A powerful straightline wind event that swept through Lexington and nearby Rockbridge communities on Friday evening, Sept. 4, left behind downed trees, damaged power lines, and lingering cleanup work across the area, including local campuses and the city’s historic cemetery. Four days later, a hiker on the trail reported to the local Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Club (NBATC) that there were multiple blowdowns along the Appalachian Trail near the Lynchburg Reservoir south of U.S. 60.
After a series of phone calls and messaging among NBATC members, a crew of volunteer trail maintainers gathered at the Forest Service road and trail intersection to set the day’s objectives and review safety procedures. The damage report indicated trees down near the trail crossing at Swapping Camp Road, U.S. Forest Service Road 38, and stretched roughly four to five miles south toward Rice Mountain, just below the Punchbowl Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The volunteers split into two groups, approaching the damaged section from opposite ends to remove fallen trees and assess the full extent of the storm’s impact. The number of blowdowns was difficult to determine at first because clusters of trees had fallen together in a dominolike pattern. The two crews removed several dozen trees and large branches by chainsaw during the first workday, but many more remained across the footpath.
By Sept. 20, after many NBATC workdays, volunteers had cleared the trail of all blowdowns linked to the Sept. 4 storm. Improvements to the treadway are currently being addressed from holes produced by uprooted trees. Club member Dave Benavitch, a retired U.S. Forest Service professional, noted that this was the worst storm damage he had seen along the trail in our area.
Local club members involved in the effort included Dave Benavitch (Buena Vista), David Buckalew (Fairfield), and Michael Dean and Bruce Summers (Lexington). Additional trail maintainers from outside the immediate area who engaged in clearing trees included Trail supervisor Norman Sykora and Bill Cummins (Amherst), Kenneth and Peggy Williams (Saxe), Carl Boggess (Blue Ridge), and Steve Lichiello, Tim Otis, and John Phillips (Lynchburg).
Other active NBATC trail maintainers and regular contributors to trail activities from the local area include Laura Neale (Fairfield), George Richards (Kerrs Creek), and Charlie Rogers (Glasgow).
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy continues to connect volunteers with trail workdays through its Volunteer Engagement Platform and Volunteer Opportunities Newsletter at appalachiantrail. org/get-involved/volunteer. Locally, the Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Club welcomes interested hikers of all ages to its weekly hiking groups and trail maintenance crews. More information is available at nbatc. org.
The club, established in 1930 during planning for the Appalachian Trail’s route through central Virginia, traces its roots to the former Natural Bridge National Forest, which became part of the George Washington National Forest in 1933.
FAIRFIELD resident David Buckalew, a certified sawyer of the club, begins removing a blowdown along the trail.
