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View Full Version : How well is the trail maintained?



MOWGLI
01-03-2003, 10:46
If you start a hike in January or early February, don't expect the same level of trail maintenance that you'd see in March & April. Some of the forest service roads that maintainers use are not passable until later in the season. One hiker in 2000, MR. D complained about all the blowdowns he had to scramble around & over. When you atart the trail in January, that is a risk you take. The maintainers will get out and remove those blowdowns as soon as they can safely get up to the AT on the FS roads.

Blue Jay
01-03-2003, 11:12
Whenever you come across a maintainer, please thank them for their work. Most of them do not get paid, and overall they do an amazing and sometimes backbreaking job. I came across a lady in Mass. who was picking twigs off the Trail. She stopped me and apologized because a tree had been across the trail for two days and she has been calling for someone to remove it. She clearly considered it a personal insult that it was in her section, like a stain on her carpet. Another time in Virginia, the stinging nettles were killing me after a rain and I came across another woman cutting them back. I wanted to hug her and thanked her again and again. She would hear none of it and was actually angry that someone had let it get overgrown. These people are the unsung angels of the Trail. Oh yea, if you come across one of the ATC (not AMC) Trail Croos, and you can spare a day or two, they will feed you fantastic amounts of great trail food. They always have a kick ass cook.