Rock Work and Thanks - Day 128

  It has rained all day, and did take the day off. We managed to pull off some relaxation time in spite of needing to do some things.

First of all, big thanks to Angel (and her dad, Tom) who was our host for almost a week. We hiked together a little bit too.

In the relaxation category, we went out to breakfast at a nice cafe, played our word game, toured the town, showered-- including buying me a decent bath towel, and snacked. As far as work goes, I wrote an article, answered several real world emails, mended my rain pants, and figured out the maps and schedule for the next few days. I also count cutting my toenails as work. So there you have it... a big day in the life of a full-time hiker.

I'm going to show you some nice examples of rock work by the Pennsylvania volunteers. Goodness knows, they have plenty of rocks to work with! First up, we have some thick flat stones laid as a pathway across a muddy area. These are extremely helpful to span muddy areas. These rocks don't have to be very large. One ordinary person can easily place these.

Rocks placed like this are usually a little bigger- maybe one super-tough person, or two people moved these into place. What you are seeing is a channel for water to run off without flooding the trail. A hiker can just step from one side of the channel to the other on the two large rocks.

I showed you this before, but I'll give more explanation now. These are very large rocks. They've been placed across this creek, probably by machine. They are close enough together that even someone with short legs like I have can step from rock to rock. They are too big for the current to carry away. Smaller streams can be "bridged" with smaller rocks, reducing the need to construct bridges.

Here is another amazing rock project. These stones might have been moved by machine, or possibly by hand. There are sling rock carriers that allow four people to work together to lift one rock. This stairway took more than a few hours to build.

Tomorrow, I'm back on the trail. It will be muddy, but the serious rain is supposed to come to an end overnight.

See So Much Beauty