​“When it rains at a Virginia State Park, what is there to do?” That was the Pocahontas State Park posting that scrolled across Cathy’s Facebook timeline on July 21st. Appropriate, but without the tips from the post, we were able to find plenty to do before, during and after the rain that accumulated in inches over the last 2 weeks of July.

Woodworking

The siding had deteriorated so badly that the insulation showed through and what remained flaked off easily in your hand. This was the condition of the bathroom building near the amphitheater at Pocahontas SP. We learned of the project just before our arrival, but it appeared that, despite the severe need for repair, the project might have to be put on hold. The problem? The rough cut cedar panels that made up the exterior siding were either not available or extremely expensive.

Dave took the supply problem on as a challenge. The possible alternative, Okoume, was more thoroughly researched for its similarity to cedar, availability and pricing. He found that the panels were similar enough to the cedar for look and wear, were available locally and could be special ordered through Lowes. Once given the go ahead, he placed an order on Friday and the panels arrived on Monday. The work that had been put on hold suddenly had a green light – and a deadline. The amphitheater was needed by a group Friday evening. Whatever progress we made, the bathroom had to be presentable and usable by Friday at 3pm.

We met Brian (who had initially assessed the damage and prepared the material estimates) Monday morning to start the demolition. The initial plan was to simply replace the lower 2 feet of the two worst sides. The worst of the existing “battens” (1” x 3” boards sitting in vertical strips every 8”) would be replaced along with the baseboard. But we had been warned by the maintenance crew to be wary. Once we explosed the under layers, we would likely find rot. And we did. Some had wicked up from the cement slab, but much worse was the lingering problems from the old skylights, now replaced, that had let moisture into the walls from above.   

 We needed to regroup. How much more material did we need? When could we get it in? What could the budget afford? Could we make enough progress for Friday? Dave worked with park staff to work through the issues and we got the green light to replace all the particle board sheathing, the cedar siding, the battens and the baseboard on the 2 problem sides. We had a lot more work to do, and still the same deadline. Although we were given some alternative stopping points if we couldn’t get it all done by Friday.

Over the next few days, the three of us worked to first demolish the rotten boards, explosing the studs and insulation. Then we fitted new plywood, vapor barrier, cedar siding. First on one side and then the other. We were pestered by some red wasps, who were unhappy with our work around their nest. The rain held off, but the heat and humidity were pretty wearying. Dave had to make 3 different runs to pick up wood for the job. We also had to rip the 20 - 1” x 6” boards into the 40 - 1” x 3” boards we needed for battens. But by Thursday, we were starting to see the light.  

 We decided to stain the battens before installing them, so Cathy began this work in earnest on Thursday. It also made it easier to roll the stain on the cedar before the battens were installed. By Friday morning, the baseboards were on both sides, and the battens started going up. By 3pm, we had them all installed, and all of our work debris cleaned up. There was still some caulking to do, and some staining on the other sides, but we were pleased with the work and so was the park staff. Brian’s expertise and time was invaluable in allowing us to get it done and have it look so good.

Youth Conservation Corps – Reprise
Breaking away for a morning during the bathroom work, we worked with the the various staff and volunteers who would be involved in YCC this year. A lot had been learned in the intervening year, and we took from the meeting a different understanding of our role in this year’s activities. Only time would tell whether this year would be an improvement on last year.

On our first full day of work, we woke up to the sound of pouring rain. Not a good omen. Our task for the day was marking the park’s boundary by painting yellow rings on trees. The leaders formed 4 teams and we made our way out along Woodpecker Road, a highway that passes through the southern section of the park. Our goal was to mark both sides of the highway before day’s end. Despite the heat, humidity and intermittent showers, the kids did great. They finished marking the highway, and along the way, picked up 12 full bags of trash. Of course, the yellow paint did get all over a few of them, and, to a certain extent, the truck bed. By day’s end, at least the truck bed was clean.

The next 2 days were spent at Henricus Historical Park, on the James River southeast of Pocahontas. A palisades fence in the recreated Indian village needed some repair work, and there was lots of weeding, trimming and removal of invasive species throughout the rest of the historic colonial village as well. We were only needed on the 2nd day, which also happened to be the day of the artillery demonstration. The kids dug into the work and made a real difference. We explored a little, and plan to return when we are not working to see more of this interesting park. Dave helped “supervise” the kids rebuilding the fence, while Cathy worked with the kids clearing growth and weeding. This would end up being a fateful decision.

 Friday of the first week started with a couple hours of archery before the kids headed to the park’s maintenance area to do a clean-up. They collected debris, picked up trash, corralled dozens of pallets for resale, removed trees. It was not without incident. We discovered a copperhead snake, 3 infestations of yellow jackets and another of red wasps. The latter was discovered because of a sting on guess who?

Let’s just say that it was not a good day for Cathy. In the morning she discovered that she had not one, but 2 tick bites from the prior day’s work at Henricus. Apparently, her attempt to wash off poison ivy had also washed off her insect repellent. The next insult was a sharp pain in her side while pulling a root up near the wood shop. That’s right. The red wasp was unhappy about her working so close to the nest in the side of the building. But the final insult was seeing the beginning signs of poison ivy on her arms. It was this that sidelined her for days as her lower arms became covered in the insidious rash.

On Monday, David helped with one of the youth teams as they did cleaning during the early morning rain. But the big task for the week began in the afternoon, as the kids began building a new hiking trail north of Swift Creek Lake. By month-end, with only 1 ½ days of trail work under their belt, they were making good progress. The park management was pleased enough with the overall trajectory of the program that they rewarded the kids with a lunch out at nearby Mexican restaurant. David, at least, got to join them while Cathy nursed her poison ivy back at the RV. That’ll teach you to be careless around the nasty vine.

Waterlogged

 As the rains came down, we continued to work on the drainage at our campsite. We had ample opportunity to study the problem. It became apparent that we needed to dig a trench or swale off one corner to drain the low spot there collecting much of the water. Dave and I started the trench. Adam and Droz widened it. And Taylor and Troy put their efforts in as well to finish it off. The next rain proved their efforts useful as the water flowed into the ditch and away from the campsite.

The rain also highlighted problems with our uniforms. Specifically, our shoes. Working briefly in the rain the first day of YCC caused Dave to study the soles of his work boots. With holes in each, it became obvious the source of his wet socks was the large holes in the soles of each shoe. He rushed out to replace them. Cathy was a little slow to discover the leaks in her boots which were less dramatic, but no less soggy. So another trip garnered her some new, dry footwear as well.   ​

Family Weekend

On Jayden’s birthday weekend, Adam’s and Bonnie’s families gathered to camp with us at the park. The rain let up enough to give us a nice weekend together, with lots of campfires, pool time, s’mores, dutch oven delights and just time together. On Sunday afternoon, the 2 of us joined Jayden for a party at Adam’s complete with half a dozen homemade birthday pies.   

 There’s never a shortage of work to do at Pocahontas State Park. Its 8000 acres are heavily used, and so it is a never-ending challenge to keep it up. That said, we started plugging away at our assigned tasks (and some that we found on our own) to do our part and earn our keep as soon as we arrived. The withering heat during the first week made it a challenge, but we managed to pace ourselves. And in between, we got some visits from family for some fun time.

Making It Work​

Our jobs at the park take many forms. Sometime it is grunt work hauling and digging and trimming. Sometimes, it’s time spent with the patrons at concerts, hay rides or campfires. Sometimes, it’s work on projects we identify. No matter which form it takes, we find it makes the days go quickly. Our first 2 weeks certainly did.   

 The park has new electric golf carts for each of the hosts, and one of them had not been retrofitted with a rear view mirror. With a little guidance from maintenance, we fashioned a bracket from a scrap piece of metal, borrowed a mirror from another vehicle no longer in service and solved the problem of the rear view mirror. Another issue arising from the new carts is the fact that the park host has no structure to house the battery charger. Since these can’t get wet, we fashioned a cloth-covered frame using wood scraps and some material left over from our boat cover. It was designed to give the charger room to breathe, but keep it dry. However, Dave had been puzzling over the charger’s output all week. He saw no indication it was charging the cart. Sure enough, the cart's low battery light came on one morning. With some consultation with the other hosts nearby, he determined that switching chargers with their cart allowed each of them to charge successfully. And, luckily our new charger still fit in the cover. Good design.

When we chose our site, it hadn’t rained in quite a while. However, there were ruts in the site from previous RV’s, indicating a pretty soggy area. That was confirmed by one of our first assignments to address the drainage on site 96. Hmm… what’s our site number? We retracted the slide and dug out the top layer of eroded dirt (a grueling job), and then hauled several gator loads of gravel to fill in the top layer. When a torrential rain arrived the following Friday, we found ourselves in a bit of a lake. While the work we had done was good, it was far from sufficient. Dave dug a little more out to create a channel for the water to flow, but we will be coming back to this if time permits.   

 We took some time to re-familiarize ourselves with the tractor and hay wagon. Making circuits around the CCC field, we started with just the tractor and then between hay rides one night, took the wagon as well. The training paid off as you’ll see later.

And one morning, we got trained by our grandson, Droz, in boundary marking. The park marks trees on its boundaries with yellow stripes or metal signs. We had a rough start finding a good stretch to mark, but once we got started, we got the hang of it quickly. We had a good teacher.  

 So, we also helped with some fun events, making it to a few hay rides, and a campfire program, but the most unique event we assisted with was a concert by a Fleetwood Mac tribute band called Rumours. We helped put on wristbands on patrons for an hour before enjoying a few sets in the amphitheater. It didn’t take long before there were lots of people dancing all around us. We had to make it an early night because the next morning we would be up early to help with Teen Volunteer Week.

Twenty Teens​

“Please, no more stiltgrass. I’m having nightmares about it.” Nothing brings drama to the table like teenagers. Teen Volunteer Week began with 21 youth and a shifting number of adult volunteers who would guide them, many for their first time working in a park. From 9 to 2 each day, we would work on a project, then follow that with 2 hours of something fun. The youth weeded the CCC Museum garden, removed invasive species (lots of Japanese stiltgrass), cleared trails, repaired a walkway and even trailblazed a mile of a new mountain biking trail. The afternoons were spent tie-dying T-shirts, learning archery, canoeing, swimming at the pool, and fishing.

For those of us planning each day, the biggest challenge was getting the group moved around in the park. This played out on Thursday as Dave put his hay wagon training to work, pulling the group a few miles to the site of the new trail and then on to the pool and back to maintenance on the highway. It went well, although the climb up a particularly steep hill had us sweating a bit. (The older truck required a change to the wheels to move to 4-wheel drive. Luckily, the park staff with us knew how to do this before the next hill.)

Over the course of the week, we got to know the kids, (which included Droz and Jayden) and enjoyed working with them as they learned how to make a difference a litte bit at a time.

Family Time

On July 5th, we had a belated holiday celebration with Bonnie, Taylor and Troy arriving from Emporia and Droz and Jayden coming to spend the night. After some pool time, we had a picnic that included (of course) a campfire with s’mores.