november–december 2001 appalachian trailway news

32 Pages·2001·1.39 MB·English

NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2001
ATN
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS
1
22 NNOOVVEEMMBBEERR––DDEECCEEMMBBEERR
NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2001
ATN
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS
MAAPIPNAELATCOHIAGNETORRAIGLIA
ON THE COVER
Looking up in the fall (ATC file photo). Inside:
Walt Whitman statue, Trailside, Bear Moun-
tain, New York (photo: Sky Cole and Betsy
Thompson).
VIEWPOINTS
SHELTER REGISTER ♦ LETTERS 4
OVERLOOK 5
REFLECTIONS 22
BOOKS 29
MINISTRY OF FUNNY WALKS 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 12
BLUE BLAZES
THE VIEW NO MORE
♦ GLENN SCHERER 14
ELK REINTRODUCED IN SMOKIES
♦ JIM HOWELL 16
RETURN TO BLUE MOUNTAIN
♦ CHRISTINE WOODSIDE 18
TREADWAY
NOTABLE GIFTS 11
MEMORIAL GIFTS 25
TRAIL GIVING 26
PUBLIC NOTICES 30
AAPPPPAALLAACCHHIIAANN TTRRAAIILLWWAAYY NNEEWWSS 33
S R
HELTER EGISTER
Letters from our readers
Appalachian Trailway Hiking Poles tant for long-distance hikers. In fact, the
I
News watched in horror as my metal-tipped very intent of the founding of the Trail
poles, without baskets, sank deeply was to link communities and hikers. In
VOLUME 62, NUMBER 5 • NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2001 into the muck of Vermont and Maine last more than 2,000 miles of Trail hiking, I
Appalachian Trailway News is published by the Appalachian
summer, and even drawing them out have found no disruption to my experi-
Trail Conference, a nonprofit educational organization represent-
ing the citizen interest in the Appalachian Trail and dedicated to carefully and tamping down the moss ence from rare business cards in shelters
the preservation, maintenance, and enjoyment of the Appalachian
trailway. Since 1925, the Appalachian Trail Conference and its didn’t fully repair the damage. I noted or homemade signs posted near a road
member clubs have conceived, built, and maintained the Appala-
chian Trail in cooperation with federal and state agencies. The that my partner for the “100-Mile Wil- crossing. Quite the opposite: They have
Conference also publishes guidebooks and other educational lit-
erature about the Trail, the trailway, and its facilities. Annual in- derness” had rubber tips, got good trac- occasionally led me to assistance or to
dividual membership in the Appalachian Trail Conference is $30; tion, and didn’t sink as deep. new friends and experiences. Trail an-
life membership, $600; corporate membership, $500 minimum
annual contribution. For this year’s Georgia-to-Harpers gels, hostels, and Trail towns are all part
Volunteer and freelance contributions are welcome. Please include
Ferry trek, I put the baskets back on, put of the Appalachian Trail experience.
a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your submission.
Observations, conclusions, opinions, and product endorsements on rubber tips, and replaced my metal tips There is no benefit served to hikers by
expressed in Appalachian Trailway News are those of the authors
just in case. The baskets did not catch attempting to limit their information
and do not necessarily reflect those of members of the board or
staff of the Appalachian Trail Conference. on foliage as on my previous poles, and about these, and the people providing
the rubber gave me reliable “footing” for services will likely be harmed by re-
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
the entire hike. The ground was not as duced hiker usage. Trail maintainers
Brian B. King
soft, but I noted much less disturbance should not be burdened with the respon-
EDITOR
Robert A. Rubin of dirt than with metal tips. sibility of enforcing such a “no adver-
My new metal tips may never see the tising” policy or of placing generic signs
BOARD OF MANAGERS
light of day. at road crossings. Such signs would not
Chair
Brian T. Fitzgerald David W. Robinson contain practical details and are imprac-
Vice Chairs Glastonbury, Connecticut tical for a club to install, let alone main-
Carl C. Demrow Thyra C. Sperry tain with accurate, updated information.
Marianne J. Skeen (cid:1)
The suggestion of placing this informa-
Treasurer A
lthough I have done some serious tion in publications is not fully practi-
Kennard R. Honick
hikes, such as Mt. Adams in Wash- cal either. The Thru-Hikers’ Companion
Secretary
Parthena M. Martin ington State (12,600 ft.), and several sec- is published yearly, yet the information
Assistant Secretary tions of the A.T., I’m just not up to the in it is frequently several years out of
Arthur P. Foley
standards of your membership. I’ve date, particularly with regard to Trail
New England Region
learned from your newsletter that to be services. Why should a hiker be expected
Pamela Ahlen Stephen L. Crowe
Thomas O. Lewis Andrew L. Peterson an adequate hiker, I must either wear lug to lug an outdated guidebook?
Dennis Regan Ann H. Sherwood shoes and use purchased walking sticks Most importantly, the Conference is
Mid-Atlantic Region or refuse to for some purist reason. seeking to impose a solution on main-
Walter E. Daniels Charles A. Graf
Obviously, I’m not in your league. I’ve taining clubs for a problem that does not
Sandra Marra Eric C. Olson
Glenn Scherer William Steinmetz never even been in a store that sells those exist. The Trail is not cluttered with ad-
Southern Region products. I think from now on I will hike vertising. Hikers don’t want to be denied
Bob Almand Phyllis Henry
with my own simple gear and try not to
Robert P. Kyle
William S. Rogers James M. Whitney, Jr. damage the trail or offend your expert Letters
Steven A. Wilson membership.
Members at Large C.R. Chace
Paul Burkholder Al Sochard Appalachian Trailway News
Middleboro, Massachusetts
welcomes your comments. Letters
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
David N. Startzell will be edited for clarity and length.
Trail Advertising
Please send them to:
World Wide Web: www.appalachiantrail.org I
disagree with the proposed policy ban-
Appalachian Trailway News (ISSN 0003-6641) is published bimonthly, Letters to the Editor
except for January/February, for $15 a year by the Appalachian Trail Con- ning so-called advertising in the Trail
ference, 799 Washington Street, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425, [phone]. Appalachian Trailway News
Bulk-rate postage paid at Harpers Ferry, WV, and other offices. Postmas- corridor and urge other members to join
ter: Send change-of-address Form 3597 to Appalachian Trailway News, P.O. Box 807
P.O. Box 807, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425. me in calling for it to be rejected.
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0807
Copyright © 2001, The Appalachian Trail Conference. All rights reserved. The Trail exists for the people who use
E-Mail: <[email protected]>
it, and obtaining knowledge of hiker ser-
vices in surrounding areas is very impor-
4 NOVEMBER–DECEMBER
O
VERLOOK
Brian T. Fitzgerald, Chair, and Dave Startzell, Executive Director
knowledge of Trail services. The hikers, A
“angels,” B&B owners, etc., have a mu- s we write this, the nation is still reeling from the attacks on the World
tually beneficial networking system that Trade Center and Pentagon. The Appalachian Trail may seem far removed
works and is inconspicuous already. from these events, and insignificant, just as it must have in December
Leave a few signs and cards alone. 1941. Parts of the Trail were closed for security reasons immediately after
George Waxter Pearl Harbor, and work on the project largely ceased during the war. But,
Walkersville, Maryland the vision of the Trail, and what it could become, was never forgotten.
In the last issue of Appalachian Trailway News, we discussed some of the ma-
“Mountain Growth” Theory jor issues ATC will face over the next few years. Now, we would like to take a
W
e are presenting this theory to the longer-term view and provide a sketch of our vision for the Appalachian Trail and
ATN instead of one of the normal the Conference in, say, twenty years. We don’t claim to be the originators of these
prestigious scientific journals because the ideas—they are really the result of discussions at many meetings involving the
subject matter is very relevant to back- Board, its committees, and our management partners. Here is the vision:
packers and hikers.
The Appalachian Trail is protected by a publicly owned corridor for its entire
On our A.T. backpacking trips, we
2,169 miles. This corridor is augmented by additional conserved lands of the na-
began to notice that our difficulty in
tional and state parks and forests or lands protected by ATC and its partners. In
climbing various mountains often dif-
addition, state and local land-use regu-
fered considerably from what the A.T. A shared vision
lations recognize the importance of pro-
elevation profiles led us to believe. We
tecting the A.T.’s “viewshed”—the sur-
set about to collect extensive data from
rounding visual environment.
backpackers—time of day of ascents, age,
The Trail itself is a primitive, backcountry footpath designed and constructed
physical size, sex, lack of sex, Zodiac sign,
to harmonize with the natural and cultural resources it visits; where it has been
etc. We then did overwhelming analy-
improved, it seeks to blend with the natural setting. In some cases, more substan-
sis—20th-Order Markoff Process, Chi
tial structures such as bridges and boardwalks are needed, but they, too, are built
Square, Rubix Cube, etc.
to the most rustic standard possible. While primitive in character, the Trail is
The unmistakable conclusion is that
designed and constructed to provide hiking opportunities for people of all ages
mountains normally grow taller during
and abilities.
the day and return to normal size over-
There is a chain of overnight facilities consisting of shelters and campsites that
night. This explains, for example, why
provide accommodations for all backpackers—from those out for a single night to
Blood Mountain (Georgia) heading north
those thru-hiking the Trail. Like the Trail itself, overnight facilities are designed
was much easier for us than for another
and constructed to provide a primitive, backcountry experience.
hiker we interviewed who did it late in
The Trail is an integral part of nearby communities, in some cases passing
the day. Our extensive data analysis does
directly through towns along the way. Local residents consider the A.T. to be an
not point to a cause for this, but we can
important part of their community and take pride in their association with the
speculate. We think it is likely that the
famous Appalachian Trail.
heat of the sun during the day causes
Hikers, and would-be hikers, have easy access to information about the Trail,
mountains to expand and the cold of
using traditional (i.e., paper) and electronic technologies. They are aware of their
night allows them to contract again. It’s
impacts on the natural resources of the A.T. and its surrounding lands, as well as
also possible that daytime rain soaks into
on other hikers, and employ practices to minimize that impact. Anyone inter-
the ground and causes the mountains to
ested in the Trail has the opportunity to use it as a focal point for learning about
swell.
the outdoors, environmental issues, and the natural and cultural history of the
We are considering the following for
Appalachians.
our next study topic: As a backpacking
The A.T. is managed by the cooperative partnership that includes Trail-main-
trip proceeds, and the amount of food car-
taining clubs, government agencies, and the Conference, as well as new partners,
ried (and its weight) goes down, do back-
such as conservation organizations, community groups, and others with an inter-
packs actually get heavier?
est in the Trail. The relationship among the partners is one of mutual respect and
Jack James
dependence. The clubs have a mix of long-term and newer members, all commit-
Vilas, North Carolina
ted to fostering the volunteer spirit that has been part of the A.T. culture since its
Karen Callahan earliest days. Agencies support the work of the clubs and ATC with their profes-
Boone, North Carolina
continued on page 9
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS 5
P T
APER RAIL
News from Harpers Ferry
Trail acquires scenic tract above Shady Valley, Tennessee
A
September land purchase
will permit the Appala-
chian Trail route to re-
turn to a scenic area in Ten-
nessee that it has not crossed
for more than thirty years.
The Trail crossed more
than one mile of the 246-acre
Osborne farm tract, about
seven miles south of the Vir-
ginia–Tennessee state line on
Cross Mountain, until 1970.
At that time, volunteers from
the Tennesse Eastman Hiking
and Climbing Club routed the
footpath off private land and
roads to a protected but infe-
rior location in the Cherokee
National Forest. The U.S. For-
est Service has been interested
in acquiring the Osborne tract
ever since.
About one-half of the prop-
erty is open grassland, and the
other half is a hardwood for-
Shady Valley, seen from Osborne tract in Tennessee (ATC photo)
est. A rare cranberry bog, one
of the southernmost such
bogs in the Appalachians, is which led the couple to put than risk losing the property, torpedoed the deal. The trust
on the property. The level-to- the land up for sale so they ATC’s land trust agreed to step was not authorized to make
rolling terrain of the property, could move closer to their in and put up the Conference’s up the $320,000 difference.
with elevations from 3,400 to family. money to make a deal, with Fortunately, Ostermann said,
3,600 feet, offers views of the Ken Ostermann, a mem- the assumption that ATC the landowners agreed any-
Holston and Iron Mountain ber of the Conference’s Land would convey it to the Forest way, if ATC kicked in
ranges as well as of Shady Val- Trust Advisory Committee, Service once the appraisals $140,000 in addition to the
ley. Mount Rogers and White- said that the couple’s need to were completed. ATC and the Forest Service’s $1.08 million.
top Mountain in the Mount sell the land quickly nearly landowners agreed on a pur- The final $1.22-million deal
Rogers National Recreation resulted in its sale to private chase price of $1.4 million, was concluded in September.
Area of Virginia are also vis- buyers, who might have cho- with the Conference obligated The Osborne family will
ible from the property, which sen to develop it. The asking to make up any difference be- remain on the land until the
contains several buildings, in- price was $1.8 million. tween the appraisal and the end of 2001. The Nature Con-
cluding a very old log house. Under federal government purchase price, as long as the servancy, which contributed
The landowners, Mr. and rules, the Forest Service can’t appraisal didn’t come in at ten $10,000 to the acquisition, has
Mrs. Lester Osborne, had buy land for more than its ap- percent or more below that agreed to manage the cran-
lived on their property for al- praised value, and the ap- price. berry bog area. Plans for relo-
most fifty years. Mr. Osborne, praisal process takes time— Unfortunately, it did. A cating the Trail onto the sce-
now eighty-seven years old, time that could mean private $1.08 million appraisal, more nic parts of the property are
had been in declining health buyers would step in and ac- than twenty percent below currently being developed by
over the past several months, quire the property. Rather the agreed-on price, nearly the Tennessee Eastman club.
6 NOVEMBER–DECEMBER
Paper Trail
Mining panel sides with ATC against quarry
T
he North Carolina Min- The quarry operator, Clark sent e-mails of protest to the was contrary to DENR regu-
ing Commission in Octo- Stone Company, had appealed state since March 2000. lations, instructions to appli-
ber rejected an agency to the agency after the Sep- The permit was sought in cants, and past practice within
judge’s earlier recommenda- tember 2000 revocation of the February 1999 without public the department.)
tion and sided with efforts by quarry’s permit, originally is- notice or review—despite the A state law specifically
the Appalachian Trail Confer- sued in 1999. The permit was fact that state law requires focused on the Appalachian
ence and allied organizations revoked following months of permit applicants to notify Trail requires DENR to “give
fighting construction of a complaints from Trail sup- adjoining property owners of due consideration to the con-
gravel quarry near the scenic porters and local residents. their intentions and prove servation of the environment
balds of Hump Mountain. The The commission’s decision they have done so to the state’s of the Appalachian Trail.”
action upholds a ruling that is the final action on the state satisfaction. Clark Stone sub- Neither ATC nor other Trail
closed the quarry last year. agency level, but the quarry mitted proof only that it had groups named in that act were
The commission voted owner has the option of tak- notified the persons from consulted about the permit,
6-1 to reverse the recommen- ing the case to a state supe- whom it was buying or leas- which ATC did not become
dation of an administrative rior court and seeking to over- ing land for the quarry, and aware of until June 1999—
law judge in the N.C. Office turn the ruling. DENR accepted that. (The when it appeared nothing
of Administrative Hearings The Mining Act states that ATC lawsuit contends that could be done about it.
(NC-OAH). The judge in May a permit may [emphasis
had issued a summary judg- added] be denied upon finding
ment in favor of the operator “that the operation will have
of the quarry, Clark Stone a significantly adverse effect Corridor Countdown
Company. NC-OAH Judge on the purposes of a publicly
I
Melissa Owens Lassiter de- owned park, forest, or recre- t was the hope of Congress, the federal administration,
cided that the state of North ation area.” NC DENR also and the Trail community that the Appalachian Trail
Carolina had no authority to admitted that the effects of could be pronounced “fully protected” by the end of the
revoke the quarry’s permit the quarry on the Trail were century on December, 31, 2000. Now, it appears that the
because the provisions of the not considered when the per- National Park Service portion of the protection program
state Mining Act of 1971, on mit was issued. could be completed in 2002, with the Forest Service finish-
which the revocation was In a separate action, two ing its portion in 2003. Footpath tracts are completely ac-
based, were not mandatory, lawsuits seeking to halt the quired in four of the fourteen A.T. states, but many acres of
but discretionary. quarry’s construction have protective corridor remain privately held. Here is where the
By voting to reject the been filed in Superior Court, federal and state agencies stood as of October 2001 in terms
judge’s recommendation, the but no judgment had been of footpath miles (0.8 of one percent) and adjoining acreage
commission upholds a deci- made in those cases. ATC is (4.3 percent) left to acquire:
sion by the North Carolina party to one of the suits. The
Department of Environment next trial date for the suit was States Map Miles Acres
and Natural Resources (NC tentatively scheduled for No- Maine 1.6 274
DENR) Division of Land Re- vember 12, 2001. New Hampshire 0.1 4
sources to revoke the mining The loophole in the Min- Vermont 0.0 42
permit for the quarry, known ing Act that allowed the ini- Massachusetts 0.1 346
as Putnam Mine. The reasons tial issuance of the per- Connecticut 0.7 243
include visual effects and sig- mit has since been closed by New York 0.1 207
nificant noise from the opera- the state legislature, which New Jersey 0.0 115
tion that would thwart the amended the act to require Pennsylvania 2.8 208
purpose of a public park—the better public notice of pro- Maryland 3.5 680
A.T.—and violate the Mining posed permits. Virginia 4.8 2,384
Act. The commission also The 151-acre quarry is op- West Virginia/Va. 0.0 0
said the judge had interpreted posed by ATC, the National N.C./Tennessee 3.0 3,332
the agency’s revocation au- Park Service Appalachian Georgia 0.0 513
thority in the Mining Act too Trail Park Office and more Total 16.7 8,348
narrowly. than 4,000 persons who have
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS 7
S
IDEHILL
News from clubs and government agencies
Sarver shelter rises from the ruins
By Kevin Myatt
F
or years, A.T. hikers have old homestead on this South- the Trail in Virginia, and it built, there was not much in
followed a steep path west Virginia ridge between will maintain the site’s name- the way of shelter—“nothing
down the side of Sinking Roanoke and Blacksburg, sake with the name Sarver to keep the rain off of you,”
Creek Mountain, looking for scores of hikers have passed Hollow Shelter. said David Cheslow of the
a shelter, “Sarver Cabin,” that the night in the decaying Appalachian Trail Confer- Roanoke Appalachian Trail
was plainly marked on their cabin or in the more recent ence maps have for years des- Club, who oversees mainte-
Trail maps. (but not much sturdier) shed. ignated Sarver Cabin as a shel- nance of the section of the
What they found was a ru- Camping amid the Sarver ter site, even though no offi- Trail that includes Sarver
ined homestead, a ramshackle ruins is no longer necessary. cial A.T. shelter existed there. Cabin. “It got marked on the
shed, and a long climb back up In fact, it’s now prohibited. “The Sarver Cabin is shown Trail maps, but we realized it
the mountain to the Trail. That’s because Roanoke Ap- as a shelter symbol (on A.T. wasn’t a very good shelter.
Sarver Cabin sheltered the palachian Trail Club volun- maps),” said Jinny Worthing- People started camping there
Sarver family on Sinking teers constructed a new shel- ton, the U.S. Forest Service
Creek Mountain for seventy ter a short distance from the ranger supervising the project.
years, and no one imagined it old homestead, plugging a “There’s no way that little
sheltering Appalachian Trail twelve-mile gap between shel- shed would meet my expecta-
hikers for seventy more. Yet, ters at the halfway point. It is tions of what I expect to see
in spite of a porous roof and the final new shelter currently in an A.T. shelter.”
legends of ghosts haunting the planned for construction on Before the new shelter was
Left, the remains of Sarver
Cabin on Sinking Creek
Mountain. Center, Kevin Black
(left) and Liz Belcher help lay
the first boards for the new
shelter in May. Black designed
the shelter. Right, helicopter
ferries material to the site.
8 NOVEMBER–DECEMBER
Sidehill
because the maps said it was Sinking Creek Mountain) to on the Sarvers. It contains logistics of shelter-building at
a shelter.” the Sarver Hollow Shelter will only five marked graves, de- the remote site proved, such a
Until the roof fell in a few be constructed to avoid the spite seven decades of home- restoration would be a diffi-
years ago, some of those ruins. stead occupancy that span the cult task.
people camped in the Sarver Many of the specifics of the period from just before the Of course, the volunteers
Cabin itself. Others camped in history of the Sarver home- Civil War through the Great who constructed the new
a structure that many people stead are a little murky to Depression; census records shelter had a few advantages
mistake for the Sarvers’ shed. those who research it. describe numerous Sarver over the Sarver family—
The shed is only about a de- “The Sarver Cabin is some- children, many of whom died namely access to a Forest Ser-
cade old, said Teresa Marti- thing of an enigma,” said Ches- young. vice helicopter, a generator,
nez, ATC’s regional represen- low. “There is just enough Only two markers contain and precut lumber. With no
tative for central and south- data available to make it tan- legible engraving. One bears nearby road access to the steep
western Virginia. talizing, but not enough to re- the name of Mary Sarver, who hogback ridge topping out at
“In the late eighties or ally feel confident that you died in 1909 at the age of 9. nearly 3,500 feet above sea
early nineties, a college group know the whole story.” The other is a Daughters of level, the Forest Service pro-
built a shelter there,” Mar- The 1860 census lists the the Confederacy headstone vided a helicopter typically
tinez said. “It’s not a typical cabin’s occupants as Henry memorializing Henry Benton used in fire-fighting. Over two
A.T. shelter.” She said the col- Sarver, who is believed to have Sarver, who fought in Com- months in the spring, between
lege group just decided on its built the cabin, his wife, Sara pany C of the 22nd Virginia In- bouts of rain, snow, and wind,
own to go up on the mountain Caldwell Sarver, Sara’s mother, fantry. Strangely, Cheslow the helicopter made repeated
and build it. “With the Forest Susan, and three children. said his research determined trips to deliver materials for
Service rules today, you could Henry Sarver is listed as a that Henry Benton Sarver died building the shelter to the top.
never do that.” “day laborer” in the census. and was buried in Oregon, but The project got off to a run-
While the roof is still Sara Caldwell Sarver came his apparently empty grave ning start on May 5 when
mostly intact on the more re- from another pioneer family site in the small Sarver cem- more than twenty volunteers
cent structure, its floor boards that lived close to the Sarver etery contains a footstone. stormed the mountainside for
have come loose. Worthington homestead—the U.S. Forest There are no plans to re-
said safety issues with the Service historical site east of store the Sarver cabin. As the continued on page 26
structures were a major reason Sinking Creek Mountain is
for building a true A.T. shel- named “Caldwell Fields.”
ter. Another major reason was One of the Caldwell sons be-
to keep Trail traffic away from came the first student en- Overlook . . .
the ruins. rolled in what is now Virginia
“For many years, we’ve Tech, today a large state uni-
continued from page 5
wanted to find a suitable site versity at nearby Blacksburg.
for a shelter, not in the middle In the 1850s, when the sional expertise. The Conference has the staff, volunteers,
of the homesites,” Worthing- Sarvers needed a dependable and facilities necessary to meet its stewardship responsibili-
ton said. shelter, they hacked out a ties and support the work of the clubs. Newer partners bring
“Campers started damag- homesite and building mate- a wide variety of expertise and new energy. The partnership
ing archaeological ruins,” rials from the densely forested receives the funding necessary to carry out its mission, with
Cheslow said. “It’s not very and rock-covered mountain- the money coming from a variety of sources.
good for the old site to have side. Then, they hacked out a That is a very general description of our vision for the Trail
all those campers there.” meager livelihood growing and ATC. There will be many more hours of discussion among
An example of this is that chestnuts and apples in the the clubs, agencies, and ATC as we fine-tune this vision and
a log from the cabin itself had stony soil. fill out the details. When we’re done, we hope to have a vi-
been moved to a nearby fire “Frankly, I really wonder sion that we all share to guide us as we fulfill our responsi-
ring for use as a bench, Ches- how they grew anything but bilities as stewards of the Appalachian Trail. We hope that
low said. While the homesite rocks up there,” Cheslow said. you will join us in that conversation.
will still be accessible to any- “It’s very humbling to hike up It’s clear that every aspect of our society will be affected
one who wants to see it, “no there and imagine supporting by what happened on September 11. ATC will have to adapt
camping” signs have been a family in those conditions.” to those effects, but we will continue our work to protect
posted there. Also, a new con- A small cemetery a few and maintain the Trail. In these uncertain times, it is a re-
nector trail from the A.T. hundred yards from the cabin source that is probably more critical than ever.
(which follows the crest of does little to shed much light
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS 9
Sidehill
Are volunteers being marginalized?
Opinion by Stephen Clark
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr. Clark’s es-
say is condensed from a ver-
sion that appears in the Fall
2001 edition of ATC’s news-
letter for Trail maintainers,
The Register. Please see the
column by Brian T. Fitz-
gerald and Dave Startzell on
page 5 of this issue, which
sets out a vision for the fu-
ture based on ATC’s strate-
gic plans and addresses the
role of volunteers in coming
years.
L
ast January, at the annual
all-day Maine Appala-
chian Trail Club (MATC)
planning marathon, a seven-
to-six vote indicated a rare di-
vision of opinion on what
seemed a “no-brainer.” The
issue was whether the club
would use its volunteers to
undertake a project or con-
Volunteers move rocks near Mt. Rogers (ATC photo)
tract it out and spend club
funds. The vote helped this
writer to define an issue that site surveyed by the same quality, while losing an oppor- boring, technically difficult, or
confronts the entire Trail people in a timely manner. tunity for several volunteers time-consuming for volun-
community: “What kind of Having many volunteers do to gain understanding and ex- teers. In some cases, those per-
volunteer organization do we the project piecemeal would perience in the complex ceptions are valid. In most
want to be?” probably not result in the physical and human issues of cases, however, there is little
The project needed to be same quality and would take A.T. campsites. We also lost consideration given to estab-
done: a survey of the club’s longer—maybe into a second an opportunity to train knowl- lishing new or alternative
thirty-nine campsites along year—delaying the planning edgeable members of a future ways to organize and use vol-
the A.T. in Maine. We hoped and work. A no-brainer, right? campsite committee, giving unteers to accomplish a given
to gather specific data, pic- So, what was the big deal? them first-hand experience task.
tures, and site maps, in order The issue is this: Every with campsite-management The relationship between
to build a database of informa- time a task or the work of the issues. Finally—and this is volunteers and professionals
tion to make those sites bet- Trail is shifted from volun- speculative—we may have (those who receive compensa-
ter able to withstand the teers to professionals, it di- lost future A.T. leaders. tion to work on or for the A.T.
seemingly ever-increasing minishes the ability and op- When club or Conference project) has always been dy-
number of hikers. portunity of those volunteers leaders decide to transfer work namic. Back in the fifties, all
Money was not an issue. to do future Trail-related from volunteers to paid staff, the work of the ATC was done
Contracting the project out work. Applying that premise it is usually because the task by exceptionally dedicated
would ensure a high-quality, to the MATC vote, we bought is perceived to be too in- volunteers. As the project
uniform product, with each efficiency, expediency, and volved, complex, distasteful, grew, it became obvious that
10 NOVEMBER–DECEMBER