may–june 2001 appalachian trailway news

32 Pages·2002·0.67 MB·English

MAY–JUNE 2001
ATN
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS
2 MAY–JUNE 2001
MAY–JUNE 2001
ATN
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS
APPALACHIANTRAIL
MAINETOGEORGIA
ON THE COVER
Approaching Lakes of the Clouds Hut in the
White Mountains of New Hampshire, near
Mt. Washington. Photo by Ken Wadness.
Inside: Speck Pond, Maine.
Photo by John H. Layne.
VIEWPOINTS
SHELTER REGISTER ♦ LETTERS 4
FROM THE CHAIR ♦ DAVID B. FIELD 5
REFLECTIONS: HARD WEATHER 25
MINISTRY OF FUNNY WALKS ♦ FELIX J.
MCGILICUDDY 31
WHITE BLAZES
PAPER TRAIL ♦ NEWS FROM HARPERS FERRY 6
SIDEHILL ♦ NEWS FROM CLUBS AND
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES 8
TREELINE♦ NEWS FROM ALONG THE
APPALACHIAN TRAIL 10
BLUE BLAZES
2,000-MILERS FOR 2001♦ LISTING OF
COMPLETED A.T. HIKES 14
THEY ALSO HIKE WHO ONLY SIT
AND WAIT: THE TRIALS
OF TRAIL SUPPORT ♦ SANDRA FRIEND 18
IN THE LAND OF BLUE SMOKE: THE
HIDDEN STORIES FROM CHEROKEE COUNTRY
ALONG THE A.T. ♦ CHARLES BLAKE JOHNSON 21
TREADWAY
TRAIL GIVING 11
NOTABLE GIFTS 26
MEMORIAL GIFTS 28
PUBLIC NOTICES 30
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS 3
S R
HELTER EGISTER
Letters from our readers
Appalachian Trailway Boy Scout Hike you’d run an article that suggests a seven-
News The 1936 Boy Scout thru-hike must be and nine-year-old are capable of pushing
part of the recorded Trail history, but I personal limits or that their parents
VOLUME 62, NUMBER 2 • MAY–JUNE 2001 believe that the addition of this hike in should be allowed to do it for them.
Appalachian Trailway News is published by the Appalachian
Trail Conference, a nonprofit educational organization repre- no way diminishes Mr. Shaffer’s epic jour- I first crossed the Knife Edge in the
senting the citizen interest in the Appalachian Trail and dedi- ney. Earl Shaffer made a gift of imagina- early 1960s, did so again two years ago
cated to the preservation, maintenance, and enjoyment of the
Appalachian trailway. Since 1925, the Appalachian Trail Confer- tion and potential of the trail to all who with my wife, and expect to be on it this
ence and its member clubs have conceived, built, and main-
tained the Appalachian Trail in cooperation with federal and followed him. He led succeeding genera- June. I guide for a girl’s camp in the sum-
state agencies. The Conference also publishes guidebooks and
other educational literature about the Trail, the trailway, and its tions of thru-hikers to Katahdin. He as mer, leading twelve- to fourteen-year-old
fTarcaiilli tCieosn. feArnennucea li si n$3d0iv; ildifuea ml memembebreshrsihpi, p$ 6i0n0 ;t hcoe rpAoprpaatela mcheiman- much as anyone gave the Trail to the girls on hiking and canoe trips through-
bership, $500 minimum annual contribution. American people. His contribution can’t out Maine. I have an interesting memory
Volunteer and freelance contributions are welcome. Please in-
clude a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your submission. be reduced. from this past season.
Observations, conclusions, opinions, and product endorsements Charles Aiken (Chops ’97) On our August trip into Baxter, we
expressed in Appalachian Trailway News are those of the au-
thors and do not necessarily reflect those of members of the Cleveland, Georgia didn’t reach the summit of Katahdin. I
Board or staff of the Appalachian Trail Conference.
shut the hike down at 9 a.m. at the base
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS of the Saddle Trail rock slide. Great tim-
Brian B. King
ing, all the girls in good spirits, but a sky
EDITOR too dark for my liking. Back at Chimney
Robert A. Rubin
Pond, as the girls huddled out of the raw
BOARD OF MANAGERS wind in the lee of the ranger’s cabin, I was
Chair standing out by the pond with the ranger.
David B. Field
Looking up the bowl to the summit, the
Vice Chairs
clouds were racing over the ridge line,
Brian T. Fitzgerald Thyra C. Sperry
James Hutchings exposing the Knife Edge from time to
Treasurer time. And, there on the spine were three
Kennard R. Honick
figures, slowly making their way toward
Secretary
Pamola. I looked at the ranger, and he gri-
Marianne J. Skeen
maced. “What can you do?” he said.
Assistant Secretary
Arthur P. Foley And, that’s the point. I have three
New England Region daughters of my own, and each week of
Stephen L. Crowe Carl Demrow
each summer I end up with eight or
John M. Morgan Andrew L. Peterson
Ann H. Sherwood Steven Smith twelve more that become like my own
Mid-Atlantic Region children for a time. They depend on me.
Walter E. Daniels Charles A. Graf Photo: Kathy A. Jurkowski And, they’ll follow me wherever I tell
Sandra Marra Eric C. Olson
them to go. It terrifies me that, for all the
Glenn Scherer William Steinmetz
Memory Quilt
Southern Region years I’ve witnessed poor judgment in the
M
Bob Almand Theresa A. Duffey y husband, Frank, hiked the Trail in woods, it just doesn’t get any saner.
Michael C. McCormack 1976 as a thru-hiker. Over the years,
William S. Rogers Vaughn H. Thomas
James M. Whitney, Jr. the T-shirts ended up in a box. I know he
Members at Large wanted to save them, so I thought of a
Letters
Al Sochard Dawson Winch way to enjoy them daily—as a quilt! I
joined the squares with leaf-oriented fab-
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Appalachian Trailway News
David N. Startzell ric to add to the “woodsy” theme and
World Wide Web: www.appalachiantrail.org added patches from his pack. He was welcomes your comments. Letters
thrilled. Thought I’d share it with you. may be edited for clarity and length.
Appalachian Trailway News (ISSN 0003-6641) is published bimonthly,
except for January/February, for $15 a year by the Appalachian Trail Kathy A. Jurkowski Please send them to:
Conference, 799 Washington Street, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425, (304)
Westhampton, Massachusetts Letters to the Editor
535-6331. Bulk-rate postage paid at Harpers Ferry, WV, and other of-
fices. Postmaster: Send change-of-address Form 3597 to Appalachian Appalachian Trailway News
Trailway News, P.O. Box 807, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425.
Copyright © 2001, The Appalachian Trail Conference. All rights Knife Edge Dangers P.O. Box 807
reserved.
After reading the March–April article, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0807
“Children on the Knife Edge,” I feel ob- E-Mail: <[email protected]>
ligated to write a response. I can’t believe
4 MAY–JUNE 2001
From the Chair
David B. Field
I
Your feature article was the glorification n the recent Resources for the Future book, A Vision for the U. S. Forest
of bad judgment. To put it as kindly as pos- Service, Berkeley Professor of Public Policy Sally K. Fairfax writes of “the
sible, it ticks me off that parents, in this gradual unhinging of one of the most important alliances in natural resource
case ones who should have known what management.” Since at least the 1950s, she notes, national and regional
they were doing, would drag their seven- organizations that support natural-resource preservation have found com-
and nine-year-old children across that spine mon cause with outdoor recreational interests. Older outdoor recreational enthu-
in the fog and rain. Where was the experi- siasts, for whom primitive environments are desirable, are confronting a genera-
ence they profess to have with all those tion of Americans, now entering early adulthood, whose perception of outdoor
miles under their belts? They should have recreation rests heavily on technology and mechanization—from digital cell phones
known that things can go very wrong very and aluminum walking sticks to mountain bikes and personal watercraft.
fast. At the least, their behavior is the next There has long been a split between supporters of tra-
thing to child endangerment. ditional consumptive outdoor recreation (hunting and
We have
For ATC to give its approval to such fishing) and less consumptive recreation, such as back-
foolishness by featuring a photo on the packing. The Maine Appalachian Trail Club avoids
ATN cover and running the story disap- building shelters near ponds and lakes because of conflict-
points me. Come on, guys! You wonder met the ing uses by fishermen, and few hikers enjoy meeting a
why people get hurt on the A.T. and why hunter with a loaded gun on the Trail. Recently, the Uni-
rescue personnel die? versity of Maine community has been caught up by a
Tell the author she’s wrong. She could enemy... debate between cross-country-ski users of the university’s
have been dead wrong. The Knife Edge is trail system and people who wish to walk on those trails
beautiful and exhilarating and dangerous. in the winter—reducing the quality of the snow surface
Jim Dow, Registered Maine Guide for skiing. Limited, but significant conflicts exist between
Brunswick, Maine snowmobilers—major contributors to the economies of
rural northern communities—and the Appalachian Trail. More serious concerns
Author Cindy Ross replies: surround the increasing popularity of four-wheel all-terrain vehicles near and even
In our experience, we have found the along portions of the Appalachian Trail. Mountain-bike enthusiasts view the A.T.
most dangerous situations in the moun- as ideal terrain for their sport, and conflicts with equestrians represent long-stand-
tains usually arise from those who lack ing issues in some areas of the southern Appalachians.
the knowledge or physical ability to with- David Cole, in the January 2001 Journal of Forestry, writes of the long-standing
stand the weather conditions. Our family dilemma of providing for the use and enjoyment of wilderness areas while protect-
had both. Of course, there’s never a guar- ing wilderness conditions—an issue at the heart of Appalachian Trail management
antee, so we must rely on our best even though the Trail is not, for the most part, a wilderness trail. Although Cole is
judgment and be prepared for what we writing about lands of the national wilderness preservation system, the same di-
foresee as the worst possible conditions lemma has long existed for the national park system, of which the Appalachian
we couldencounter. We reached the sum- National Scenic Trail is a part. The dilemma that pits a “wild and natural” envi-
mit in mid-morning with plenty of time. ronment that includes unregulated human access and use against the need to
It was a Class 2 day. The Knife Edge was manage and regulate to protect both wildness and humans is well-illustrated by
not closed. The weather was mild. We current debates over hiker access to Katahdin in Maine’s Baxter State Park during
had plenty of pile and rain gear,food, a late-season periods of dangerous weather.
stove, and a sleeping bag. We had a NOLS Ironically, some of the solutions to the resource protection vs. access problem
(National Outdoor Leadership School) in- lie with technology, such as the use of backpacker stoves rather than firewood at
structor with us who possessed all sorts campsites. (According to this line of reasoning, one might imagine a 22nd-century
of training. Our pace on the Knife Edge requirement that A.T. “hikers” use antigravity floaters to preserve the treadway
slowed because adults from another from impacts.) Hobson Bryan, in his 1979 monograph “Conflict in the Great Out-
party ahead of us were inexperienced and doors” (University of Alabama Bureau of Public Administration) cites a 1948 study
poorly dressed, and we took responsibil- of how increased technology in the form of better roads and transportation facili-
ity for them. In reality, the adults were ties negatively affects the sport of waterfowl hunting. Certainly, cheap fuel and
having a difficult time, not the children. interstate highways have profoundly affected use of the Appalachian Trail.
The anxiety present was in our minds Political campaigns to reduce or eliminate timber production from public lands
over the potential or imagined danger, not have made effective use of economic studies that estimate the value of recreational
Continued on page 29
Continued on page 29
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS 5
P T
APER RAIL
News from Harpers Ferry
Edward Bernbaum is Shippensburg 2001 keynote speaker
T
he Appalachian Trail world have drawn inspira-
Conference’s 2001 bien- tion from the heights.
nial meeting in Ship- From the glory of Mt.
pensburg, Pennsylvania, will Everest, to the holy fire of Mt.
feature a keynote address by Sinai, to heights of Tibet’s Mt.
noted mountaineer, author, Kailas, sacred to millions of
and scholar Edward Bern- Hindus and Buddhists, and
baum. His illustrated presen- Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks,
tation, “The Heights of Inspi- sacred to native Americans,
ration,” will officially open Bernbaum’s presentation ex-
the conference at 9:00 a.m., amines how the evocative
Saturday, July 14, in Memorial meanings of mountains can be
Auditorium on the Shippens- used to enrich people’s expe-
burg University campus. rience of the natural world
Bernbaum, director of the and motivate efforts to protect Edward Bernbaum
Mountain Institute’s Sacred the environment.
Mountains Program, is author As models for this kind of Himalayas in which priests Natural History, and the Na-
of Sacred Mountains of the approach to environmental and scientists encourage pil- tional Geographic Society. A
World, winner of the Com- conservation and restoration, grims to replant trees for senior fellow at the Mountain
monwealth Club’s gold medal the slides and discussion fo- reasons that come out of their Institute and a research asso-
for the best work of nonfic- cus on two projects that he own religious and cultural tra- ciate at the University of
tion. He will talk about the has been working on with the ditions. The presentation California at Berkeley, he
way in which people around Mountain Institute. One includes the dramatic account serves on the Advisory Coun-
the world look up to moun- project is to develop interpre- of an avalanche in which cil of the American Hima-
tains as sources of renewal, tive materials for the National Bernbaum was caught on layan Foundation and is a
wisdom, creativity, and vi- Park Service based on the Annapurna, one of the high- member of the World Com-
sion. Using images, music, spiritual and cultural sig- est and most sacred peaks of mission on Protected Areas
quotations, stories, and ac- nificance of mountains in the Himalayas. of the World Conservation
counts of his own adventures, American, native American, Bernbaum has lectured Union, developing ways of
he will talk about the many and other cultures around the widely to audiences at the taking the cultural and spiri-
ways that sages, leaders, po- world. The other is a pro- Smithsonian Institution, the tual signifcance of mountains
ets, writers, artists, and gram at the Hindu shrine of Metropolitan Museum of Art, into account in environmen-
climbers throughout the Badrinanth in the Indian the American Museum of tal programs. ♦
2001 Resolutions Committee
A
ll resolutions intended for consideration by the member- publications sales area at the meeting. (Resolutions can be
ship at the July 16 meeting at the 2001 ATC biennial brought up from the floor of the business meeting only if a ma-
conference at Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, must be in jority of those present vote to permit consideration.) The Board’s
writing (typed or legibly hand-scripted) and accompanied by Resolutions Committee will hold an open meeting after noon
the name, address, ATC membership number, and telephone on Sunday, July 15, to discuss all submitted resolutions; the
number of the sponsor, if received prior to July 12 (or the time and place will be posted above the collection box and at
sponsor’s room number at Shippensburg if submitted at the other areas during the conference.
conference). Under Board policy, resolutions are in order only All resolutions will be read by the committee chair during
if they “relate to matters concerning the Appalachian Trail or the business meeting July 16, but each must be properly moved
the Appalachian Trail Conference.” and seconded before discussion will proceed on it. The Reso-
Resolutions can be sent to ATC’s central office in Harpers lutions Committee is: Brian Fitzgerald (chair), Andrew
Ferry—if sent to reach there by July 12—or left before noon, Peterson, Eric Olson, Sara Davis, and Marianne Skeen. ♦
Sunday, July 15, in a collection box that will be at the ATC
6 MAY–JUNE 2001
Paper Trail
Graymoor settlement approved
Corridor countdown
I
T WAS THE HOPE OF CONGRESS, THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION,
The final terms of a settle- a House member, and other and the Trail community that the Appalachian Trail could
be pronounced “fully protected” by the end of the century
ment between the Na- high-profile supporters.
on December, 31, 2000. Now, it appears that the National Park
tional Park Service (NPS) Under the terms announced
Service portion of the protection program could be completed
and Graymoor, a Franciscan in March, the friars agreed to
in 2001, with the Forest Service finishing its portion the fol-
friary in New York, were an- turn over five additional acres
lowing year. Footpath tracts are completely acquired in four of
nounced in March, ending an un- to the A.T. corridor in exchange
the fourteen A.T. states, but many acres of protective corridor
comfortable property squabble for $26,000 in federal funds and remain privately held. Here is where the federal and state agen-
between Trail managers and an adjustments to existing agree- cies stood as of February 2001 in terms of footpath miles (0.6 of
organization that has long been ments that would permit the one percent) and adjoining acreage (4.3 percent) left to acquire:
friendly to A.T. hikers. friary to expand its sewer fa-
States Map Miles Acres
As reported in the December cilities. The friars had sold an
2000 Appalachian Trailway easement to the government in Maine 1.9 350
News, the tentative agreement 1984 for $160,000, then violated New Hampshire 0.2 18
between the Franciscan Friars of its terms by building sewer lines Vermont 0.0 42
Atonement and the Park Service under the Trail. That spurred the Massachusetts 0.1 362
Connecticut 0.7 243
defused a highly public land NPS to seek more “buffer”
New York 0.1 302
dispute under which the gov- land, preventing further intru-
New Jersey 0.0 79
ernment threatened eminent sions on the footpath. The
Pennsylvania 2.8 214
domain proceedings and the new agreement adds seven
Maryland 3.5 681
friars responded with a pub- acres to the Trail corridor and
Virginia 4.9 1,901
lic relations campaign that gives back two acres else- West Virginia/Va. 0.0 0
enlisted the aid of a senator, where on the property. ♦ N.C./Tennessee 3.0 3,540
Georgia 0.0 513
Total 17.2 8,156
New crew to tackle Massachusetts trails in 2001
A
TC is working with the lands to mature forests of
the Appalachian Moun- hardwoods and towering hem-
Judge drops Conference from suit over
tain Club (AMC) and the locks. Western Massachusetts
Massachusetts Division of is within easy travelling dis-
Forests and Parks in support tance of several major cities, Schaghticoke tribal status
of a new AMC trail crew, pres- including New York City,
ently seeking volunteers for Boston, and Albany. The Berk-
the 2001 season. shire region is rich with a full A federal judge in Feb- drawn-out federal tribal recog-
The crew, called the South- summer season of cultural
ruary dropped the Appa- nition process. Federal status
ern New England Appalachian and recreational activities.
lachian Trail Conference would permit the tribe to oper-
Trail Crew, is based in the Berk- The crew season is seven
from a lawsuit by a Connecti- ate a casino near the lucrative
shires of Massachusetts to weeks long, beginning June 26
cut Indian tribe seeking federal market of New York. By suing
tackle a variety of maintenance and concluding August 11.
recognition. ATC was originally in federal court, the tribe seeks
and reconstruction projects on Each weekly crew will consist
named in the suit along with federal recognition as part of the
the Appalachian Trail. of up to eight volunteer par-
other property owners whose court action.
The crew works on a 90- ticipants and two professional
land adjoined the reservation, In late 1999, to free itself from
mile section of the Trail from AMC crew leaders. Each crew
Sages Ravine in Southern week will begin with an ori- located along the A.T. south of the lawsuit, ATC transferred its
Massachusetts to the Massa- entation and group meal at Kent, Connecticut. land holdings to the National
chusetts–Vermont border, in the base camp on Monday The suit by the Schaghticoke Park Service, which in turn
ecosystems that range from evening. Trail work will begin Tribal Nation, ostensibly about agreed to take the Conference’s
remote boreal forest, rich wet- on Tuesday morning and con- land issues, is connected to the place in the proceedings.♦
lands, fertile agricultural Continued on page 30 tribe’s effort to bypass the
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS 7
S
IDEHILL
News from clubs and government agencies
Out of the ashes
A new A.T. shelter springs from ruins of a Pa.
barn and memories of a double murder
By Martin Sussman
O
n a brilliant, unseason- the old-fashioned method of
ably hot Saturday in early timber framing.
May last year, nine instruc- What is timber framing? Ac-
tors from the Timber Framers cording to the guild’s literature,
Guild of Becket, Massachusetts, “Heavy timbers are locked to-
met about twenty Appalachian gether with wooden joints
Trail volunteers in central Penn- (mortises and tenons), which are
sylvania to start work on a new in turn secured with wooden
Up it goes! Volunteers begin framing the new shelter. (Photos
shelter and end one of the dark- pegs. Usually this beautiful
courtesy of Ted Sanderson, Don Forrest, Rosalind Suit, and Rain
est chapters in Appalachian structure is visible from inside Willoughby).
Trail history. the completed home, barn,
The guild members had bridge, school, or church.” bers of the Cumberland Valley (timbers and tools), a club will-
come to the Trail to teach One of the reasons that it was A.T. Club volunteered to clean ing to undertake the project, and
members of the Mountain a dying art, however, is simply it out, and a volunteer crew dis- funds for instructors on how to
Club of Maryland a traditional that the heavy wooden timbers assembled the old frame under put it all together.
way of building—timber fram- Why timber framing? It is, af-
ing—that for many years was ter all, a more difficult and
in danger of dying out. Al- expensive method of construc-
though it has seen renewed tion than using precut sawmill
popularity in certain luxury lumber for one of the approved
homes, its origins are in the shelter configurations. Ac-
humble barns, houses, and cording to Lutz, a shelter
churches of early America. constructed through timber
Now, it was being used to build framing contributes to a more
a humble A.T. shelter. primitive Trail experience for
The new Cove Mountain hikers. “Shelters should provide
Shelter that they were building a dry resting place for hikers,”
replaced the Thelma Marks she says, “but there is an intan-
Shelter, site of a 1990 double gible factor, too. For a structure
homicide in which two long- intended to last for decades, visual
distance hikers were assaulted characteristics are very important.
and murdered by a drifter who For example, a timber-frame shel-
was later caught, convicted, and Volunteer Bob Hale performs (very carefully) surgery on old barn ter, with beautifully crafted
beams.
sentenced to death. Since the joinery—and, at least in this case,
murders, the old, deteriorating needed for such structures are direction of experienced timber from tree species that are native
shelter had been an uneasy re- increasingly hard to come by, framers. The wood was stored and were probably originally
minder of the crime and was with the disappearance of old- at the Conference’s Scott Farm harvested from nearby wood-
often shunned by hikers. Mem- growth timber in U.S. forests. Work Center north of Boiling lands—has an entirely different
bers of the Maryland club had For the new shelter, old timbers Springs until along came what feel than a shelter built with
long wanted to replace it and, were salvaged from a barn lo- ATC Regional Representative ‘stick construction’ and sided
with the help of a grant from cated on A.T. lands in the area. Karen Lutz called “the perfect with high-tech materials.”
ATC, were finally able to pull When the National Park Ser- project”—one where the need to In May 2000, members of the
together plans for a remarkable vice decided to demolish the replace a nearby shelter coin- Timber Framers Guild began
new shelter to be built using barn a couple of years ago, mem- cided with available materials the process of teaching this old
8 MAY–JUNE 2001
Sidehill
ter, then hiked away with some
of their gear. He was arrested
eight days later, walking on the
Trail into Harpers Ferry, 100
miles to the south, and sen-
tenced to death after a two-week
trial in May 1991.
Ms. LaRue, of Shaker Heights,
Ohio, was raped and stabbed re-
peatedly after Mr. Hood was
shot three times at close range.
Their bodies were found later
in the day by another south-
bound couple. Crews, still on
death row in Pennsylvania, has
never spoken publicly about
his motives, the circumstances
of that morning, or any contact
the night before with the
couple, who were counselors
at a children’s camp before set-
ting out to hike the A.T.
A wooded tract below Bear
Rock Falls in Massachusetts,
The shelter’s timber frame takes shape, using old-fashioned techniques. just across the Connecticut line,
was later acquired in their
craft to the club over two suc- the frame in sections. When it with pegs was repeated. memory for the A.T. corridor,
cessive three-day weekends. was ready, it was transported Through the summer and fall and a small memorial sculpture
The timbers were pulled out of from the work center to a of 2000, volunteers attached the sits in a creekside clearing.
storage and laid out on saw- farmer’s field at the base of roof, sides, floors, and bunks of Their parents, who had visited
horses in the hot sun, to be Cove Mountain. The nearest the new shelter. In all, 4,000 the old shelter before the trial,
assessed for usefulness as beams, road crossings from the shel- hours of work were logged by have continued to be strong sup-
joists, posts, sills, or connector ter site were 3.5 miles in one forty-six club volunteers and porters of the Trail project and
plates in the new shelter. The direction and 5.1 miles in the thirteen timber framers. friends to the staff members in-
instructors demonstrated how other; local farmer Warren When the last timber was volved in trial preparation.
to examine, measure, plane, Watts graciously agreed to permanently mounted, the tim- On October 23, 2000, about
groove, and trench the timbers haul the frame sections the ber framers placed a traditional forty people met to dedicate the
to determine the usable portion three-quarters of a mile up the pine bough at the highest point new shelter. Joining the club’s
shelter crew and club officials
from timbers that had become steep mountain along his of the structure to formally end
were Lutz, Pamela Underhill of
warped or worn unevenly. Un- farm’s paths by heavy-duty the work.
the National Park Service’s Appa-
like sawmill lumber, each tractor and log skidder. The old shelter, originally
lachian Trail Park Office, ATC
timber was unique, and the Ted Sanderson, the club’s su- built with the help of pioneer-
Vice Chair Thyra Sperry, Earl
builders only had one shot. pervisor of shelters, said entire ing A.T. thru-hiker Earl Shaffer,
Shaffer, Jim and Connie LaRue
Based near the Trail in wall sections called bents were who lived nearby, was dismantled
and Glenda Hood (parents of the
Becket, Massachusetts, the raised from horizontal to verti- and burned in September 2000,
murdered hikers), and members
Timber Framers Guild focuses cal by as many as a dozen or and its metal roof recycled.
of the Watts family, the farmers
on education, and its members more people, with tenons gen- The murders there took place
at the base of the mountain who
work with nonprofit and vol- tly settling into mortise slots in soon after dawn on September
permitted access through their
unteer groups, such as ATC, to the sill beams resting atop the 13, 1990. Paul David Crews—a
farm’s roads for the shelter crew
teach others this craft and in- concrete foundations. When the fugitive from Florida police who
during construction.
crease membership. three main walls were in place had been working in South
Guild Instructors Donna and tied together, the next level Carolina before heading to the Martin Sussman is a
Williams and Bob Smith, both of timbers was hand-lifted up to Trail a week earlier—woke volunteer with the Mountain
former ATC volunteer Trail- workers stationed above, and southbound thru-hikers Molly Club of Maryland. ATC staff
crew leaders and employees, the process of placing tenons LaRue, 25, and Geoffrey Hood, members also contributed to
helped the volunteers assemble into mortise slots and securing 26, and killed them in the shel- this article. ♦
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS 9
T
REELINE
News from along the Appalachian Trail
Dreaming of history
The lonely struggle to establish a hiker museum
By Robert Rubin
“P
eople out there are searching his book and has
dying,” hiker Tim been working with Messerich
Messerich says. and other members of the Ap-
“They’re the people who palachian Long Distance Hikers
first hiked the Trail, who knew Association (ALDHA) to get
the original founders of the the ball rolling on the idea of a
Trail—and as they get old, as hiker museum.
the Trail changes, its history So far, though, four years af-
passes through people’s memo- ter ALDHA first embraced the
ries, and they begin to forget idea, the museum remains just
about it. Pretty soon, it’s gone.” that—an idea, despite ATC rep-
Messerich is no authority on resentation on the ALDHA
Trail history, he will tell you. committee and endorsement
His day job has him working by the Board of Managers.
retail in the Hudson Highlands “We need money, we need
of New York. He’s a lanky, people to get involved, we
laid-back, fortyish fellow who need a lawyer to help us get
lives with his parents and incorporated so we can get
hikes when he can. In 1997, he tax-deductible donations,
finished 1,300 miles of the we need a board of directors,”
Trail as the “Bascom Grill Messerich says, “and we need
Master,” a Trail name he got a place for the museum.”
from when he worked at Bascom Messerich remains charged
Lodge on the A.T. in Massachu- up about the project, full of en-
setts. But, Messerich had always ergy and positive thoughts, but ATC’s archives in Harpers Ferry are jammed with memorabilia
had a taste for family history. he admits that he lacks the ex- about the Conference—just the tip of the iceberg that the
Then one day he discovered that pertise to get a project like this museum’s organizers dream of chipping away at. (ATC photo)
the Trail, and long-distance hik- moving. He just keeps push- “We were going to try to get their materials. If someone has
ers, were now part of his ing, keeps talking to people all the early thru-hikers at the something, and we find out
family; and that family history about it, hoping that the fire 1998 Gathering of long-dis- that it’s going to be tossed
was disappearing, so he de- will light. Luxenberg, chair of tance hikers and talk to them away, one of us on the mu-
cided to do something about it. ALDHA’s museum commit- about preserving their equip- seum subcommittee is more
Larry Luxenberg, also from tee, is apologetic, as if he’s let ment and memorabilia,” than willing to get it, so it
New York State, seems about his fellow hikers down. “Truth- Luxenberg says. “We did get doesn’t get thrown away, but
as different from Messerich as fully,” he says, “I haven’t been five of the original, early we don’t have any place to put
you can get. He is a family putting enough energy into it— people who pieced the Trail to- it.”
man, a financial advisor, 1980 I’ve been hoping that, as word gether in the 1950s and 1960s Luxenberg and Messerich
thru-hiker, and the author of spreads a little bit, others will to attend. But, where would we plan to set up a table at
Walking the Appalachian get involved, but, knowing my put their things?” ATC’s biennial conference
Trail, a carefully researched own shortcomings, I’ve got to There are a lot of people at Shippensburg, Pennsylva-
and well-regarded book about admit that we’re really looking willing to donate material, nia, to recruit people interested
the history and traditions of for a Myron Avery type—some- Messerich says. “We know of in Trail history to work on the
the Appalachian Trail. But, he, one with drive and passion for items that are going to be project. In the meantime, the
too, fell under the spell of the the project who will help get tossed away because people are two of them and other ALDHA
Trail’s history when he was re- it done.” dying and there’s no storage for members involved with the
10 MAY–JUNE 2001