everyone carries at least one major tool, we should be able to attend to any and all of the above tasks.

I will pack a Pulaski and a pruning saw... and mebbe a shovel, too.

I'm thinking that after we assess our tools, we should divide into specific crew types, ie, blowdown fixers, washout fixers, and fire ring fixers. That way, crews can advance from one task to the next without any delay. For example, if I were a sawer, I wouldn't pay any attention to a campsite as I passed by searching for a blowdown. Whereas if I were a fire ringster, I would move directly from one campsite to the next.

Anyhoo, I feel confident that we will get well enough organized to have a very productive weekend, and be even better prepared for subsequent trips.

I don't think anyone will have trouble sleeping Saturday night - that's for sure!”