The Unturned Stone

Recently Fred has been venturing to Highlands, a town a couple hours southwest of Asheville, to conduct trail-building workshops with volunteers of the Highlands Greenway. Last week she led a winch workshop

for a handful of volunteers. The staff there have been adding web pages about the work being done at their Highlands Plateau Greenway site.

Our current stone project is a small retaining wall that will soon frame a patio of Tennessee sandstone. The wall features niches for matchbox cars. And of course, marbles.

Within the month, the yearlong, four mile long the Stone Mountain trail project should be finished. Depending, of course, on the weather. Here’s a handful of photos of recent developments.

A lovely curving set of timber steps. These steps are three feet wide and backfilled with sand-rock, a decomposed granite that packs down into a great walking surface.

The suspended walkways over the dome. Since this photo was taken the steps and decking has been completed. Only the hand rails remain.

The lone set of stone steps winds its way through boulders. A sliver of ledge pokes through the ground and is used as a step.

Our track dump truck, Ursula, parked on the granite dome with a load of decking for the walkways.

Mike sent me these images of progress at Stone Mountain. The trail crew ran into weather too, as the end of the week got snowed out. This set of timber steps was recently completed. The steps turn a sharp corner and maintain a comfortable pace as they make a steep ascent to the dome.

The cable rails are mounted directly into the mountain. A single hole is drilled into the rock. A threaded bolt is glued in place with epoxy before the posts are screwed into place. They are extremely sturdy and safe and have minimal impact on the environment.

Here are some recent photos taken at our trail project in Stone Mountain State Park. The worm fence seen above is made of split locust logs. It lines the wide switchback sections of the trail that allow vehicular access for the park personnel to the top of the dome.

Another view of the fence. It is designed to keep people on the trail, minimizing the environmental damage caused by short-cutting through the woods. The fence proved necessary because the switchback is designed for vehicles; it’s width, visibility and slope make it very enticing for hikers to bypass each corner and cut through the woods. The trail has already done its main job though. Even before this section was completed, park rangers used it to evacuate an injured hiker from the top of the dome using an all-terrain vehicle.

On top of the dome we are installing steps and walkways that connect a series of islands of vegetation. The steps are a safety feature. Even on nice days the granite dome can be slick. On rainy or icy days, it’s extremely treacherous. This set of steps awaits a hand rail.

Jody drills the end of a pressure treated timber that will brace the rail system. Note the tool explosion behind him on the walkway.

This perspective shows how the boardwalk disappears into an island of trees on the dome.

For the last few months, the trail crew has been working on a four mile loop at the Stone Mountain State Park

in Roaring Gap, North Carolina. It’s a beautiful park that has suffered a debilitating drought this summer and early autumn. The project involves some winding, surfaced trails as well as hundreds of timber steps.

The summit of Stone Mountain is a dome of weathered granite. Here a set of timber steps disappears into and the reappears beyond a small outcropping of live rock. Note the joinery used to tie the steps together. Creating the notches for the overlapping joints takes more time, but is sturdier and longer lasting than cutting forty-five degree angles . In most cases the timbers being used are 8″ by 8″ and double-dipped pressure treated.

The top of the dome offers stunning panoramas of the surrounding forests. The next phase of the project includes constructing cable rails and suspended walkways to make it easier for people to enjoy the view. Islands of vegetation atop the dome will be connected by the walkway system.

A small stack of steps under construction and awaiting fill. To the right of the steps you can see several sticks of rebar used to pin the timbers together.

Having a summer cold is no fun at all, but it is letting me clear out some pictures and update the blog.

This is a set of steps that leads into a formal garden in an Asheville neighborhood. This image is looking down the steps at the gentle curve of the pathway. The arc of the pathway allows us to work with the slope. If you get too far ahead of the slope, you end up building the steps in mid-air, which requires a lot more stone and structure and looks weird- very imposed on the landscape. If you get too far into the slope, you have to dig everything way into the hillside and be more concerned with preventing the cut banks from caving in onto the steps. Working with the slope, using landings and short flights of steps together allow you to create a path that is easy to walk and transitions nicely into a garden visit. The stonework and bank are integrated and look natural together.

We replaced three worn and uneven concrete steps at this house in Asheville earlier this summer. The stone for the steps was chosen to match the existing foundation stones-seen in the side wall to the right. This type of stone, commonly used in old Asheville construction, is no longer available.
The most interesting- and sometimes disheartening- thing about tearing out old work like this is what lies underneath. In this case, the top step of the original flight was floating in air, suspended only by the side walls at each end. There were two metal pipes bracing the bottom of it, but both had rusted through years ago and no longer reached the ground below. It still took forever to remove.

Here’s a fetching image of Ursula, taken by K.J. weeks ago, loaded with 8″ by 8″ timbers at Stone Mountain State Park. These days Ursula is running stone into the cabin site.

Found this mantis patrolling a client’s garden on a rainy afternoon. It’s probably a Chinese mantis, but I can’t be sure. It was about three inches long.

A short section of the “The Hundred”, a tall, winding flight of 103 steps on the Deep Gap Trail in Mount Mitchell State Park.

The Deep Gap Trail in Mount Mitchell State Park nears completion. At this point most work is focused on a huge staircase we call “the Hundred” though it looks like it will be even more steps than that when completed. The short stack of steps above leads up a small rise in the trail.

Mike stands atop recently completed stone cribbing built to replace an old timber wall. One of our faithful power wheelbarrows rests nearby. The track wheelbarrows can carry up to 1000 pounds and are fairly stable, even on tough terrain. They are narrow enough to navigate many of the trails we build.

A land snail browsing on a lichen and moss covered rock. Land snails have the reproductive organs of both sexes, allowing them to mate with any other snails they might meet. This is a useful trait considering how slowly snails move and how unlikely they are to encounter other snails.

All photographs by Frank.

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While not as aggressive or venomous as rattlesnakes, copperheads are quietly dangerous because they are so well camouflaged on the forest floor. When threatened, they freeze and their color and markings hide them amongst the dead leaves. People step on them unknowingly and pay the consequence. Dave almost stepped on this handsome specimen, which he described as “shiny as a new penny.”

Copperheads bear live young, a somewhat uncommon trait in reptiles.

Photo by K.J.

Despite their ominous coloring, Black Rat Snakes are good to have around. Farmers have always appreciated their appetite for mice and rats, hence their name. They are not venomous and generally slither away when they encounter people. They are long and lean and adept tree climbers. They are not always purely black; young animals wil have gray splotches and some adults will even be brown.
Photo by K.J.

In the middle of June Fred traveled to Dartmouth College to lead a workshop for student volunteers who will be rehabilitating and building trails on the campus this summer. The three day workshop covered all aspects of trail design and construction, with special emphasis on using winches to move materials. Winches are amazing tools that allow people to move heavy loads over impassible terrain. By elevating the load, sensitive environments can be protected and there’s less wear and tear on the body. Winch systems can be complex and require a good deal of training and experience to use safely and effectively. Twelve students took part in the session, which draws heavily from Lester Kenway’s trainings and writings on winch systems.

We believe that hands-on experience is the most valuable way for people to learn and understand the system. Real life practice and problem-solving were mingled with brief classroom sessions that focused on safety and technical components of the system. Learners were introduced to the system with the above illustration of a basic winch set-up. Fred led the students through the system piece by piece, labeling each on a huge poster version of the illustration at the front of the class. After seeing it drawn the students built the same arrangement from the ground up. Fred reported that by the end of the session the volunteers were problem solving winch set-ups and technical issues for their forthcoming projects.