Park On Ice
Skyline Drive Reels From Freakish Storms
By Kelly Jasper
It’s quiet up on Skyline Drive. There’s the occasional hum of chain saws, the beep of a bucket truck backing up, and the ominous thunder of falling trees.
But there aren’t many cars or hikers, and even fewer campers.
A sign at the Thornton Gap Entrance Station announces in bold, capitalized and underlined type: “Skyline Drive is only partially open.”
Two weeks ago, ice storms in the Shenandoah National Park closed the drive, trapping campers and hikers over Thanksgiving weekend.
Trees toppled and downed power lines under the weight of the ice, up to 2 inches thick in the hardest-hit parts of the park.
While everyone got out safely, the entire length of the 105-mile road was closed for a few days as some of the park’s staff worked 13-hour days to clear a way out, says spokeswoman Karen Beck-Herzog.
Two weeks later, nearly half the drive — which runs from Front Royal to Waynesboro — has reopened. Little damage is visible in the northern end of the park, but half the central district and the entire southern district remains closed.
A timetable for future road openings is, at best, just a guess, Beck-Herzog says. A map at the entrance station marks the closed section. More than 50 miles are circled in red marker. She says it could be weeks, months until that line budges farther south.
The threat of snow and high winds slows the work, Beck-Herzog says. The park closed the entire drive again last Friday, when winds downed many of the trees that snapped in the ice storm.
Repairs to the drive could cost the park about $112,000.
That figure covers the costs of 15 seasonal workers brought back off furlough, two rented chippers and a bucket truck, plus a contracted crew to help the park service’s staff. It doesn’t cover cleanup costs on trails and campgrounds.
But even with more than half the drive still closed, Beck-Herzog says the park considers itself lucky.
No buildings were seriously damaged — only the roof of a hut along the Appalachian Trail and a picnic table where a giant oak fell.
The roads, though, are a different story.
“We were just hammered,” Beck-Herzog says. “Absolutely hammered.”
‘One Heck Of A Job’
A whiteboard hangs in the window of the ranger’s station at Thornton Gap near Luray. Here, park workers write lists of recommended trails, the safer ones with fewer downed trees.
The park’s crews have to set priorities; they only have the resources to clear roads. The trails are tackled by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, which has organized volunteers to work off-road on weekends.
Some of the park’s trails were largely unscathed by the storm. Others are impassable, Beck-Herzog says.
She’s heard reports of through-hikers walking along Skyline Drive because the Appalachian Trail was blocked. Every year, hundreds of hikers attempt to hike the entire 2,160-mile trail. This year, the ice storm meant some had to take a brief detour along the road, Beck-Herzog said.
The hikers, like the crews, have to weave around the uncleared sections of road, still littered with debris.
On parts of the drive, the tops of trees look bulldozed. Each is splintered, and tangled branches lie in knots on the forest floor.
The piles are spotty, but grow larger the farther south you head on the drive.
Beck-Herzog says the entire road was surveyed after the storm hit. The park service sent the contracted crew to work north from Swift Run Gap near Elkton as two park service crews work south from Big Meadows.
The hard-hit part of the drive south of Swift Run Gap is still untouched by maintenance crews, Beck-Herzog says.
Crews are using wood chippers to chomp the downed trees into mulch, which is sprayed back into the forest. Other debris is gathered and piled in embankments.
“We just scoot along tree by tree,” said maintenance worker Dwight Griffith. “It’s one heck of a job.”
No Rhyme Or Reason
Progress is slow, Beck-Herzog says. One crew says it took a day to clear a quarter-mile stretch of road.
They’re trying to work quickly. Every day, Beck-Herzog says, the staff checks the weather forecast. Snow could cause a major disruption in their cleanup schedule.
“If the trees are down on Skyline Drive, we can’t plow,” Beck-Herzog says. “We could be closed for even more months.”
But she hopes not.
The park’s visitation numbers always take a hit in the winter, but it’s too soon to know how deeply this month’s tally will be affected, Beck-Herzog says.
With large stretches of the park open, she says she hopes people will still come to enjoy the beautiful weather and open trails.
On the lower, west side of the drive, the damage spreads more than two miles off road. On the higher, east side, the debris is only about 200 yards off the drive.
There’s no rhyme or reason to it, Beck-Herzog says.
The park’s ecologists can’t say why the destruction was so spotty this year, why nearly every tree in some stretches snapped but in others few were marred.
“Ice storms are just a natural part of the forest environment,” Beck-Herzog says. “We don’t really know how it got to be so bad this year.”
While the public is encouraged to visit, she says people should be mindful of road-closing signs and patient with the park’s progress.
Even as workers clear new segments, the park won’t open new stretches of road every day.
For example, the first several miles near Lewis Mountain have been cleared but the drive is still closed through here.
The road is safe, but because the park uses metal gates to stop traffic, this part of the drive won’t be opened until the entire length of road is cleared up to the next gate at Swift Run Gap.
While volunteers have offered to help clear the road, the park requires its crews to be certified to handle the heavy equipment they use. Those interested in trail work should contact the PATC, Beck-Herzog says.
Visitors should also call the park at 999-3500 for information on road closings before they come to the drive.
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