Max Patch, Appalachian Trail get a whole new look with much-needed rehab and repair

At age 8, Isabel Pettigrew prides herself on her hiking prowess.

The Estes Elementary second-grader has hiked across some of Western North Carolina’s highest mountains, alongside its prettiest streams and waterfalls, she can point out poison ivy, knows to be prepared for cold and rain, and can recite the principles of Leave No Trace.

But even Isabel was surprised to learn that hiking trails don’t simply grow spontaneously, like wild violets.

Last Saturday she took part in the National Trails Day event at Max Patch Mountain, in the remote Madison County area of Pisgah National Forest near the Tennessee border.

More than 100 volunteers from the Carolina Mountain Club, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, REI, Pisgah Conservancy, National Parks Conservation Association and others chopped, pruned, drilled, sawed, shoveled, hacked, planted and hammered a 2-mile section of the Appalachian Trail that crosses Max Patch Bald to repair decades of damage from water, weather and over-zealous hikers.

“I didn’t know it was this much work to build a trail,” said Isabel, who took a turn at swinging a hazel hoe, a tool about her same height. “It’s something you use to make the trail wider. It was fun. It’s cool.”

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More: Max Patch restored in honor of 50th anniversary of National Trails Day

The event was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the National Trails Act, which established trails of more than 100 miles long that provide for outdoor recreation and “for the conservation and enjoyment of the nationally significant scenic, historic, natural, or cultural qualities of the areas” through which trails pass, and include the mighty 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail and the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail.

In honor of the event, trail maintenance, hiking and conservation groups across the country hold trail work days and guided hikes. Members of the Carolina Mountain Club, the oldest hiking and maintaining club in WNC, working with the U.S. Forest Service, have put in 3,000 hours since February to rehabilitate Max Patch, said Ann Hendrickson, a CMC trail crew leader.

The 4,629-foot-high mountain bald that sits right in the middle of the Appalachian Trail is one of the most iconic and popular hiking spots in the state, and one of the most heavily impacted.

On a clear day – which was not the case on Saturday as rain sputtered and dark clouds long outstayed their welcome – the views span 360 degrees from the grassy bald. But even with roiling gray skies and view of only a few hundred feet, the scenery was still stunning.

Even for those who had been to Max Patch many times before, the work day was transformative – some hikers surprised to learn the “trail” they had been taking straight up the face of the bald was not a trail, but a rogue, off-road, user-created path that has been causing severe erosion, damaging vegetation and marring the scenery.

“Max Patch is being loved to death,” Hendrickson said. “We’re hopeful this event will give people a greater appreciation for our trail, and hopefully more people will want to volunteer. A lot of stress is being put on our wild places. We firmly believe people will take care of what they feel is of value. Education is key.”

To start education early, Jan Onan and Kay Shurtleff led a CMC Youth Partner Challenge hike Saturday with several Asheville area children and their parents, grandparents, and other hikers, to various stations along a 2-mile work zone around Max Patch.

Everyone had to don a hard hat as they passed by volunteer trail workers lopping off maple branches hanging over the trail. They watched volunteers fence off the illegal “fall line trail” to the summit with temporary fencing and planting of native vegetation.

“Someone says, ‘oh. it won’t matter if I walk there, but when thousands of people are doing it, that creates a serious problem,” said Jeff Hunter, with the National Parks Conservation Association, who was cutting placing vegetation to cover the trail, in the hopes the forest will soon overtake and obscure the shortcut trail and make it less enticing.

The kids moved along the freshly pruned and widened trail through forest and fields dotted with purple spiderwort, elderberry and buttercups, circling the base of the mountain, and came across a group of men and women chopping locust trees to build box steps – after having carried in 121 logs from nearby forest, each weighing 75-100 pounds and stripping their bark.

Locust is a durable wood that won’t rot for about 50 years, said Jeff Dektor, a CMC trail maintainer. The work is backbreaking, taking three people 24 hours to make 15 steps, that hikers can skip across in 15 seconds.

On a particularly precarious, 30-percent grade on the last push to the summit, Henderson threw her entire being into drilling 5/8-inch steel rebar into the freshly laid steps to secure them for the next half-century, drawing impressed remarks from the many hikers waiting to get by, and the youth hikers.

“That’s serious,” said Jonah Magura, 9, of Asheville. “It’s smoking.”

But the sweaty work is worth it – not only do the 8-inch-high steps make it easier to climb to the summit, they as if they grew naturally on the landscape, and also help to divert water off the trail.

“Water is the worst enemy of trails,” Hendrickson said.

Much of the work involved mitigating erosion and diverting water off the trail – made all the more important after weeks of heavy rain, with check steps – filling in rutted areas with gravel and “notching” trails, or creating rolling dips rather than installing water bars, to allow the water to disperse over a larger area and won’t run as fast, or whip up as much sediment, Hendrickson said.

Volunteers also installed new trailhead markers with the white rectangular blaze of the Appalachian Trail, and planted more native vegetation to restore shrubby, open meadows for the golden-winged warbler, one of the most highly threatened songbirds, whose habitat has declined by about 98 percent, Hendrickson said, calling Max Patch “one of the premiere habitats” for the birds.

Taking a break from filling in ditches on the mountain, Morgan Sommerville, southern regional director for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, said the trail across Max Patch was established in 1982 and trail construction began in 1983.

“The original construction was a pretty big deal. It’s been well-loved. It was a good investment by Congress and the Land and Water Conservation Fund,” Sommerville said.

Since entry to Max Patch and its network of trails is free, and draws everyone from dog walkers, hikers, picnickers, wildflower and bird watchers, and Appalachian Trail thru-hikers and campers, it is impossible to tell how many people visit each year, he said. But the cars spilling out of the parking lot and lined up along Max Patch Road at all times of year are an indication.

“This is one of the most popular places for people to come in North Carolina,” he said. “This trail renovation, from my perspective, is an historic first.”

The thousands of hours of work was all donated labor, with about $7,000 in funding from L.L. Bean and a North Carolina Tag Grant for materials and supplies, along with some $1,300 in fencing and stake material donated by the Forest Service and plants donated by the ATC.

Richard Thornburgh, Appalachian District Ranger, said so far people have been respectful of the fencing and signage asking them to stay out of eroded areas. In the 1800s, Max Patch was cleared as pastureland for cows and sheep.

Once the Forest Service took over management of the land, it has mowed the bald every couple of years. Thornburgh said the district will change management to less frequent mowing to discourage use of user-created trails.

“The Forest Service couldn’t do this work to this extent without the volunteers. We have a handful of staff, but this is an army. We really value the volunteers. Year-round in North Carolina, volunteers generated 55-60 full time employees worth of work. It helps people get engaged in citizen stewardship and strengthens their connection to their land,” Thornburgh said.

“We ask people to please stay on marked trails and show respect and consideration to all users, and respect this beautiful spot that belongs to all of us.”

The event might have snagged at least one new future trail builder and conservationist.

Camila Pettigrew, 10, Isabel’s brother, was enthralled with getting to swing a hazel hoe, and with science and math involved in laying out trail.

“I’ve always been walking and observing trails but never knew anything about them,” said Camila, a fourth-grader who plans to be an engineer.

“It takes a lot of muscle and that’s not easy. It also takes math. You have to get it at the right angle or it won’t work. And you have to move water off the trail so it doesn’t cause erosion.”