The 2019 crew consisted of Pete Curran, Jerry Gross, Stan Turk, Barry Weston, Dan Cotton, and me. It would be hard to imagine a goofier crew week.
We met on Sunday afternoon, and had a chance to have a beer or two, swap tall tales, and meet the “new guys” (Dan and Barry), before Steve Printz came by to say howdy and hand out the various forms that the NPS now distributes prior to volunteer get-togethers in the Park. We drove to Luray (the pizza place near the Walmart) for dinner, then stopped by Walmart to pick up food and supplies for the week.
The NPS van was not at the Pinnacles when we arrived on Sunday, so Steve had some of his crew guys bring it to the cabin on Monday morning. They showed up around 8 AM, we drove to Big Meadows to meet Steve, then drove to the Hoover Camp to spread some gravel dust on the accessible trails on the Camp grounds. We started “working” around 10:30, broke for lunch around 11:30, then “worked” again from noon until about 1, after which we drove back to the Pinnacles and played poker until dinner time.
Tuesday was overcast, and we when we got to Big Meadows, Steve told us that he couldn’t take volunteers out in that “sort of weather”, so we drove around looking for stuff to do for the next few hours. Dan (the current Central District DM) had heard about some blowdowns to cut, but we only found one medium-sized tree that waq on the ground already. We cut that, and headed back to the Pinnacles for more poker.
Wednesday, we were on our own, since the NPS crew had other plans, so we headed out to do some weeding. Dan had a report of blowdowns on the South River Trail (at the south end of the District), but there were no trees on the trail that needed cutting, so we drove back north to do some weeding on Bearfence Loop. That, too, was basically busy work since the vegetation was not bad. After lunch, a rainstorm blew in, so we drove back to Pinnacles, where I packed up to head home.
The rest of the crew (except Jerry, who left early Thursday morning) stuck around for the Thursday project, which was reportedly marginally interesting compared to the Monday through Wednesday foolishness.