Sunday, June 7, 2009 PATC Trail Patrol visits ORMS

Sunday, June 7, 2007 PATC Trail Patrol visits ORMS

(Double click pictures for higher resolution.)
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HEY you got PATC Trail Patrol mixed up with my ORMS! No you got ORMS mixed up with my PATC Trail Patrol!
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Because I went to PATC Trail Patrols pot luck dinner (great food and company) at the White Oak Rangers Cabin and then to the Big Meadows presentation by WindTalker and Mom about their new book, Solemates: Lessons On Life, Love & Marriage From The Appalachian Trail by Randy Motz and Georgia Harris it made sense to sleep about a quarter mile up and off the Weakley Hollow fire road Saturday night.
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Dawn comes early these days and the birds had me up and eating my breakfast in the upper lot at around 6AM. Two parties came out on the Ridge Trail. They had gone up under moonlight around 2AM during the night so they could set up and take pictures of the sunrise. After breakfast I ambled down to the lower lot and provided visitor assistance until the rest of the gang showed up.
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Morning Meeting

On the way up the Ridge Trail we met a man and his wife coming down. They had gone up the Ridge Trail to Old Rag summit. I had seen them in the upper lot while I was eating my breakfast. The gentleman told us that he has climbed Old Rag over a thousand times. While he has probably seen more than half his sunrises, I do not think I would try to race him up Old Rag. I hope he manages another thousand hikes on the mountain he obviously loves. He talked a little bit about the lyrics of Banjo Joe. I have not yet had the time to find renditions of Banjo Joe's music but I intend to. I may share some of the lyrics on a future blog.

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Slips can happen to the most experienced hiker. Below the PATC Trail Patrol provides first aid to one of its members who took quite a slip just below the first false summit.

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A couple of PATC Trail Patrol members having a bite to eat on the first false summit.

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PATC Trail Patrol in the Rock Scramble.

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At the end of the day bear crossing the Weakley Hollow fire road just before the three footbridges.

I saw granddad walkabout dog Toes on the fire road on-leash with his owners. Heard JR was fine even though I had not seen him for awhile.

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Lots of time, distance, nature, and cultural history information provided.

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First aid advice and supplies given to a couple of hiking parties so they could fix minor problems but no major medical assitance needed.

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Lots of used band aids picked up from the trail since sweat and abrasion makes them pop off faster than you can make toast. Either the park has received a prototpe of a DARPA sponsored iRobot that cleans trails or some good deed doer had recently picked up before me or the hikers are doing great with LNT. Other than the band aids and a little bit of micro trash the trail was clean of litter.

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A few LNT lessons were provided.

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LNT AT THE OLD RAG CORRAL

A couple of young climbers met. Asked them to be careful of the rocks, plants and animals and I got the OK-NO-PROBLEM with a tone and body language that my kids trained me to know meant just say yes to make him happy. I added, "If the wrong things happen the park may have to close down some of the climbing areas. " and fast as the words were out of my mouth I got the "THEM'S-FIGHTING-WORDS" look. I quickly added, "No one wants restrictions which is why the park has us doing outreach. " Their body language relaxed as fast as it might after clipping into a bomber placement above a long run out on difficult moves. No gun fight today. Message understood and hopefully taken to heart.
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Pinxters were compeltely gone. The full Moon glowed through the balmy air. Mountain Laurel still not at peak but may be next week. Absolutely great fun filled weekend in the mountains.

NATIONAL TRAILS DAY Saturday, June 6,2009

HAPPY NATIONAL TRAILS DAY

Since 1993, the first Saturday of every June is known as National Trails Day, inspiring the public and trail enthusiasts nationwide to seek out, discover, learn about, and celebrate America's trail system. And this Saturday, June 6th, marks the 17th annual National Trails Day!

CHECK OUT THIS STELLAR MAP OF MANY OF THE BIG LONG TRAILS

http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/trails/natltrails.pdf

As Trebor Kool one of our more illusory Old Rag Stewards sometimes explains to summiting hikers who look around and ask how to get to the Old Rag Summit they remember from their past? “Well that’s a little bit complicated, it is not far from where you are at the moment. While you can almost experience it from where you are, you will not be able to get to it again. As you travel on down the trail, please keep in mind that wherever you go to fully enjoy where you will be and LEAVE NO TRACE you were there.”

One of the ephemeral memorable moments on the trail.

Sunday May 31, 2009 New Shirts and Fireflies

Sunday May 31, 2009

Just as GLOWUORMS (the Global Worldwide Union of Old Rag Mountain Stewards) was pondering a strike, our shirts arrived and the need for the strike disappeared along with the morning mist. Now the hikers will be able to recognize us even from a distance.

Just look for the big giant Red Spotted Newt(Eft) colored folks with the Old Rag Trillium blaze on their shirts.

http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/salamanders/notvir.htm

Newts and other little creatures are often on the trail please be careful not to step on them. The newts often come out onto the trail during and after rain storms. Despite their beautiful color they are not as easy to spot as a Mountain Steward. On the other hand if your not seeing one of these guys good luck with the Copperheads and Rattlesnakes which sometimes (fairly rare but it does happen) cross our trails.

LITTER
Of course the better you get at seeing these things the better you will get at seeing any visually obnoxious gag reflex inducing litter left by those who have not heard about Leave No Trace. We have a lot of newbies on this mountain please get up to speed on outdoor ethics.
http://www.lnt.org/programs/principles.php

Except on our shirts I did not see any Trilliums they have truly passed until 2010. The Pinxter/Mt Azela bloom was in its last waning. The Mt Laurel were in the earliest stages of their 2009 bloom. Speaking of waxing and waning we had around a half moon showing in the late afternoon and evening.

MY SHADOW HAS NOT SHOWN ANYONE HIS TATOOS
He is very quiet, not much for conversation. My shadow very seldom scares any wildlife away. He seems to only like to join me on fair weather daytime hikes and he is not fond of the noonday sun(he never carries enough water). My shadow has been known to join me on rare bright-moonlit hikes. Even though he appears to be deaf, dumb and blind he is an idiot savant at both playing monkey-see monkey-do and also at practicing perfect Leave No Trace ethics.

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HELP YOUR SHADOW AVOID BEING TRACKED

Master trackers and sign cutters are taught that their only clues when tracking a shadow will come from past eye witness accounts, pictures, or by tracking the person whom the shadow has a symbiotic (some argue parasitic) relationship with. Considering this last fact, as a favor to your shadow, please behave such that no master tracker can find your shadow through your careless mistakes. You may even want to consider going one better than taking nothing but pictures and leaving nothing but footprints since these are the primary clues a master shadow tracker will be looking for.

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If your shadow could talk he would tell you that the one allowable exception to this request is when you are lost and need to be found.

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Struggling between his advocacy for Old Rag Mountain and his desire never to found by a master tracker my shadow would only release me to use this photgraph of him if I waited at least 12 hours before posting it.

Shenandoah Sunset from near CCC Stairs. If your hiking party is seeing a scene similar to this one than each member should have a light and a backup light. That is unless you intend to bivouac over night and hopefully survive to see the sunrise.

FIREFLIES ARE OUT

http://iris.biosci.ohio-state.edu/projects/FFiles/frfact.html

Travelling down the fireroad in the dark I saw the flashing of my first fireflies of 2009. I have spent evenings on the fire roads when their displays were absolutely magical. Mid June to late July seem to be the prime times for Firefly displays. Sometime during August their numbers slowly fade. I was surprised to learn from my young west coast nieces and nephews that they had never seen them before. Turns out there are no fireflies on the west coast. Such a shame for such a wonderous act of nature not to be shared by the whole world.

Sunday, May 25, 2009 Memorial Day Weekend

Sunday, May 25, 2009 Memorial Day Weekend

Partial Clouds followed by rain followed by evening mist.

On the way to the trail head a neignborhood garden. The crowds were not too bad probably because of the weather.

Looking up the Rock Scramble from first false summit. A few sprinkles had just begun. North and east you could see heavy rain and south and west was clear. The rain finally engulfed the mountain though. It was warm enough that the rain was pleasant. Soaked kit and cloths added to the workout.

Double click on this picture and see if you can see the two hikers. One sitting and one standing. Hint it is way up by what is called the Chute.

In the early evening a Raven enjoys the view and sings a raucous ballad from atop Skyland Wall. Ravens entertained me with amazing displays of aerial prowess among towering cliffs while I was hiking high in the Tetons. Since then I have felt a deep connection with them. They are one of the most intelligent birds and have been known to enlist other species to hunt for them by vocalizing over the predators prey and then sharing in the meal after the predator has killed it. Sometimes their behavoir telegraphs the presence of hiking parties on the Ridge Trail. They engage in play both in the air and on the ground and they have been observed both playing catch me if you can with ground dwellers and sliding down steep snow slopes just for the fun of it. Sir Raven who is featured in an earlier blog flew within several feet of my head on numerous times when I was taking those pictures. Most amazingly while flying into a head-wind he flew at less than a walking pace past me at eye level and only four feet away. He then enagaged in a little bit of a game of peek-a-boo try-and-get-my-picture as he continued to tease me by landing just behind a big boulder between the two of us but flying behind the next boulder just before I could snap a picture. He finally allowed his picture to taken proud as can be which is why a called him Sir Raven.

The Mountain Laurel just showing the first signs of blooming in the switchbacks. The Trillium field has passed until next year although there were a few late bloomers.

On the summit and Saddle Trail the Pinxters still perfumed the air but they will soon be gone until next year. The good news is that as the Pinxters fade the Mountain Laurel will bloom.

Looking back at the summit in the early evening after the rain.

Sun 5/17/09 Pinxters, Bears, and Chicken-Of-The-Woods

SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2009

Andy, Drew, Jake and myself patroled on Sunday. The numerous backcountry camping groups were being washed out into the parking lot by the evening's rain. Between the evening downpours and forecasts for more rain during the day the mountain was fairly empty on Sunday.

Patrol duties involved mostly anwering questions and picking up a little liter. There were no fire problems. medical incidents, or park violations. We set a line in the squeeze portion of the rock scramble in anticipation of alleviating future backups on upcoming croweded days.

Chad had patrolled solo on Saturday and was kept busy with dehydrated and seperated hikers.

The classic morning muster; equipment check, agenda planning and NPS morning meeting.



The friendly and knowledgable fee station staff, Mike and Diane.


A prolific profusion of Pinxters perfumed the woods. No Mountain Laurel blossoms yet.


A few more Lady Slippers spotted.

A newly built section of trail is pictured below. Three cheers for the maintainers.

There is an intricate web of relationships between SNP employees and various volunteer groups and or individual volunteers that keep the trails maintained. A large amount of the work is done under the direction of organizations like PATC who have been trained by NPS to take on the primary responsibility for maintaining certain trials. The PATC Blue and White crew discussed in an earlier blog is a great example of this. Some of the work is done by NPS seasonal employees who do these tasks during the summer. Some of the work is done by regular full time NPS employees.

It is my understanding that work pictured was planned, managed, and done by NPS Central District staff whose efforts were bolstered with the help of 6 PATC volunteers.

VOLUNTEERS ALWAYS WELCOME

If you or an organization you belong to want to help build stuff while enjoying the out of doors check with the Park Service for opportunities to volunteer. If you are interested specifically in SNP Central District this blog has links at the top right part portion of this page as well as sprinkled through the text that are good places to find out more about volunteer opportunities.

Three Cheers to all those concientious hikers who not only practice Leave No Trace but also pitch in by picking up a little bit of litter that was not theirs during their visits.

Considering all the trafffic Old Rag has been relatively clean of litter so far this spring. Knock on wood.

I was elated to see my first two bears of 2009. They appeared to be siblings spending their first spring on their own. I only got a picture of one of them as it was fleeing deeper into the woods.

Weather shaped Pine on summit.

Looking down on Graves Mountain Resort area.

Hikers on false summit.

Chicken Of The Woods

SNP Wildflower Weekend and Sir Raven

Sunday, May 10, 2009 Mothers' Day and SNP Wildflower Weekend


Spectacular weather, not very crowded. We dispensed some advice, picked up some liter, had no major medical needs. Old Rag and her guests were treating each other gently on this wonderful Sunday.

For ORMS members the following link goes to part one of a five part video covering one individuals well thought out mid-sized first aid kit. It starts with about two minutes of a collage of music and photos of the authors outdoor experiences before getting into the actual tutorial. If you are going to only watch one part skip to Part 2. Between the five parts the tutorial takes over two and a half hours but there is a lot of good info in it.

http://uk.truveo.com/Pt-1-Level-2-First-Aid-Kit-Review-by-Nutnfancy/id/3029467201

Azelas and bluets were out. Trillium was out but may be waning. One of my favorites the Mt Laurel is still to come.


OLD RAG MOUNTAIN STEWARDS ORMS getting ready during our morning meeting before the days patrol.

BLUETS lined the trails.
At the top of the Ridge Trail switchbacks lots of Triliums.

Delicate Azaleas

Wild Germanium

All of the following shots are of the same Old Rag Raven who decided to show off and play in the wind around the summit rocks and my head for about fifteen minutes. He was quite a character.

Corvus Corax Principalis Northern or Common Raven

http://www.nps.gov/brca/naturescience/raven.htm

Take a bow Sir Raven many thanks for celebrating the days perfect flying weather with me.

Exit stage left.

A couple of hikers traversing the top of Skyline Wall.

Spectacular weather

Summit panaroma stitched together from several shots

First ORMS 2009 Weekend Mushroom Weather

Sunday May 3, 2009 A very rainy, misty, weekend. On my way home the mist looked like grey white smoke. There were fewer hikers on the mountain this Sunday then were on the mountain on a rainy weekend in February. Probably less than 50 people hiked Old Rag today.


The lack of hikers gave us time to:

* Get a lot of botany lessons in.

* Learn more about the past history of the park.

* Visit some of the favorite backcountry camping spots.

* Pick up lots of litter.

* Work on the ongoing development of the Old Rag Mountain Steward(ORMS) program.

During the next couple of weeks the Lady Slippers will be blooming, the morels will have most likely passed and the Mountain Laurel buds will be preparing to blossom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypripedium_acaule

NPS WILDFLOWER WEEKEND

http://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/wildflower-weekend.htm

In many parts of the country Lady Slippers are either at risk, endangered or extinct. Old Rag is blessed with quite a few Lady Slippers and they should be blooming in the next couple of weeks.

Enjoy them in place.

DO NOT PICK, DO NOT DISTURB THE SOIL AROUND THEM AND ABSOLUTELY DO NOT TRY TO TRANSPLANT THEM BECAUSE YOU WILL ONLY KILL THEM.

There has been some evidence to indicate that each orchid is dependent not only on a fungus but on both the specific species of fungus and the specific strain of that species that exist in the soil where it grows. The slightest amount of change in soil chemistry can cause the fungus that the Lady Slipper is dependent on to die. Also Lady Slipper roots spread laterally and are extremely long and extremely brittle, and if any of the roots are broken in the process, the plant dies. It is virtually impossible to move the plant without breaking the roots. Hence successful transplanting is almost impossible. If by some miracle you can transplant the plant without breaking a root then it is almost a certainty that the fungus the plant is dependent on will die followed by the death of the plant.

Morels.

Many mushrooms including false morels are toxic. Even though morels are fairly easy to identify make sure you know what you are doing. If you use a mesh bag (like an old onion bag) than any spores released during your search will be distributed around in the woods.

THE SNP NPS WEB PAGE ON MUSHROOMS

http://www.nps.gov/shen/naturescience/mushrooms.htm

THE GREAT MOREL WEB SITE

http://thegreatmorel.com/index.shtml

ORMS MEMBERS ON PATROL IN THE RAIN.

ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE WOULD SEEM TO INDICATE THAT THE NUMBER OF RAIN DROPS AND THE NUMBER OF HIKERS ARE INVERSELY RELATED

WITH ALL THE RECENT RAIN THIS MOSS GLOWED WITH VIBRANT HEALTH.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moss