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Askus3
05-22-2006, 18:18
I came across this article which I thought I'd share since it relates to trail maintenance on the AT.
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Sunday, May 21, 2006
Helpers work hard to serve hikers

By Lalita Malik
For the Poughkeepsie Journal

PAWLING - It was a glorious sunny spring day, perfect for hiking. But instead of hiking gear, I packed work gloves and camera and drove off.

I had dabbled in trail work before, but the weekend of April 29-30 was my first in-depth experience of it. Two members of the Mid-Hudson Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club, Jane Geisler and Ollie Simpson, had organized a work weekend to repair a section of the Appalachian Trail between West Dover Road in Pawling and the Connecticut border.

The weekend gave me a new perspective on the hard work that goes into keeping trails open for hikers.

I reported for duty at a huge white oak tree near West Dover Road, and was greeted by a bustling scene. Volunteers were re-routing the trail through a meadow, away from an eroded section. They dug posts to mark the new trail, and painted them with white blazes. They removed nails from old boards that had been replaced on the boardwalk. They placed logs around the big oak to prevent damage from passers-by. Further up the trail, volunteers in muddy water lifted a boardwalk and slid rocks under it to keep it from sagging.

Hikers walked around them on piles of mud.

I asked Jane Geisler for work and she directed me to Wiley Shelter - a lean-to where trail hikers typically rest - where Ollie Simpson was directing the work.

On the way, I met volunteers building a kiosk on Route 22, near Metro-North's Appalachian Trail train station. They dug holes for the posts, worked on the roof and poured concrete.

At Wiley shelter, volunteers sawed the trunks of fallen trees and set them into strategicly dug trenches on an eroded stretch of the trail. They then piled dirt around the logs - called "waterbars" - to divert water from the eroded trail.

The weekend was not all work. In the evening, we made a camp fire at the Wiley shelter, ate brownies and munched on fresh bread cooked over the fire. We listened to Jesse Saperstein's stories of his adventures on the Appalachian Trail, which he hiked in 2005.

On Sunday, after helping build three waterbars, I retraced Saturday's route to see what we had accomplished. As I stood across from New York's co-Champion white oak, which is believed to be the largest oak tree on the Appalachian Trail, I gazed in wonder at the peaceful scenery. The tree had a protective barrier to keep hikers and motorists away from its roots. A path lined by logs guided hikers around it. Behind the tree the re-routed trail in the meadow had been mowed. The posts with white AT blazes glistened in the sun.

For two days, 18 Adirondack Mountain Club and community volunteers worked more than 100 hours. About 50 day hikers and 20 campers saw us working on the trail that weekend. I wonder how many trail users think about the genies who spend countless hours building and maintaining the trails for their enjoyment.

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Lalita Malik is chairwoman of the Mid Hudson Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club. She lives in Union Vale.