SavageLlama
05-26-2004, 12:44
Good read on shelter maintenance..
CABINS TRANSPORT CARETAKERS, VISITORS BACK TO SIMPLER TIME
By Rex Springston
May 23, 2004
The Richmond Times-Dispatch (javascript:NewWindow( 'FIISrcDetails','?from=article&ids=rchd');void(0);)
Cliff R. Willey helps people live in the past.
Willey, a regional supervisor for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, works to keep several of the club's historic cabins habitable.
A recent gorgeous spring day found Willey repairing gutters on Pocosin cabin, a Depression-era building just off Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park's central section.
The club's cabins are so old their overseers often need special skills. Willey recently took a class to learn old-fashioned ways to work on stone chimneys.
"I'm a home handyman, but there are some tricks to the trade" when it comes to the old cabins, he said.
The pay isn't good - Willey is a volunteer - but the working conditions are great. A Times-Dispatch reporter who happened to walk by on an old fire road found Willey puttering away on a breezy day in the mid 70s.
A wood thrush sang "ee-o-lay" deep in the woods. Beyond that, thunder rumbled, but no storm came.
Trilliums, wild geraniums and other wildflowers blossomed around the cabin, which sits on a rise with a fine view of the Blue Ridge.
The scene was enough to make you want to take up residence immediately.
The one-room cabin was built in the 1930s by workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program that created jobs during the Great Depression.
The cabin was built with chestnut, a tough wood from a tree that was virtually wiped out by a fungus in the first half of the 20th century.
Willey is considering treating the old wood with a nontoxic preservative to keep out insects.
"There is no more chestnut. We are looking to preserve it a little better."
Willey is a tall man with wire-rimmed glasses and white hair. He looks younger than his 68 years. The Annapolis, Md., resident is a retired waste-management official with Maryland's environmental agency.
He is one of roughly 7,000 members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, one of the largest local trail clubs in the East.
Six people founded the club in 1927 to build and maintain about 240 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Pine Grove Furnace, Pa., to Rockfish Gap near Waynesboro.
Today, the group maintains nearly 1,000 miles of hiking trails, 32 cabins and 32 smaller shelters. The group works in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington.
In Shenandoah park, club members have provided services worth about $900,000 in the past three years. "They are a big help," said park spokeswoman Karen Beck-Herzog.
The club also publishes trail maps and outdoor books. It has several chapters, including one in Charlottesville. The headquarters are in Vienna.
The public can rent club cabins located on public property, such as Shenandoah park. Fees vary. The Pocosin cabin costs $18 on weekdays and $28 on weekends and holidays.
Like most of the group's cabins, Pocosin is Spartan. Staying there is like camping out in a building instead of a tent.
"The outdoors is the amenities," said Pat Fankhauser, cabins coordinator for the club.
Willey led a tour. Eight bunk beds. Foam mattresses. Pots and pans. No electricity. You have an outhouse, and if there is no drought, a spring for water. There is a wood stove inside.
Outside, there is a picnic table covered by the extended roof. From that table you get the gorgeous mountain view. One of the quirkier features is an outdoor fireplace by the table.
Holiday Inn it ain't. And that's what makes the place so wonderful.
Willey says the old Pocosin cabin will outlast him. If he protects it properly, it will outlast him by a lot.
"It's not going to last forever, but we are trying to push forever out a little further."
- - - - - -
CABINS TRANSPORT CARETAKERS, VISITORS BACK TO SIMPLER TIME
By Rex Springston
May 23, 2004
The Richmond Times-Dispatch (javascript:NewWindow( 'FIISrcDetails','?from=article&ids=rchd');void(0);)
Cliff R. Willey helps people live in the past.
Willey, a regional supervisor for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, works to keep several of the club's historic cabins habitable.
A recent gorgeous spring day found Willey repairing gutters on Pocosin cabin, a Depression-era building just off Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park's central section.
The club's cabins are so old their overseers often need special skills. Willey recently took a class to learn old-fashioned ways to work on stone chimneys.
"I'm a home handyman, but there are some tricks to the trade" when it comes to the old cabins, he said.
The pay isn't good - Willey is a volunteer - but the working conditions are great. A Times-Dispatch reporter who happened to walk by on an old fire road found Willey puttering away on a breezy day in the mid 70s.
A wood thrush sang "ee-o-lay" deep in the woods. Beyond that, thunder rumbled, but no storm came.
Trilliums, wild geraniums and other wildflowers blossomed around the cabin, which sits on a rise with a fine view of the Blue Ridge.
The scene was enough to make you want to take up residence immediately.
The one-room cabin was built in the 1930s by workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program that created jobs during the Great Depression.
The cabin was built with chestnut, a tough wood from a tree that was virtually wiped out by a fungus in the first half of the 20th century.
Willey is considering treating the old wood with a nontoxic preservative to keep out insects.
"There is no more chestnut. We are looking to preserve it a little better."
Willey is a tall man with wire-rimmed glasses and white hair. He looks younger than his 68 years. The Annapolis, Md., resident is a retired waste-management official with Maryland's environmental agency.
He is one of roughly 7,000 members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, one of the largest local trail clubs in the East.
Six people founded the club in 1927 to build and maintain about 240 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Pine Grove Furnace, Pa., to Rockfish Gap near Waynesboro.
Today, the group maintains nearly 1,000 miles of hiking trails, 32 cabins and 32 smaller shelters. The group works in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington.
In Shenandoah park, club members have provided services worth about $900,000 in the past three years. "They are a big help," said park spokeswoman Karen Beck-Herzog.
The club also publishes trail maps and outdoor books. It has several chapters, including one in Charlottesville. The headquarters are in Vienna.
The public can rent club cabins located on public property, such as Shenandoah park. Fees vary. The Pocosin cabin costs $18 on weekdays and $28 on weekends and holidays.
Like most of the group's cabins, Pocosin is Spartan. Staying there is like camping out in a building instead of a tent.
"The outdoors is the amenities," said Pat Fankhauser, cabins coordinator for the club.
Willey led a tour. Eight bunk beds. Foam mattresses. Pots and pans. No electricity. You have an outhouse, and if there is no drought, a spring for water. There is a wood stove inside.
Outside, there is a picnic table covered by the extended roof. From that table you get the gorgeous mountain view. One of the quirkier features is an outdoor fireplace by the table.
Holiday Inn it ain't. And that's what makes the place so wonderful.
Willey says the old Pocosin cabin will outlast him. If he protects it properly, it will outlast him by a lot.
"It's not going to last forever, but we are trying to push forever out a little further."
- - - - - -