ATN_July-August_2004 - Appalachian Trail Conservancy

Transcription

JULY–AUGUST 2004
ATN
200
3A
nnu
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APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS
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JULY–AUGUST 2004
JULY–AUGUST 2004
ATN
ON THE COVER
Lobelia cardinalis, or cardinal flower—a latesummer wildflower found in moist areas near
streams and meadows at lower elevations. Photo
by Michael Warren. Inside: Easy going near Falls
Village, Connecticut. Photo by John Fletcher.
VIEWPOINTS
SHELTER REGISTER ♦ L ETTERS
4
OVERLOOK ♦ B RIAN T. F ITZGERALD
AND D AVE S TARTZELL
5
REFLECTIONS ♦ N ATURE ’ S C LASSROOM
26
MINISTRY OF FUNNY WALKS
♦ B OB H ILLYER
31
WHITE BLAZES
PAPER TRAIL ♦ N EWS
H ARPERS F ERRY
FROM
7
SIDEHILL ♦ N EWS FROM C LUBS
AND G OVERNMENT A GENCIES
11
TREELINE ♦ N EWS FROM
THE A PPALACHIAN T RAIL
15
ALONG
GREENWAY ♦ L AND - PROTECTION
AND F UND - RAISING NEWS
18
BLUE BLAZES
WHY HIKERS GET FAT ♦ T HE DIRTY
LITTLE SECRET OF LONG - DISTANCE HIKING
♦ C HARLIE D UANE
20
BOOKS ♦ W HERE
29
TO HIKE ON THE
A.T.
T R E A D WAY
2003 ANNUAL REPORT
INSERT
MEMORIAL GIFTS
19
NOTABLE GIFTS
19
PUBLIC NOTICES
30
3
SHELTER REGISTER
Letters from our readers
Appalachian Trailway
News
VOLUME 65, NUMBER 3• JULY–AUGUST 2004
Appalachian Trailway News is published by the Appalachian
Trail Conference, a nonprofit educational organization representing
the citizen interest in the Appalachian Trail and dedicated to the
preservation, maintenance, and enjoyment of the Appalachian trailway. Since 1925, the Appalachian Trail Conference and its member
clubs have conceived, built, and maintained the Appalachian Trail
in cooperation with federal and state agencies. The Conference also
publishes guidebooks and other educational literature about the
Trail, the trailway, and its facilities. Annual individual membership
in the Appalachian Trail Conference is $30; life membership, $600;
corporate membership, $500 minimum annual contribution.
Volunteer and freelance contributions are welcome. Please include
a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your submission.
Observations, conclusions, opinions, and product endorsements
expressed in Appalachian Trailway News are those of the authors
and do not necessarily reflect those of members of the board or staff
of the Appalachian Trail Conference.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Brian B. King
EDITOR
Robert A. Rubin
BOARD OF MANAGERS
Chair
Brian T. Fitzgerald
Vice Chairs
Carl C. Demrow Thyra C. Sperry
Marianne J. Skeen
Treasurer
Kennard R. Honick
Secretary
Parthena M. Martin
Assistant Secretary
Arthur P. Foley
New England Region
Pamela Ahlen Bruce Grant
Kevin “Hawk” Metheny William G. O’Brien
Stephen J. Paradis Ann H. Sherwood
Mid-Atlantic Region
Walter E. Daniels Charles A. Graf
Sandra L. Marra Michael D. Patch
William Steinmetz Barbara L. Wiemann
Southern Region
Bob Almand Phyllis Henry
Robert P. Kyle
William S. Rogers McKinney V. Taylor
Steven A. Wilson
Members at Large
Goodloe E. Byron Richard Evans
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
David N. Startzell
World Wide Web: www.appalachiantrail.org
Appalachian Trailway News (ISSN 0003-6641) is published bimonthly, except for January/February, for $15
a year by the Appalachian Trail Conference, 799 Washington Street, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425, (304) 535-6331.
Bulk-rate postage paid at Harpers Ferry, WV, and other
offices. Postmaster: Send change-of-address Form 3597
to Appalachian Trailway News, P.O. Box 807, Harpers
Ferry, WV 25425.
Copyright © 2004, The Appalachian Trail Conference.
All rights reserved.
4
H
Uncommon Ground
ow many times have we confronted
ATVs riding in parks and trails, and
how many reports have we filed over the
years about them? They must be filling
rooms by now. The intruders are rarely
caught and even more rarely punished for
breaking the law. Something is not working. Something new has to be tried.
On Saturday, December 13, 2003, I
was hiking in the Harriman State Park
with other members of the Adirondack
Mountain Club, doing the Kakiat Trail
from Kakiat Park to Tuxedo. In the vicinity of the Blue Disc Trail crossing, we
came upon a male in his thirties riding
an unlicensed ATV. I confronted him,
asking if he knew that it was illegal to
drive ATVs in Harriman. He was aware
of it but said he lived in the area and it
was his “back yard.” The NY–NJ Trail
Conference recommends that we not
confront ATV people, but just report
them, so we moved on.
Each area or park presently has different forms to fill out, with different phone
and fax numbers, and reporting these
incidents is done after the fact—too late,
when even reported at all. Most people
do not know where, when, how, or to
whom to report the incidents. For instance, in our area, we have twelve reporting centers in southern New York and
eleven in northern New Jersey, a total
that does not include several specific
parks under a single reporting center. It
is a mess. Many people (the majority, I
bet) feel powerless to change the situation, so they do not fill out the required
reports. In short, even when incidents are
reported, it involves a very slow, cumbersome, inefficient, and purely bureaucratic procedure.
I suggest we have one singular phone
number to call, an easy-to-remember tollfree number (like 911 or 800). I am sure
we would soon see wonderful results. A
single number could cover a large area.
The money spent would be worthwhile,
and the results would certainly be gratify-
ing. We might have to train a few people
on handling the incoming ATV calls; I
was told that about five such calls per
week presently are made in our northern
New Jersey/southern New York area.
However, if a system such as I propose is
up and running, I suspect the number of
calls will certainly increase.
Dean (Constantine) Gletsos
Chair, ADK/Ramapo
Ramapo, New Jersey
u
T
he all-terrain-vehicle crowd as it relates to the Trail is like a gang of
hoodlums running through your house
carrying boom-boxes and smoking weed.
They take, but they do not offer any assistance, financial or otherwise, for maintenance. They are like a bunch of wild
goats chomping down the mountain undergrowth until the soils start sliding
down, the trees die, and the mountains
end up denuded, as evident in much of
the Middle East.
There are ways to get them out. (1)
Require mufflers to quiet the engines
down to the level of automobiles. Even
lawnmowers have mufflers and could be
made much quieter with a larger muffler,
if required by laws. This is political—
enough homeowners calling or writing
their representatives and senators and
stating a willingness to pay an extra
amount ($50) for an optional stainlesssteel model that could be added on exist-
Letters
Appalachian Trailway News
welcomes your comments. Letters
may be edited for clarity and length.
Please send them to:
Letters to the Editor
P.O. Box 807
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0807
E-Mail: <editor@appalachiantrail.org>
JULY–AUGUST 2004
Overlook
ing mufflers and transferred to all future
mowers. (2) Reduce exhaust pollution to
present auto standards with a catalytic
converter or with a screen and coating
process. The converter requires a relatively lean mixture, so that there is
enough oxygen to complete the burning
in the converter.
A lean mixture in present-day car design increases exhausts of nitrogen oxides
(NOx) that endup as ozone on hot summer
days. The screen and coating processes
burn all the gas near top dead center and
produce more power with almost no NOx
or other pollutants, even without a converter. (If the mixture is rich, there will
be carbon monoxide, which reduces
power.) If the screen itself is removed
after the engine is set up properly at the
factory, the power/torque/fuel economy
will drop sharply.
Work with the ATV engine manufacturers and with all your congressmen.
Walter J. Kastner
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
u
I
read the “Uncommon Ground” article
that appeared in the May–June edition
of Appalachian Trailway News. [Executive Director Dave Startzell’s] assessment
of IMBA’s perspective and work on new
wilderness isn’t accurate. The position of
support that we recently adopted on the
Jefferson National Forest wilderness
proposal … is proof.
IMBA has never pressed for bicycle
access on the Appalachian Trail, and
we’re not starting to do so now.
Tim Blumenthal, Executive Director
International Mountain Bicycling
Association
D
Alpine Rose
ecision-makers who believe that the
Alpine Rose Resort would be a benign
neighbor to the Appalachian Trail should
hike the A.T. from Mount Easter to Belter’s Bump in Connecticut, as I did this
April. The Lime Rock Park automobile
Brian T. Fitzgerald
and Dave Startzell
O
n March 2, 1925, about two dozen people met in Washington, D.C., to
discuss a grand idea—a hiking trail from Georgia to New England, the
Appalachian Trail. By the end of that meeting, the Appalachian Trail Conference had been established, although it wouldn’t be until 1936 that
ATC was incorporated as an organization.
That early ATC was indeed a “conference.” It was governed by a committee of
representatives of organizations, including the National Park Service, U.S. Forest
Service, New England Trail Conference, and New York–New Jersey Trail Conference, interested in developing the A.T. In many respects, the role of ATC was cast
during that initial meeting—serve as the lead organization in coordinating the
efforts of the many public agencies and private organizations that contribute to
protection, management, and maintenance of the Appalachian Trail.
But, since its founding, ATC has evolved dramatically. At first (in the 1960s),
we evolved because of a need to
demonstrate to Congress that
many real people (voters!) supported federal protection of the
Trail. What was once a coordinating body developed into an organization that has its own membership (now
around 32,000), a permanent staff of 44, and an annual budget of almost $5 million.
But, the name remains the same: Appalachian Trail Conference. And, that name
has been the source of some confusion.
While the Appalachian Trail is well-known to hikers around the world, the
Appalachian Trail Conference is not. When some people hear the name, they assume it refers to a meeting. Well, we do manage to have more than enough meetings, but we don’t want the public to think that’s all we do.
The new long-term strategy endorsed by the Board of Managers last fall identified the need to establish an image for our organization that the public will recognize. Raising awareness of our key role in stewardship of the Trail and the lands
along its route will be critical to our success as we move forward. We need support
from the public—as volunteers, benefactors, and advocates. In order to achieve
that, more people need to know who we are and what we’re about.
So, a rather unexpected idea has emerged—finding a new name for ourselves.
We seek a new name for the Appalachian Trail Conference that makes it clear
that we are not a meeting or a committee, but rather an organization ourselves
(although one that comprises a number of other organizations and agencies).
This is something not to be undertaken lightly. We’re not simply going to list
everyone’s ideas and pick one at random. In fact, we’re about to begin a marketing
study to look at, among other things, misperceptions of ATC’s public image and
questions related to how people perceive us.
Already some ideas have emerged. For example, we think it’s important to keep
“Appalachian Trail” in our name, since the A.T. has such widespread public recognition and since it is at the heart of who we are. It would be nice to keep the
What’s in a name?
continued on next page
5
Shelter Register
What’s in a name? . . .
I
continued from previous page
same abbreviation, “ATC,” that people know us by. One idea that would do both
is “Appalachian Trail Conservancy.” That’s certainly one we’ll consider, but our
marketing study surely will identify others. We welcome your thoughts on
whether we should change our name, and, if we do, what it should be. Our goal
is to make any change effective at the next biennial membership meeting, in
Johnson City, Tennessee, in July 2005.
Changing our name may seem radical. But, in 1925, the idea of a hiking trail
along the Appalachian Mountains was far more radical. Viewed in that context, a
name change is part of another phase in our organization’s 80-year evolution.
Brian T. Fitzgerald is chair of ATC; Dave Startzell is executive director.
racetrack lies to the west of this four-mile
section of Trail. Roaring engines and blaring public-address announcements are
audible—often genuinely loud—along
this four-mile section, ruining one’s experience of otherwise pleasant and natural surroundings.
Alpine Rose’s pledge to allow only
“street-legal” machines on its course offers little comfort, when one considers
that the noisiest street machines will be
the very ones using the facility. Those
who believe that noise from these automobiles will not disturb hikers’ enjoyment of the Trail have no first-hand
knowledge of how sound carries in the
woods, especially in seasons when there
is no foliage on deciduous trees and
shrubs.
It was on this very same section of the
Connecticut A.T. that I encountered
three motorcycles (dirt bikes) using the
A.T. itself as their personal racetrack. I
was not walking on the Trail at that moment only because I had stepped aside to
put on my rain gear, so fortunately I was
able to avoid injury. The bikers went
south as I continued north, and I was able
to follow their tracks. They had torn up
almost three miles of the A.T., including
numerous stream crossings and uphill
sections, where damage to the muddy
treadway was considerable.
One problem with locating a course
for automobile enthusiasts close to the
A.T. is that it will attract and encourage
6
other motor enthusiasts, many of whom
lack awareness of and sensitivity to the
ecological significance of their surroundings. The least-principled subset of this
group will undoubtedly abuse and harm
the Trail, as was the case during my hike
in Connecticut.
Hal Wright
Holland, Pennsylvania
H
Volunteers Can Do It
undreds of volunteers fan out into the
woods to cut branches, clear brush,
reroute Trail sections, and otherwise
maintain the A.T. However, when other
services, such as I.T. consulting, personnel consulting, or recruiting are needed,
have you considered seeking volunteers?
For an organization that is running a
budget deficit, perhaps you should give
it a try. Reports of potentially unnecessary expenditures may discourage future
contributions.
Edward Drennen
Sewell, New Jersey
EDITOR’S NOTE: In the cases of information technology, personnel programs,
and recruiting of staff members, volunteers play an important part in setting
policies and contribute many hours of
their expertise. Not only do they serve
on Board of Managers committees for
those areas, they visit ATC headquarters
and field offices and offer hands-on help
as well.
Cattle Along A.T.
’m sure most readers of this publication
care about the environment beyond the
Trail. I ask them to consider, if there are
concerns over fifty cattle on Hump
Mountain, the damage done by the ten
billion animals raised for food in this
country alone.
There is the damage from the animals,
from the land that must be farmed to feed
them, and from processing the animals.
That the Trail ends at Springer [instead
of Mt. Oglethorpe] is due at least in part
to a chicken processing plant.
In addition to pollution, there is also
resource use. The meat industry uses
almost half of the water consumed in
this country. There are environmental
concerns other than water. I encourage
readers to consider eliminating, or at
least reducing, animal products from
their diets.
Lynda Cozart
Takoma Park, Maryland
I
Higher Grounds
wanted to take this opportunity to
thank you for the mention in an earlier
issue of Higher Ground Roasters and the
company’s program of donating a percentage of every purchase of the Appalachian
Trail Blend coffee to the Conference. I
began doing business with them soon
after reading the article and have nothing
but the highest appreciation of how they
do business. They shipped the first order
I placed with an invoice in anticipation
of receiving a check from me, with no
credit-card guarantee or anything.
It has been a long time since I have had
the pleasure of doing business the way it
used to be in an earlier day. The coffee is
excellent, and the customer service is no
less. I just received a recent order from
them with a note on the invoice thanking
me for my support and an extra container of their fine coffee as a thank-you
gift. I hope you can encourage others who
would like to enjoy a great coffee and help
the Trail to support this excellent company in a future article.
T.C. McCord
Franklin, Tennessee
JULY–AUGUST 2004
PAPER TRAIL
News from Harpers Ferry
Board sees deficit budget, growth forecasts
T
he Board of Managers of
the Appalachian Trail
Conference was told that
the Conference should be
“back in the black” in two
years, following an organizational restructuring that put
the 2004 budget in deficit to
the tune of $300,000.
In effect, “you voted in
November to approve a 2004
operating deficit of $300,000,”
ATC Treasurer Ken Honick
told the Board at its May 2004
meeting. “In my gut, I feel like
the deficit will be $200,000
to $300,000 this year. The year
after that, we’ll see the deficit
shrink; after that, we’ll be
back in the black.”
Honick said that plans for
T
a major push in spreading the
word about the Conference,
and what it does, would be the
key to long-term financial
health. “With a strong marketing effort so that people have
heard of us, in five to seven
years, I think we can expect to
double our membership and
consequently multiply our
operating budget.”
The Conference’s executive
committee in March revised
the November budget to the
deficit level Honick cited,
ATC Executive Director Dave
Startzell told the Board, but
ATC finances seem to be
“more or less on track.”
Startzell said one key to
recr uiting new members
■
■
Elimination of regional representation on the Board, which
will be no more than half the current size of thirty, and,
correspondingly, allowing for one vice chair of the Conference rather than three.
Elimination of the officer position of assistant secretary
and Board-member status for former chairs.
Bylaws status for the new Trail Stewardship Council,
which will have representation from the expected four
conservation-department regions, which correspond to
the current scopes of ATC’s regional offices. The council
chair will be selected from among the new Board members.
nificant membership gains
from sources other than direct
mail.”
Part of the Conference’s reorganization plan, which the
Board endorsed in November,
calls for ATC to hire a marketing consultant to suggest ways
of getting the message out to
prospective members, increasing membership, and promoting the Trail. A committee of
volunteers and staff members
from the Conference and Park
Service reviewed proposals
from several marketing firms
this spring, and ATC in July
hired Bemporad Baranowski
Marketing Group of New York
City to develop a marketing
plan by November.
ATC Bylaws Changed in Restructuring Move
he Board of Managers has amended the Conference bylaws
to allow for the many changes in the organization’s governing structure advocated by the strategic plan it adopted last November. By a 25–0 vote with two abstaining, the
Board at its May 8 meeting approved the changes to take effect
July 4, 2005, when the new Board of Directors is to be elected
at the membership meeting in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The principal changes are:
■
would be broadening ATC’s
direct-mail campaigns. Working with a consultant, he said,
the Conference had identified
about 3 milllion people who
might be receptive to ATC’s
message and membership
pitch. “We’re effectively mailing to about half that number
now,” he said.
He said the consultant projected a possible increase in
membership to 50,000 from
the current 32,000 in four to
five years, if ATC cast a wider
net.
“I still think there’s a lot
more we can do to capture
Trail visitors and other ‘unsolicited’ members,” Startzell
said. “We could see some sig-
The roles of the council and new “regional partnership
committees” were outlined in separate policy documents
approved later in the meeting.
■
■
More detailed duties of, and qualifications for, the Board
of Directors than in the current bylaws covering the Board
of Managers.
More detail as to what constitutes “cause” for removal of
an officer or Board member, a provision added just a year
ago. No changes were made in the voting rights of individual or organizational Conference members.
A number of editorial changes were made, along with the
inclusion of the full list of qualifications for the honorary
membership award, which previously had been working Board
policy. A full comparison of the current and 2005 bylaws can
be viewed on ATC’s World Wide Web site <www.appalachiantrail.org> in the strategic-planning section of “About
ATC.” Also available there are the policy documents explaining the council, the partnership committees, and the responsibilities of the new Board of Directors.
7
Paper Trail
ATC begins search for new Conference directors
A
n ATC committee announced in June that it is
actively seeking candidates for the Conference’s
new Board of Directors, which
will be elected on Independence Day 2005 at the organization’s 35th regular business
meeting in Johnson City, Tennessee. All nominations
should be sent to the committee before October 31, 2004.
Candidates for the Board of
Directors should be enthusiastic about the Appalachian
Trail project and be willing to
serve as its ambassador, the
committee said, and they
should be committed to the
public/private partnership of
the volunteer-based Appalachian Trail management system. Specific information
concerning the roles and responsibilities of the new
Board of Directors is available
on ATC’s World Wide Web
site, <www.appalachiantrail.
org/ about/atc/board_nom.
html>.
In contrast to the existing
thirty-one-member Board of
Managers, the new Board of
Directors will have a maximum of fifteen members and
focus primarily on strategic
direction for the Conference,
broad organizational operations, and financial stability—rather than Trail issues
and policies. An article in the
March–April 2004 issue of
described those important
changes in ATC’s governance
structure in more detail.
A.T. volunteers tops in
White House recognition
T
his spring, 168 Appalachian Trail volunteers were
recognized by the White House with President’s Call
to Service Awards for devoting more than 4,000 hours
of their lives to the nation’s premier national scenic trail.
More volunteers are being recognized in connection with
the A.T. than with any other unit of the national park
system.
Eleven members of the ATC Board of Managers were
presented with the plaques and letters of appreciation by
A.T. Park Manager Pamela Underhill at their spring meeting in mid-May.
Interestingly, a new report from the federal Bureau of
Labor Statistics shows that the number of Americans
doing volunteer work in the year ending last September
30 was about the same as the number hiking—almost
64 million, or about 29 percent of the population older
than 16. Those in their mid-30s to mid-40s were the most
likely to volunteer.
8
However, just like the current governing body, the new
Board of Directors will represent all the members of the
Conference, not any particular club or organization. Current chair Brian T. Fitzgerald
says he hopes all members
will give serious thought to
recommendations and join in
this process.
The slate of Board members
and officers recommended by
the nominating committee
will be published in the May–
June edition of the Appalachian Trailway News. All
votes in Board elections must
be cast in person.
Please submit nominations
in one of three ways:
• By using ATC’s Web site:
<http://www.appalachiantrail.org>
• Via e-mail: Send the form
as an attachment to <board
recommendations@atconf.
org>.
• Send a hard copy of the
form on pages 9–10 by mail
to: Marianne Skeen, 553 N.
Superior Avenue, Decatur,
GA 30033-5401
Nominating committee members
Southern Region
Marianne Skeen of Decatur, Georgia. Committee Chair—
Vice chair of ATC Board of Managers; retired senior research
associate at Emory University.
Richard Judy of Atlanta—Executive director of EarthShare
of Georgia; formerly with BP/Amoco, where he worked with
ATC on numerous projects, notably the funds for the 1996
restoration of the hurricane-destroyed Trail on the C&O
Towpath.
Mid-Atlantic Region
Thyra Sperry of Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania—Vice chair
of ATC Board of Managers; retired human-resources manager, Masland Industries.
Amy Owen of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia—Former ATC
development director, now executive director of a community foundation in West Virginia.
New England Region
Peter Richardson of Norwich, Vermont—Retired director of
admissions for Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former ATC vice chair.
Kevin Peterson of Hanover, New Hampshire—Former
ATC New England regional representative; executive director of the Upper Valley Community Foundation in New
Hampshire.
JULY–AUGUST 2004
ATC Board of Directors—Nomination Form
Name of nominee:
Address:
City, State, ZIP Code:
Home phone:
Office phone:
Mobile phone:
E-mail address:
Nomination submitted by:
Address:
D E TA C H
▲
ALONG
LINE
City, State, ZIP Code:
Home phone:
Office phone:
Mobile phone:
E-mail address:
Please describe the relevant experience, skills, and attributes that led you to nominate this individual for ATC’s
Board of Directors. Feel free to send additional materials or a résumé as separate documents.
9
Passion for the A.T. project
1
2
3
4
5
Commitment to the cooperative management system
1
2
3
4
5
General knowledge of the A.T.
1
2
3
4
5
Willingness to commit to over-all Board responsibilities
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
Leadership skills
1
2
3
4
5
Previous not-for-profit board experience
1
2
3
4
5
Involvement and understanding of the hiking community
1
2
3
4
5
Conservation experience
1
2
3
4
5
Land-trust experience
1
2
3
4
5
Political/government experience
1
2
3
4
5
Education perspective
1
2
3
4
5
Publishing experience
1
2
3
4
5
Communications/marketing experience
1
2
3
4
5
Accounting/financial management
1
2
3
4
5
Legal skills
1
2
3
4
5
Personnel management
1
2
3
4
5
Information-technology skills
1
2
3
4
5
Experience in development, fund-raising, and capital campaigns
1
2
3
4
5
Contacts and influence with the business community,
foundations, and government agencies
1
2
3
4
5
▲
Do you have any indication of this person’s willingness to serve on ATC’s Board of Directors?
LINE
Experience with A.T. management across different regions
ALONG
▲
Individual members will also bring personal and professional skills to the Board of Directors. To the best of your
knowledge, please rate this nominee on each of the items below that have been identified as important for
ATC’s governance. On the scale of 1 to 5, 5 indicates the highest ranking.
D E TA C H
▲
The following attributes have been identified as important for all members of ATC’s Board of Directors. To the
best of your knowledge, please rate this nominee on each of these categories. On the scale of 1 to 5, 5 indicates
the highest ranking.
SIDEHILL
News of clubs and government agencies
Massachusetts logging proposal tests cooperative agreement
By Cosmo Catalano
A
s you hike through the
Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, you are bound
to encounter islands of closely spaced trees, the largest
about 70 feet high and approximately 14 inches thick—
groves of Norway spruce in
the midst of a native mixedhardwood forest. A thick
layer of needle duff lies underfoot. Under those trees, it is
dark, cool, and mysterious,
especially compared to the
surrounding hardwood forests. Almost no direct sunlight reaches the forest floor.
The only animals around are
red squirrels, outraged at your
impertinence in invading
their territory.
When that happens, you
are most likely on stateowned lands, where the Trail
passes through forests that
were planted in the 1930s to
control erosion on steep
slopes and supply future timber harvests. Those “plantations” consist of fast-growing
Norway spruce, a nonnative Logged area in protected corridor
species, but one consistent
with land-management prac- those areas, it meant someday
tices of the era—before the to get its money’s worth. The
A.T. was blazed there. In Mas- time has come.
sachusetts, federal A.T. lands
The sign, “Caution: Logprimarily provide connecting ging Ahead,” isn’t one you
corridors for the Trail, and would normally expect to see
approximately half of the posted on the A.T. But, if
footpath crosses state-owned Massachusetts is any indicalands, mostly in large state tion, such signs could become
forests that protect the “high more frequent as state govcountry” of Berkshire Coun- ernments attempt to balance
ty. Where the state planted their budgets in these days of
additional stands of timber in federal budget cuts. The in-
seen from A.T. (note blaze). Photo by Cosmo Catalano.
tent of officeholders to require state forests and parks
to “pay their way” is likely to
become an increasing theme
in the years ahead. For the
hiker, the signs mean, “Proceed with care.” For A.T.
volunteers charged with looking after this national scenic
trail, that warning is equally
applicable.
State foresters now consider such plantations less
than desirable. The spruce are
nonnative and at the end of
their life spans. Although
most income from a tree harvest is directed to the state
general fund, some in-kind
materials and services can be
allocated to the management
of the forest that provides the
saleable materials.
In October Mountain State
Forest, foresters recently proposed to harvest 31 acres of
11
Sidehill
plantation Norway spruce
near the point where the A.T.
crosses County Road, about
7.5 miles north of the Massachusetts Turnpike footbridge. “Fingers” of spruce
cross the footpath as it climbs
a slope north of the road. The
regional forester presented
the Massachusetts A.T. Management Committee with a
plan to log the forest close to
the “primary zone” (the 200
feet of forest on either side of
the Trail), cutting about 80
percent of the spruce—leaving the healthiest trees and
removing the cut trees for
sale. The operation was to
take place in the winter, with
snow cover protecting the
forest floor from erosion-producing damage.
According to the forester,
responsible logging practice
and state liability concerns
would also require the removal of “hazard trees” in the
primary zone. (Hazard trees
are those dead, dying, or damaged trees likely to fall on
hikers or campers.) The additional hazard-tree removal
would protect the state from
liability if an uncut tree were
to fall and hit a hiker in or
near an area where logging
had taken place.
Although the spruce are a
nonnative species, planted in
distinct rows, and the groves
were littered with many fallen trees, volunteers believed
that the area offered a unique
charm, with deep shadows
and a soft, needle-covered
footpath. In addition, they
worried about allowing a government agency to define
“hazard trees” along the footpath—the idea evoked visions
of lawyers marking which
trees should be removed. The
12
existing policy on hazard trees
calls for their removal only at
areas where hikers were likely
to congregate, such as overnight sites, vistas, and trail
junctions.
To remove hazard trees in
the least obtrusive way possible, the forester said some
cutting would need to take
place in the primary zone to
allow the logging contractor’s
machinery to get at them.
Tree growth is very dense in
the plantations, which makes
hand-felling in the middle of
such a stand of timber extremely hazardous—most
trees would hang up in adjacent growth or break apart as
they fell. The forester proposed to cut approximately 60
percent of the trees in the
primary zone in order to provide access to the hazard
trees.
After examining the area,
the committee told the forester that it preferred that no
harvesting take place in the
primary zone, which would
eliminate the need for hazardtree removal. The forester was
firm in his belief that the overall health of the woods and
responsible forestry practice
obligated him to remove potentially hazardous trees near
the footpath near his area of
operations.
Fortunately, Trail volunteers had a way to make their
opinion heard. In October
2003, Massachusetts had
signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ATC
volunteers and other partners
to detail the management of
the A.T. on both state and
federal lands. It gave the Massachusetts Appalachian Trail
Management Committee of
the Appalachian Mountain
Club’s Berkshire Chapter
(AMC–Berkshire Chapter)
responsibility. The committee is composed of up to sixteen volunteers, a representative from the state Department of Conservation and
Recreation (DCR), and staff
members from the Appalachian Trail Conference and
AMC. Within the primary
zone, the Trail is the principal
feature for guiding management decisions, and the committee was given the right to
make such determinations.
Within the secondary zone—
extending 300 feet farther—
management decisions were
to be made by the state in
consultation with the A.T.
Committee.
Both parties to the agreement thought they were right.
The A.T. Committee argued
that the language of the memorandum was very clear and
that government removal of
hazard trees adjacent to the
footpath, and disturbance of
the existing forest (even one
planted by humans), did not
directly benefit the Trail.
State forest managers were
equally convinced that it was
better to selectively remove a
nonnative species, densely
planted in discernible, evenly
spaced rows, allowing a succession of native plants to
populate the area. The issue
hinged on the “hazard tree”
question.
The 2003 agreement says
that parties unable to resolve
disagreements should proceed
to the next level of management, which would mean
taking the issue outside the
local forest management region and involving managers
in offices in Boston—an outcome neither volunteers nor
local foresters wanted to see
happen. With the help of ATC
and AMC staff members, all
were able to agree on a compromise proposal that made
no mention of hazard trees
and excluded harvesting of
live trees within 20 feet of the
footpath. In addition, trees to
be cut in the primary zone
would be marked jointly by
the forester and a committee
member.
Today, part-way through
the harvest, you can see distinct differences between
harvested and unharvested
areas. However, once the
stumps begin to darken and
weather and with no uncut
areas to compare to, it appears
that there will be no significant impact to the hiking
experience.
On the surface, it might
seem quite straightforward:
We should prohibit logging
in the A.T. corridor. But, the
final resolution provides an
example of how the cooperative process should work.
The issues are surprisingly
complex. A.T. volunteers
benefited from working with
both an experienced forester
and a sensitive contractor
who had the equipment and
expertise to tread lightly in
this special area. Together, all
parties did what was best for
the forest, exchanging a shortterm, minor change in the
A.T. experience for long-term
stewardship gains. Only time
will tell if those decisions
were correct.
Cosmo Catalano is chair of
the Massachusetts A.T. Committee of the Appalachian
Mountain Club–Berkshire
Chapter.
JULY–AUGUST 2004
Roadless rule to be overturned by Bush administration
U
.S. Agriculture Secretary
Ann M. Veneman announced in July that the
Bush administration will
scrap a federal rule that barred
road-building and logging in
nearly 60 million acres of
national forest land.
The so-called “Roadless
Rule,” which was opposed by
timber interests, was put into
effect during the waning days
of the Clinton administration
and has been the subject of a
number of lawsuits by groups
seeking to overturn it. Under
the old rule, roadless areas
were protected from roadbuilding and the subsequent
logging and recreational traffic that ensued.
Although the ruling would
mainly affect large national
forests in the western United
States, an estimated 163.3
miles of the A.T. lead through
roadless areas, including 5.7
Which way to the
A.T.?—They’re not
exactly “regulation,”
but these new posts
in the heavily
trafficked historic
section of Harpers
Ferry, W.Va., may
make it a little
easier for casual
visitors, unaware of
A.T. blazing conventions, to follow the
Trail through the
streets. (Photo:
Dave Reus)
miles in Georgia, 17.8 miles
in North Carolina, 57.4 miles
in New Hampshire, 13.2 miles
in Tennessee, 60.5 miles in
Virginia, 6.6 miles in Vermont, and 2.2 miles in West
Virginia. Presently, individual
forest plans govern management of the lands surrounding
the A.T., so the roadless rule
does not now affect the Trail,
officials told ATC.
Veneman said that the
a d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’s p o l i c y
would allow state governments to have more of a say
about whether roadless areas
could be opened to logging
and access. “It gives governors the opportunity to petition for how their state plans
should be considered within
the Forest Service,” she said.
“We see the states as putting
forth the petition as to how
they think the the national
forests ought to be addressed
in terms of roadless areas,
and that we would then in a
collaborative process work
toward a final rule on a stateby-state basis.”
She also said that the Forest Service will be reviewing
off-road vehicle uses within
the national forest system
and designating certain roads
and trails for use by all-ter-
rain vehicles. “In the national forests, there’s been a
tremendous increase in the
amount of off-road vehicle
use in the forest,” Veneman
said. “In order to put some
order into the process, the
Forest Service will now designate those specific roads
and trails that can be used by
off-road vehicles.”
Senate, House at odds over
lands bill
T
he U.S. Senate and House
of Representatives are
at odds over a bill that
would mean virtually no land
acquisitions in the fiscal year
beginning October 1 by the
National Park Service and
USDA Forest Service. In June,
the House Appropriations
Committee passed a version
of the interior appropriations
bill that, according to news
reports, “eviscerated” the
Land and Water Conservation
Fund (LWCF)—the fund that
federal agencies use to buy
lands for the A.T.
Later in the month, the
Senate Interior Appropriations
subcommittee polled its members, who informally approved
a version of the spending bill
that mostly restores the LWCF
cuts from the House spending
measure, H.R. 4568. The two
versions would have to be
reconciled.
Forty years ago, Congress
created the fund to help protect—with $900 million a
year—parks, trails, open spaces, wilderness, wetlands, and
recreational areas; the A.T. has
been one of its primary beneficiaries. The 2005 spending bill
for the Interior Department
and related agencies includes
$50 million for emergencies
and existing work. The bill
does increase funds for Park
Service operations by 4.7 percent ($77 million) above this
year, but officials predict that
will be more than offset by
annual payroll increases and
inflation.
The Senate bill would provide $215 million for landacquisition programs, nearly
matching the Bush administration’s $220-million budget
request for land acquisition.
According to the environmental news service Greenwire,
the Senate version of the bill
appropriates $94 million to
the National Park Service for
stateside grants, up $3 million
from the House version, and
$79 million for the Forest
Legacy program, which the
House had funded at a $43million level.
13
Sidehill
Scott Farm gets reprieve from demolition plans
P
lans to demolish a barn
and house at the Scott
Farm, long-time home to
ATC’s ridgerunner programs
and Mid-Atlantic Trail Crew
near Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, were put on hold in
May as Trail officials had second thoughts.
The farm, located near a
bridge over Conodoguinet
Creek, below Blue Mountain
on the northern end of the
Cumberland Valley crossing,
was purchased by the National
Park Service when the Trail
corridor was established across
the valley in the 1980s. It is
operated by ATC, which rents
the house to a caretaker and
uses the barn and farm grounds
for training, a base camp for
volunteer Trail crews, and
equipment storage.
When lands with existing
buildings become part of the
Trail corridor, the Park Service
and ATC typically arrange for
demolition of structures that
don’t have significant historic
or aesthetic value. The 1950sera Scott Farm is not, by the
Park Service’s criteria, a historic site. But, from ATC’s
point of view, it is a very useful one.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Representative Karent Lutz told
the Conference’s Facilities
Committee in May that she
had become frustrated with
indecision about the property.
“The problems of the Scott
Farm have never been its loca-
tion relative to the Trail; they
have been with deficiencies of
the buildings that make it
costly to retrofit [for other
uses],” Lutz said. In particular,
problems with asbestos in the
house make it expensive to
rehabilitate as an office, despite its usefulness as a work
center and proximity to the
Trail. “I’m really struggling
with the decision to decommission these buildings while
we’re trying to move forward
and create other facilities as
part of our strategic plan,” she
said.
Pamela Underhill, manager
of the Park Service’s Appalachian Trail office, told the
committee that, although the
plans for demolishing the
buildings were prompted by
her office, new circumstances
made it wiser to wait a while
longer before bringing in a
wrecking crew. “At this point
in time, with the recommendations of the strategic plan [for
regional partnership centers]
and an uncertain time ahead of
us,” she said, “every part of my
gut tells me it would be a mistake to take the barn down
right now. I think it would be
very shortsighted of us to remove that structure.”
Underhill said the Park Service would do a “value analysis” of the farm and study what
the prospects are for developing it in conjunction with
changes at ATC’s Boiling
Springs regional office.
Crew building a shelter at Scott Farm in 2001.
14
JULY–AUGUST 2004
TREELINE
News from along the Appalachian Trail
High schoolers dig into the A.T.
A
ppalachian Trail Conference volunteer crew work
has a reputation for being
tough, gritty, and grimy—anything but child’s play. That’s
one reason regular ATC crews
are closed to volunteers under
age 18.
But, beginning in 2003, a
grant-supported program has
put a select group of younger
volunteers to work on a special Trail crew. The results
have been impressive. Two
crews of high school students
with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) worked
in 2003 and 2004 with ATC
staff members and volunteers
from local maintaining clubs
to build a new shelter and rehabilitate a popular side trail
in Virginia.
SCA interns and volunteers
provide more than one million
hours of service annually at
nearly 400 sites throughout
the United States. The organization has been recognized by,
among others, the White
House, the U.S. Department
of the Interior, the National
Park Service, and The Wilderness Society for its achievements in conservation and
youth development.
In 2003, ATC’s southwest
and central Virginia regional
office, with the support of the
Appalachian Trail Park Office,
was awarded two grants from
the National Park Service’s
Public Land Corps program for
projects along the A.T. in Virginia. The program encourages
youth service opportunities
through groups such as SCA
for repair and restoration projects in national parks. Funding
comes from fees charged to
recreational users at national
parks.
Teresa Martinez, ATC’s
representative for the region,
said the $20,000 grants underwrote two crews, each composed of six high school students and two adult leaders,
that worked for four weeks on
projects along the A.T.
“Crew life was similar to
ATC-sponsored crews except
the crews worked for six days
living in remote frontcountry
settings, with no amenities,”
Martinez said. “They spent
their time working all day and
camping in the settings with
one day off, usually spent
swimming, resupplying, and
getting mail.”
Martinez said ATC entered
into this partnership to help
local Trail clubs with projects, to reach out to young
people, and to develop more
opportunities to bring them
into Trail-related programs.
continued on page 28
SCA crews and leaders at Humpback Gap.
(ATC photo.)
15
Treeline
Quarry loses court appeal, permit revoked
A
TC’s four-year battle with
a gravel-quarry operator
over a hillside mine that
marred a scenic view from the
Appalachian Trail in North
Carolina neared its end May 4
when an appeals court said the
state had the right to shut the
mine down.
The North Carolina Court
of Appeals ruled that the state
mining commission rightfully
revoked a permit for a Clark
Stone Company quarry within
sight of the Trail over Hump
and Little Hump mountains
on the North Carolina-Tennessee border. The court unanimously overturned on every
count a December 2002 lowercourt decision that would
have allowed the Putnam
Mine quarry to continue op-
erations, except for an injunction while the appeal was
heard.
The appeals court agreed
with all points brought to it
by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR), the Appalachian
Trail Conference, the National Parks Conservation
Association (NPCA), and local
opponents led by Jay Leutze.
The Southern Environmental
Law Center argued the case for
ATC and NPCA.
The battle has been a seesaw. The DENR originally issued the permit in 1999 without considering the impact on
the A.T., despite protective
state laws. Once advised of the
noise and destruction of the
highly popular vistas from the
Roan Highlands, the agency
began the process of revoking
the permit, including hiring
expert landscape and sound
analysts.
After the September 2000
revocation, an administrative
law judge ruled in 2001 in favor of the quarry owner but
was overturned later in the
year by the mining commission in a decision heralding
the importance of the Trail.
Then, Superior Court Judge
Stafford G. Bullock overruled
the commission in 2002. Clark
Stone Company could appeal
to the state Supreme Court.
Under North Carolina’s
Mining Act, the court ruled,
DENR has authority over mining permits and can make
mines comply with require-
ments that they protect the
surrounding environment
from hazards caused by specific projects, the unanimous
opinion said.
Because of the case, the
state changed its mining act
to ensure that the public gets
proper notice of proposed mining projects.
“One of the most magnificent places I know of has been
saved and important protections put in place for similar
proposals in the future,” Don
Barger, southeast regional director for National Parks
Conservation Association,
said after the ruling. “This
national park site will remain
an incredible landscape, an
inspiration to park visitors
now and in the future.”
Volunteers and ATC staff members inspect quarry. (ATC photo.)
16
JULY–AUGUST 2004
Deaths
Vernon (“Del Doc”) Vernier
Dr. Vernon Vernier, known in the Trail community by his
Trail name of “Del Doc,” died at his Newark, Delaware,
home May 20, three weeks after being diagnosed with liver
cancer. He was 79.
During a long career as a physician and director of pharmacology and research at DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware,
Dr. Vernier spent much of his free time training and running
in marathons. After his retirement in 1985, he thru-hiked
the Trail and devoted much of his retirement to the A.T.
project as a volunteer and donor. During the 1990s, he wrote
a regular feature in Appalachian Trailway News, “Walking
Well,” that offered practical medical advice for hikers on the
A.T. The columns treated subjects ranging from major injuries in the backcountry, to the threat of Lyme disease, to
blister prevention and good nutrition.
In 1999, he began his third thru-hike of the A.T. with
an odd-looking device strapped to his back—a global positioning system (GPS) unit. Vernier’s goal was to walk
the whole A.T. using the computer- and satellite-linked
system to record exactly where the “centerline” of the
Trail route ran. Until then, ATC maps showed a route
produced by a combination of map work, surveying, and
measurement, usually with a calibrated wheel that
hikers rolled along in front of them. But, that route was
just a line drawn on a map—it could not be used by mod-
ern computer systems that compile geographic data.
Vernier’s 1999 thru-hike of the A.T. produced a digital
centerline that the Conference could use when developers
proposed construction projects or communications towers
near the Trail. They, and ATC, could refer to Vernier’s data
and calculate on computers whether the proposed developments would create an eyesore for A.T. hikers or were visually unobtrusive.
Not content with the results of his 1999 hike, Vernier set
out in 2002 on another hike of the entire Trail, this time
carrying a much more expensive GPS unit and carefully
calibrating it to reference points off the Trail. Using that
system, Vernier hoped to be able to provide a three-dimensional record of the route, including elevation, latitude, and
longitude. Profiles using data from his hike were included in
the recently revised Georgia-North Carolina map set and will
be incorporated into future revisions of A.T. hiking maps.
Vernier was still piecing together that latest A.T. journey in
2004 and had been on the Trail checking readings and gathering data from missing sections as recently as a month before
his death.
Vernier’s family said that, late in April, he reported feeling
tired from a walk down to the end of his driveway to retrieve
the day’s mail. He was taken in for tests, which revealed an
aggressive form of liver cancer.
After a May 23 memorial service for him, Vernier’s surviving family members hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail
near Greenbrier State Park in Maryland and signed the Trail
register there in his memory.
Before ... and after. Del Doc’s new North Carolina profile map is at bottom.
Distance (miles) from Bly Gap
71
4000
3500
3000
Muskrat Creek Shelter
Standing Indian Shelter
10
11
12
13
14
15
Timber Ridge Trail
9
Coleman Gap
8
Beech Gap Trail
Beech Gap
7
Lower Trail
Ridge Trail
6
Standing Indian Mountain
5
Deep Gap
Kimsey Creek Trail
4
Wateroak Gap
4500
Bly Gap
5000
Sharp Top
5500
3
Whiteoak Stamp
Chunky Gal Trail
6000
2
Courthouse Bald
1
Sassafras Gap
0
6000
5500
5000
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2500
2000
2000
17
GREENWAY
Land-protection and fund-raising news
Board accepts April Hill Farm
A
TC’s Board of Managers
voted in May to accept
ownership of a farm along
the Trail in the Berkshires of
Massachusetts, intact since
1744.
Trustees of longtime Trail
supporter Mary Margaret Kellogg recently asked ATC to
fulfill a 1991 agreement to
take ownership of Mrs. Kellogg’s April Hill Farm, which
includes a farmhouse and
barn, as well as other structures, and was valued by a
recent appraisal at nearly $1
million. Fifty acres of the 150-
acre property have already
been conveyed to the National Park Service as part of
the Trail corridor.
ATC Executive Director
Dave Startzell said representatives of the Kellogg family
notified ATC that they were
ready to convey the land to
ATC or, if the Conference
wasn’t able to commit to its
upkeep and maintenance, to
sell it on the open market. The
offer also included a $600,000
endowment, the proceeds of
which would go toward maintaining the property.
The next thing is figuring
out what to do with the property.
Startzell said that among
ATC’s options would be transferring April Hill Farm to
another nonprofit organization that values historic preservation and espouses policies and objectives similar to
those of the Conference, renting the property through a
property management agency,
or opening a regional office or
volunteer training center
there. In the short term, the
property could become an at-
tractive rental property that
would produce income for
ATC because it is convenient
to the famous summer Tanglewood music festival in
nearby Stockbridge, Conference officials said.
Representatives of the land
trust, Conference regional
staff members, area Trail volunteers, and the farm’s longtime caretakers will meet in
coming months to plan what
to do with the farm, Williams
said.
April Hill Farm and nearby Jug End (right)
in Massachusetts.
18
JULY–AUGUST 2004
Greenway
Memorial gifts
Notable gifts
March through April 2004
March through April 2004
In memory of…
Harry Binford—by Rachel Schwartz
James R. Deason—by Marilyn E. Little
Chris Deffler—by Edwin and Margaret Deffler
Vivian W. Emerson—by Georgia Appalachian Trail Club
Larry T. Fitzmaurice—by Stephen and Mary Erickson
Peter Hirsch—by Samuel Zitter
Frank Kirk—by William Thorne
Robert P. McKay—by Cheryl A. Sparks
John P. McNamara—by Appalachian Trail Club of Florida
Leondis Mixon—by Chuck Campbell, Jim Hudson Luxury Cars,
John and Montez Kitchings
Jim Murray—by Katherine Eng, Kenneth C. LeRoy
Dave Richie—by Ann Ratliff
George B. Rittenhouse—by Patrica E. Lee
Rob Shuster—by Dawn Hewitt
Tom Spivey—by Foundation for Youth Development, Dale and
Diana Schultheis
Lillian Varga—by Edwin and Margaret Deffler
Grant Wilkins—by Georgia Appalachian Trail Club
Stephen H. Willeumier—by Sylvia G. Bandyke, George and Janet
Campbell, Exide Office Personnel, Kenneth and Pauline
Jackson, Paula Pellow, Gary and Jacqueline Shuk
$5,000–$9,999
Coleman—general support
United Parcel Service—general support
$2,500–$4,999
IBM—general support (matching gifts)
$1,000–$2,499
Adventure Medical Kits—ridgerunner programs
American Backcountry—general support
Berry, Dunn, McNeil & Parker—general support
Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps—Trail-crew programs
Katadyn—ridgerunner and Trail-crew programs
MBNA America—general support
Thor•Lo Inc.—ridgerunner and Trail-crew programs
Vasque Outdoor Footwear—ridgerunner programs
$500–$999
Hi-Tec Sports USA, Inc.—general support
Outdoor Research—ridgerunner programs
PPI Manufacturing—Trail-crew programs
Prudential Inc.—general support (matching gifts)
Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club—Trail-crew and land-acquisition programs
Wal-Mart Foundation—general support
Conservancies protect
legendary tract in N.J.
A
wildlife- and wetlands-rich, 496-acre forest in the A.T.
“viewshed” at the base of the Kittatinny Ridge in Sussex and Warren counties in New Jersey has been acquired for $1.5 million by the state, the local Ridge and
Valley Conservancy, and The Nature Conservancy.
The groups will manage the “Blair Creek Preserve,”
formerly owned by Blair Academy, and open it to the public for recreation. The tract is directly in view from the
A.T. above it to the west.
Bob Cancace, president of the Ridge and Valley Conservancy, recently told the Newark Star-Ledger that local
legend has it that the formerly logged site on Fairview
Lake—complete with the remnants of an old sawmill and
homestead—was last inhabited by a Civil War deserter.
19
The dirty little secret
of long-distance hiking
By
Charlie
Duane
W
hen I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail on the occasion of my
fiftieth birthday in 2001, I hoped to receive the gift of physical
health. The Trail granted my wish, helping me get in the best shape of
my life. My posthike adjustment, however, failed miserably—at least
from the standpoint of sustaining the same health benefits at home.
Some of the posthike problems were simple: I did not know
how to perform stretching exercises, so painful muscle tightness
immobilized me. More troubling was the inability to “downshift” my metabolism without exercise: My weight increased
by a half-pound per day for weeks. It seemed that the same foods
I ate before hiking the Trail made me heavy. I went from an
athletic 142 pounds to an overweight 173 pounds in five months.
Trustworthy friends called me fat.
It wasn’t just me. At hiker reunions, I expected to see bodies
like those of marathoners or competitive cyclists, the bodies
we had all developed while thru-hiking. Yet, most hikers older
than age 40 looked dumpy, like me. Veteran hikers offered
limited help. “Avoid French-fries,” or “Cut your intake,” they
advised. As much as I wanted to listen to them, I was listening
to my body, too, and it said I was hungry.
Authors seemed to have no answer either. A Pacific Crest
Trail expert advocated the “raw food diet” on his Web site but
abandoned his next distance hike due to weakness. An oftpublished writer fielded my e-mail inquiry about weight gain
this way: “That is one question I wish I could answer. I think
[thru-hiking] has wrecked my metabolism.”
Without a coherent nutrition strategy, the only solution for
reducing my weight seemed to lie in “upping” my exercise
level. So, I planned another long hike from Baxter State Park
in Maine to Cap Gaspé in Quebec. As soon as my legs loosened
up, I trained for six miles daily with a pack and set out to hike.
I never even made it to the summit of Katahdin. Everything
backfired. I felt so lousy that I quit on the first day, then fell ill
for two weeks. Apparently, being overweight was not my only
problem.
I returned home in a curious state of shock, denial, and perplexity. A year earlier, I had attained the build of an elite athlete,
averaging 22 miles per day on mountain trails, completing the
A.T. thru-hike in 97 days. Now, I felt like an aging boxer, getting knocked out at the opening bell of the first round, not
knowing what had hit me.
I did not stumble. I fell. Hard. Was this the dirty little secret
of long-distance hiking, falling out of shape off the Trail?
Weight gain was not just an academic question for me. My
doctor had been recommending medication to lower my cholesterol for years but gave me a reprieve to work things out on
my own. In fact, hiking all day on the Appalachian Trail represented a way to raise my activity level in order to improve
cholesterol test results. Since my grandfather died of a heart
attack at the age of 47, heart disease has always been a personal concern. Those concerns heightened last summer when
two friends, whose kids had joined mine in play groups, died
of heart attacks within a month of each other.
My aborted hike turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
A month after quitting, I walked into a bookstore and bought
a stack of health books. Better informed, I resumed and
completed my hike into Canada. It took a year of searching,
21
“It took a year of searching,
but I finally rediscovered the gift of health
that I had experienced on the Appalachian Trail.
I found it in balanced nutrition.”

but I finally rediscovered the gift of health that I had experienced on the Appalachian Trail. I found it in balanced
nutrition.
The words you read here were mostly composed during my
southern road-walk (Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Key West,
Florida) this January. During that time, I averaged 28 miles per
day and walked 50 miles on the final day to cap off my hike of
the entire East Coast in three sections. My weight and physical
form subsequently have been fine. In fact, I ran a half-marathon
in my trail shoes on a dare.
Although I don’t have a medical background myself, I believe
the practical lesson I’ve learned is what my grandfather and
friends needed to hear long ago: You can improve your health,
as well as your weight, with balanced nutrition.
Hiking in the Zone
I
nterestingly, the first clue to getting back my health came
from The Complete Walker IV, by Colin Fletcher. Fletcher
is well known to hikers. He wrote The Man Who Walked
Through Time, which documents the first continuous walk
through the Grand Canyon (carrying a massive backpack) and
which has inspired many of us. At first, I doubted his comments on nutrition, since I practice a much more “lightweight” hiking style.
Fletcher writes that, despite his high level of activity, he
developed heart disease that required bypass surgery. During
his recuperation, he discovered The Zone, published in 1995
by biochemist Barry Sears. This popular health book provides
a system for getting a balance of nutrients in your meals.
Fletcher lost about thirty pounds of excess weight on the
nutrition plan, found he needed less sleep, and still goes in for
the Zone “in a big way.”
I had managed to lose six or seven pounds by skipping one
meal daily for a couple weeks before reading about the Zone.
In the next two weeks, I lost the same amount of weight while
eating three square meals a day, plus snacks, eating all I wanted instead of starving myself. But, the best news came from a
cholesterol test at the end of those two weeks. Even though my
attempts at the new eating plan were haphazard, my first optimal results in 15 years came back. Reading the report with tears
in my eyes, I, too, climbed aboard “in a big way.”
Of all the health books I have read, the inexpensive paperback, A Week in the Zone, may be easiest to follow. It summarizes the other Zone books and shows how to balance “food
blocks.” For my friends who find it too complicated, I have
22
composed three guidelines, which I give them on a business
card:
∂
Eat some low-fat protein, such as white
meat, fish, or soy.
∑
Choose plenty of vegetables and fruit
for the carbohydrate portion. Highly
refined carbohydrates such as flour
and sugar should represent only ten
percent of total intake.
❸
Include some healthy fat, such as olive oil
or nuts.
In practical terms, a Zone-balanced snack could consist of
an ounce of meat accompanied by a cup of vegetables (or a
half-piece of fruit) and a few nuts. A meal could consist of a
handful of protein food accompanied by two cups of vegetables,
a piece of fruit, and a dozen nuts. For distance hiking, you
would increase the amount of nuts.
When you hike all day for more than two weeks, you probably seek out “quick energy” foods and anything to pack in
the calories. But, when you return to “inactive” life at home,
the quantity of your exercise decreases by ten times and so
should your consumption of those calorie-dense foods. Keep
that in mind when scanning the list below.
Starches, sugars, and animal fats must be cut back when
you exercise less. By starches, I mean potatoes, French fries,
chips, bread, pretzels, crackers, cookies, doughnuts, rice, and
pasta. By sugars, I mean soda, sports drinks, candy, chocolate,
ketchup, convenience snack foods, and many “sports bars.”
By animal fats, I mean fats found in meat trimmings, bacon,
sausage, hot dogs, fast-food hamburgers, whole milk, cheese,
butter, ice cream, and egg yolks.
You need not eliminate these foods, I’ve learned, but you
should minimize them. Do, however, eliminate any foods
made with hydrogenated oils, the wicked cousin of animal
fats. Hydrogenated oils find their way into some deep-fried
foods like fries, chips, doughnuts, many convenience foods,
cookies, and some breads. Pass up foods containing hydrogenated oils when you see them listed on the ingredients
label.
You can replace the dangerous foods with plenty of vegetables and fruits, along with modest quantities of nuts. In exchange, you will store valuable disease-fighting micronutrients
in your body.
JULY–AUGUST 2004
Okay, that’s my quick answer
to why hikers get fat and how they
can adjust the balance of foods to
maintain their hiking form off the
Trail. Here’s some of the logic and
theory behind it all.
Implications
of the
Glycemic Index
U
nderstanding carbohydrates in terms of the “Glycemic
Index” can help you get a handle on the problem. The
Glycemic Index, easily found on the Internet, was developed
in the early 1980s by Professors David Jenkins and Tom Wolever at the University of Toronto as a way of showing how
much a particular food will raise your blood-sugar level.
For example, a banana will raise your blood-sugar level
faster than an apple, and a soda will raise it even faster. But,
broccoli and cauliflower hardly raise your blood sugar at all.
Protein and fat don’t ordinarily raise your blood sugar, so you
will find mainly carbohydrates on the Glycemic Index.
Generally speaking, starches and sugars rate higher on the
index, while vegetables and fruits rate lower on the list. That
is because grains found in breads and pastas have been thoroughly milled, becoming quickly digestible in the process.
Sugar and corn syrup have had all of nature’s “external packaging” removed, leaving you with a dense concentrate. Meanwhile, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, and apples retain all of
their natural fiber, which slows the process of digestion and
provides a longer-lasting supply of sugar to the bloodstream.
You can see how this works by comparing the proverbial
apples and oranges. When you compare oranges to orange juice
and apples to apple juice, you discover that, in both cases, the
whole fruit is lower on the index; the juice is higher because
it contains little or no fiber.
High-index foods tend to raise blood sugar rapidly and burn
off quickly, while low-index foods raise blood sugar gradually
and burn off slowly. Teen-agers and young adults often have
better tolerance for quantities of high-index carbohydrates
found in sodas, candy, and snack bars, but those of us older
than forty often respond by gaining weight.
Many people induce high and low blood sugar in themselves
by consuming too many foods ranking high on the index. When
they sense an oncoming blood-sugar crash
(hunger combined with a
dull feeling), they may turn to
caffeine, tobacco, or other stimulants to jump-start themselves.
Or, they may turn to even higherindex foods, causing elevated blood
sugar and elevated insulin levels all
day.
The index has been useful in
helping diabetics gauge the glucose
load of meals, adjust their insulin
injections, and maintain steady bloodsugar levels. Athletes and ordinary people
find it useful in choosing foods providing
a balance of durable versus quick energy.
Putting your diet
to the test
T
ry purchasing a portable glucometer and finger-prick kit
at your local pharmacy (which may run $25 to $40, including the test strips). Those kits, usually sold to diabetics,
demonstrate how dramatically blood sugar can fluctuate.
Eat a couple pieces of toast with jelly, drink a glass of orange
juice, and test your blood sugar 45 to 60 minutes later. You
may be surprised at the spike in your blood-sugar levels. If
your blood sugar starts at 85 mg/dl and rises above 140 mg/dl,
then it has begun to yo-yo. Next, perform the same test after
eating a lower-glucose food, such as an apple and an orange.
Running this kind of information by a physician might get
you diagnosed as “hypoglycemic” or “prediabetic.” But, I
23
“In my experience, the calorie-deprived hiker
becomes more carbohydrate-sensitive and insulin-sensitive
over months of continuous exercise.”
prefer to think of the distance hiker’s
metabolism as a gift with a catch. To
maintain your form, you must eat almost exclusively healthy foods. If you learn what
these are, you’ll be around for a long time.
By performing blood-sugar tests, I have found my
metabolism to be “carb-sensitive.” High-index
carbs raise my blood sugar quickly. It’s the reverse
of my youth, when I could eat anything. But, my
metabolism gradually changed in middle age, and
I think the thru-hike pushed me all the way over
to carb sensitivity.
The standard cholesterol test provides clues to
how well your metabolism has been “burning” its
fuel. The following breakdown of the cholesterol test
points out the relationship between your food, your
over-all score, and the individual components: TC, TG,
HDL, and LDL.
Your total cholesterol count (TC) can score 200 or
below when you choose the right foods for your body.
(The 200 score is the level that most doctors use to judge
whether your cholesterol is “high” and above which
they may prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs.) If your
total cholesterol hovers around 250 or more, one option
is to go back to exercising twelve hours per day. The
other option is to adjust your “fuel mixture.”
Triglycerides (TG) basically reflect blood-sugar levels, which lead to the formation of blood fats. Think
of cattle being penned and fattened for market; they
are fed lots of carbs in the form of grain. People leading sedentary lives and consuming pastries will
likely produce high TG levels. A TG score of 30
is fantastic, 60 is good, and above 100 reflects
elevated blood-sugar levels. Consuming
plenty of fibrous vegetables helps reduce
TG.
High-density lipoproteins (HDL) reflect
the amount of cholesterol that your blood
carries away from tissues, like traffic
leaving a city. Exercising for an hour each
day, even simply walking, helps keep
HDL at healthy levels. Physical activity increases circulation, causing your
blood to do more of its normal work.
You want to keep this score high,
preferably above 50 or 60.
Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) usu24
ally get named the bad guys, but
actually only excessive levels present a danger. These lipoproteins
carry necessary quantities of cholesterol
to the tissues, like traffic entering a city. However,
too much LDL is associated with waxy deposits in
the arteries. Most authorities say you should aim
for LDL of 130 or less. Animal fats raise LDL; broccoli, lentils, and oatmeal lower it.
Kenneth Cooper’s 1988 book, Controlling Cholesterol, supplies the following useful formula: LDL
= TC – HDL – (TG/5)
For nonscientists, that translates as follows:
“Your total cholesterol equals one-fifth of your
triglycerides plus your high-density lipoproteins plus
your low-density lipoproteins.” Plug your scores into
the formula, reference the summaries above, and modify
your diet accordingly. That formula reveals that you must
work aggressively at reducing TG to double digits and
lowering LDL.
A second useful formula gauges your insulin status
from two components of the cholesterol test, according
to various Zone books by Barry Sears:
That translates as follows: “The product of your triglyceride number divided by your high-densisty lipoprotein number should be 2 or lower.” Less than 2 indicates
desirably low insulin production, the lower the better.
Greater than 2 suggests risk of inflammatory conditions
in the long run, such as arthritis, diabetes, or heart ailments.
Theory of the
insulin-sensitive
hiker
I
n my experience, the calorie-deprived
hiker becomes more carbohydratesensitive and insulin-sensitive over
months of continuous exercise. The
hiker’s metabolism reverts to ancestral
traits. Carb sensitivity emerges during
a thru-hike because the body can only
store limited amounts of sugar, to be
used for sprinting or a “hard push.” In
JULY–AUGUST 2004
quickly depleting those reserves each day, and, in restoring
them with sugary snacks, the body develops a hair-trigger
response to the stimulus of food.
Here’s where the off-Trail trouble begins. The same snacking habits that work on the Trail cause constantly elevated
blood-sugar levels off the Trail, inducing the body to produce
excess amounts of insulin. Most people respond to overproduction of insulin by growing fat. They, and some who remain
thin, face additional risks: Bombing the body with too much
insulin usually causes the body to become less responsive over
time.
Gerald Reaven calls this subject “insulin resistance” and
describes its signs in a book, Syndrome X, The Silent Killer.
His prescription for completely preventing or overcoming this
problem includes exercise and eating healthy fats.
While “insulin resistance” involves the overproduction of
insulin, “insulin sensitivity” occupies a healthier place at the
opposite end of the spectrum. How does the thru-hiker typically arrive there? By lots of exercise during the thru-hike.
S. Boyd Eaton writes, in The Paleolithic Prescription,
“Physical-endurance training increases the sensitivity of the
body’s cells to insulin. Studies show that the physically fit
secrete less insulin after being given test doses of carbohydrates than do the physically unfit.” Most experts discussing
the effect of exercise on the metabolism refer to one or two
hours of exercise per day, and even the elite athletes recommend days off. Bill Pearl’s Getting Stronger, The Lance Armstrong Performance Program, and Dave Scott’s Triathalon
Training both recommend rest as a vital component of physical conditioning.
Nobody—but nobody—has described what each year’s
class of A.T. thru-hikers do to their metabolisms 10 to 12
hours per day, often 7 days per week, for months on end.
An excerpt from Barry Sears’ Age-Free Zone offers some
insight into the cumulative effect of all this exercise: “Actively exercising muscles take up nearly 30 times more
glucose than they do when they are at rest. This uptake of
blood glucose is a noninsulin-driven event, and, to this day
[1999], it is not well-understood exactly how this process
takes place.”
I submit that, under thru-hiking conditions, muscle action converts a great deal of blood sugar into energy, so that
the body’s insulin requirements stay low and remain low
for a remarkably long time. A before-and-after study would
probably show that thru-hikers’ insulin levels drop to half
of initial levels or even less. The most significant measurements ought to come from those at the end of their thruAPPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS
hike, particularly those who have taken the fewest zero
(no-hiking) days.
Most of us have been raised in an environment that builds
tolerance for high sugar and flour content in food. However,
insulin sensitivity developed by thru-hiking removes that
tolerance, making the hiker’s biochemistry behave like that
of a paleolithic nomad. So, the thru-hiker experiences the same
difficulty with the “modern” diet that primitives and retired
athletes do. To accommodate this new-found insulin sensitivity, off-trail distance hikers may find inspiration in huntergatherer diets or in any plan that uses the modern food supply
to produce similar benefits. (See Ronald F. Schmid’s Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine for background on whole
and refined foods.)
At a health level, choosing vegetables and fruits for carbohydrates comes down to much more than skipping “empty calories” to control weight. According to Kilmer McCully in The Heart Revolution, consuming fresh, whole foods
prevents long-term vitamin-B deficiencies at the root of arteriosclerosis.
M
Down the trail
edical authorities have conflicting views about what
foods are healthy. As S. Boyd Eaton observes in The
Paleolithic Prescription: “It is often difficult to feel confident
about which health advice to follow. . . . The debate that results
is often acrimonious. . . . This may confuse us, but it pales
beside the confusion wrought when respected authorities
within mainstream medicine disagree among themselves.”
I say, let the experts measure the amount of refined foods
consumed in their nutritional studies. The dietary “rules”
might be much different for us if we consumed only fresh,
whole foods. But, since refined foods have come to stay, we
must balance their nutrition as best we can.
Meanwhile, newspapers and magazines routinely run sobering stories about the extent of weight problems experienced
by the general population, and, coincidently, similar numbers
for chronic diseases: 65 percent of the U.S. population. The
burden of those problems falls on each of us in the form of
oppressive medical costs or health-insurance premiums. Balanced nutrition might reverse these costs—without turning
everybody into a full-time thru-hiker.
Charlie (Linguini) Duane completed the A.T. in 2002.
25
REFLECTIONS
Nature’s Classroom
Moses on Mount Sinai, Jesus wandering forty days in the desert, the Buddha meditating for years under a bodhi tree, Mohammed in the hills outside Mecca receiving the Koran from
the Angel Gabriel—the world’s religions testify to the fact that
something about going out into the wilderness opens people
up to the big lessons. Along the Appalachian Trail, the wilderness isn’t as big, and the lessons are usually not announced
with a trumpet or a burning bush, but they’re worth learning
nevertheless, as these three writers can attest.
Learning to teach
Dan Styer
A
t 4,080 feet, Camel’s Hump is the third-highest peak in
Vermont. It just barely peeps above timberline, with a
mere 15 acres of precious alpine area surrounding its summit. More importantly, it is Vermont’s highest mountain
without a ski area. For that reason, it’s my favorite Vermont
mountain.
About twenty years ago, I took a backpacking trip that
began at the Appalachian Trail at Sherburne Pass and then
followed the Long Trail for seventy-two miles before ending
at Camel’s Hump. I did this for the usual reasons—adventure,
scenery, exercise, solitude, and reflection—but also because,
at the time, I was in love with ferns.
Ferns! Near my home in Ithaca, New York, I had already
seen big ferns like the stately ostrich fern and the interrupted
fern. And middle-sized ferns like the spinulose woodfern and
the graceful lady fern. But, I was most entranced by the small,
rock-loving ferns, like the delicate maidenhair spleenwort and
the exotic walking fern. I wanted to find more of these, and I
pored over my fern guidebook, studying the attractive pictures
of such diminutive ferns as mountain spleenwort, wall rue,
and rusty woodsia.
I went to Vermont searching for, among other things, ferns.
On the slopes of Mount Horrid, I found a fern new to me:
Braun’s holly fern. It was stunning, but it wasn’t one of the
small, delicate ferns that I most wanted. After six days, I
reached Camel’s Hump, delighted in the wind and in the summit view, and recounted my adventures to the ranger-naturalist stationed there. I told him of the many delights of my hike,
but also of my disappointment at not finding any new small
ferns.
Upon hearing this, he told me that rusty woosdia grew
nearby—within the alpine area of Camel’s Hump. I begged
26
him to show it to me, so he led me over boulders and through
crevices to a rock wall cleft by a crack. He pointed to a tiny
fern growing out of the crack, saying, “You know this one.”
Sure enough I did; it was my friend, maidenhair spleenwort.
But, when I looked at the spleenwort, my eye naturally wandered back and forth along the crack. Within moments, I saw
another fern growing four feet away. From my reading, I instantly recognized the fern I’d been seeking for seventy-two
miles: rusty woodsia.
To this very day, I am grateful to that summit ranger for
not doing what I had asked. I had asked him to show me the
woodsia, but he hadn’t. Instead, he allowed me to discover it
for myself.
I walked down from the summit of Camel’s Hump, took
the bus back to Ithaca, earned my Ph.D., and eventually became a professor of physics at Oberlin College. As a professional teacher, I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve
my teaching, and I’ve learned about teaching from my colleagues, from books and articles, and from workshops and
conferences. But, the most valuable lesson about teaching I
Send us your reflections
Reflections is where we ask you to consider the Trail and
tell stories about subjects close to it and you. The list below
notes upcoming topics and the deadlines for submissions.
We look for sincerity, thoughtfulness, humor, sensitivity
to the privacy of others, and factual accuracy. Because of
space limitations, we cannot print everything we receive.
We may edit your article—perhaps heavily—to fit our
format. Submissions must be typed and double-spaced or
submitted via electronic mail (editor@appalachiantrail.org)
to be considered. If you would like your submission back,
please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We must
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we cannot answer questions regarding the status of submissions or provide criticism.
We invite you to write on the following topics. Submission deadlines are:
Issue
November 2004
January 2005
March 2005
May 2005
July 2005
Topic
Bites and stings
Odd company
Learning to see
Wildflowers
Strong women
Deadline
Sept. 1, 2004
Oct. 1, 2004
Dec. 15, 2004
March 1, 2005
May 1, 2005
JULY–AUGUST 2004
Reflections
ever learned was the one I learned on the windswept summit
of Camel’s Hump.
Should I conclude with a precise statement of exactly what
I learned that day on Camel’s Hump, and of how I applied that
lesson to my own teaching? No. Better for you to discover the
conclusion for yourself.
Dan Styer has hiked nearly half of the Appalachian Trail and
is the author of The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics. He
lives in Oberlin, Ohio.
In his footsteps
Julie Ramlo
I
t wasn’t until the third day of walking through the Blue Ridge
Mountains with a twenty-five-pound pack that it finally
occurred to me why my father had brought me here. It wasn’t
to view the hundred-year-old hardwood forests that stretched
as far as I could see; it wasn’t to inhale the perfume of the rhododendron groves that formed tunnels over the Trail; it wasn’t
to enjoy the music of the bubbling springs where we collected
our drinking water. He had brought me to the Appalachian Trail
to reinforce something he had been teaching all my life: values
of simplicity, perseverance, and faith.
We had prepared for months. At age 35, it was my first fullpack hike, but my dad had hiked more than three hundred miles
of the A.T. since he retired a year earlier. Over the next ten
years, he plans to hike the entire Trail. As we planned this trip,
a thirty-four-mile stretch, Dad kept reminding me to pack only
the bare essentials. Every item was considered carefully and
weighed to determine how many ounces it would add to our
packs.
When we finally hit the trail in Hot Springs, North Carolina,
my pack weighed twenty-five pounds and contained everything
I needed to survive for four days in the woods. After the first
half-mile of trail, which seemed to wind ever upward, I was
glad I had left behind items I had once classified as necessities—my cell phone, a mirror, and my pillow.
As children, we were taught the value of simplicity. We spent
family vacations camping, canoeing, and driving across country.
We lived in a simple home, and we enjoyed spending time there.
While we were involved in after-school activities, our parents
limited our lessons, clubs, and teams, so that we had time to
simply be a family. As I adjusted my backpack, I was reminded
once again how important it is to keep life simple, how too
many commitments weigh us down, how we miss the simple
pleasures of life when we let our schedules become too hectic
and complicated.
I joined my dad because I believed quiet time in the woods
would give me time to meditate and reflect on life, but what I
discovered was that I spent most of my mental energy telling
myself to keep walking. It was not, as I had envisioned, an easy
jaunt along a wood-chip-covered path. At times, the Trail
climbed over rocky stretches where I had to use both of my
hands to keep my balance. Other times, it sloped hopelessly
upward. Every time I’d get to what I thought was the top of a
hill, I’d discover another incline.
Giving up would have been easy. In fact, I spent the first
night in the tent planning my escape. We were due to cross a
highway in the morning, and I would hitchhike back to Hot
Springs and stay in a hotel while my dad finished the hike on
his own. But, I woke up, put on my boots, and continued, determined to finish what I’d started.
As a child, I’d watched my dad finish college while he held
a full-time job and raised four children. I watched as he and my
mother closely budgeted our limited income so that Mom could
stay at home, and I watched as they diligently invested so that
he could retire when he was 54. I was taught that I could do
anything I dreamed if I was willing to work hard and persevere.
Now, I recalled those lessons, and they inspired me to keep
walking.
At the start of our hike, when we were less than a quarter of
a mile out of Hot Springs, my dad pulled a tree branch, about
three feet long, out of the brush and handed it to me. It was
smooth and straight, and, over the next few days, I used it to
hold back the poison ivy, brush spider webs out of my way, and
lean on when my right knee gave out during a long downhill
on Day Two.
As a child, my parents gave me another “walking stick”—the
walking stick of faith. We went to church regularly and prayed
together at the dinner table. In times of trouble, we were taught
to call upon our faith for strength; in times of joy, we were
reminded to thank God for our blessings.
Several times during rest breaks on that first day of hiking,
I left my walking stick behind, leaning against a tree. I’d get a
few steps down the Trail and notice something was missing.
After a couple of days, however, I became so accustomed to
having my walking stick in my hand that it felt like a natural
part of me. Life is similar. It’s easy to forget our faith when the
path is smooth and level. But, the more we rely on our faith,
during both the peaks and valleys of life, the more it becomes
part of our natural response to living.
I will never forget my A.T. experience—the many types of
plants and animal life, the view from the top of the mountains,
the serenity of mile after mile without a building or car in sight.
But, the memory I treasure most is the sight of my dad, about
fifty yards ahead of me, leading the way over the Appalachian
Trail, in the same way he’s guided me down the path of life for
the last thirty-five years.
Julie Ramlo lives in Tremont, Illinois. This essay won first place
in the 2003 Trail Days Writing Contest sponsored by the Washington County Public Library in Damascus.
27
Reflections
Bear lessons
David Molineaux
I
t was a Sunday morning in May, and Trail Days had just
ended. Heavy rain and even heavier reveling had marked the
night before. I’d slept poorly and gotten soaked after somebody tripped the fly on my little Nomad tent.
I headed south out of Damascus with several days’ provisions
and a bad attitude and quit for the day after an easy ten miles
to Abingdon Gap. I wanted to dry my tent, clothes, and sleeping
bag. After hanging out the gear, I chatted with fellow southbounder “Penguin,” and with “Blaze,” who was section-hiking
northbound. Toward evening, “Theophilus” hiked in, fresh
from winning first place in the Trail Days Twinkie-eating contest. He reported that he’d just seen two bear cubs. We all realized Mama could not be far away.
After cooking my Lipton dinner, I went to hang my food, but
the limb I chose was steep, and the bear bag slipped back almost
to the trunk. The others warned me it was too close, an easy
reach for a bear. I guess I was feeling lazy; I didn’t give it a
second try.
That night, there was a spectacular electrical storm. When
it blew off, around midnight, I fell into a dreamless sleep. Suddenly, around 3 a.m., I was awakened by an alarming snarl,
answered immediately by a lower, breathier complaint. The
exchange was repeated once, then again: There had to be at
least two bears out there, disputing which would take possession of my precious food!
Instantly, I grabbed my light and zipped open the tent, yelling and screaming in hopes of somehow frightening the beasts
away.
Not a bear in sight. But, I’d heard … .
Suddenly, I saw it—directly in front of me, illuminated by
the flashlight beam: a tent. Inside, not a bear, but a sectionhiker, fast asleep, and snoring loudly!
David Molineaux (SoulTrek) thru-hiked the Trail in 2000.
continued from page 15
28
Knob. The crew lived on site
and was aided by members of
the Roanoke A.T. Club, led by
project manager Joe Kelly, a
former ridgerunner on this
section.
Construction of the shelter
was funded by Frank Haranzo,
followed the path to the scenic rocks. But, the heavily
used access trail was in desperate need of reconstruction, Martinez said. With the
cooperation of Blue Ridge
Parkway staff, volunteers
from the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club, the
U.S. Forest Service, NPS, and
ATC, the teen-aged crew
came to the rescue, building
rock staircases and rock
drainage structures.
This year, another SCA
crew will return to Humpback Rocks to continue that
work. Martinez called the
program “a huge success” and
said that ATC plans more
projects with ATPO and SCA,
utilizing the Public Land
Corps program, through
2007.
Appalachian Trail Maintaining Clubs
Maine A.T. Club
York Hiking Club
Appalachian Mountain
Club
Cumberland Valley A.T.
Club
Dartmouth Outing Club
Green Mountain Club
Mountain Club of
Maryland
AMC Berkshire Chapter
Potomac A.T. Club
AMC Connecticut
Chapter
Old Dominion A.T. Club
New York–New Jersey
Trail Conference
Natural Bridge A.T. Club
Wilmington Trail Club
Outdoor Club of Virginia
Tech
Batona Hiking Club
High schoolers dig . . .
The first crew arrived in
Roanoke, Virginia, in June
2003 and began work on the
construction of a new shelter
to replace the dilapidated
“Boy Scout Shelter” on Catawba Mountain just south of
the scenic cliffs of McAfee
who approached the club
about the possibility of donating funds to be used to construct one in memory of his
son, 2001 thru-hiker and former Catawba ridgerunner
John Haranzo, who died in
2002.
“Frank came out and
worked every day with the
kids and helped Joe finish the
actual project,” Martinez
said. The new shelter, dubbed
the Johns Spring Shelter, was
completed in October and
dedicated in March 2004.
The second crew arrived
in July 2003 to work on the
blue-blazed trail to Humpback Rocks, along the Blue
Ridge Parkway and Appalachian Trail south of Waynesboro, Virginia. Until a relocation moved the white-blazed
route in the 1980s, the A.T.
Tidewater A.T. Club
Roanoke A.T. Club
AMC Delaware Valley
Chapter
Piedmont A.T. Hikers
Philadelphia Trail Club
Tennessee Eastman Hiking
Club
Blue Mountain Eagle
Climbing Club
Mount Rogers A.T. Club
Carolina Mountain Club
Allentown Hiking Club
Smoky Mountains Hiking
Brandywine Valley Outing
Club
Club
Nantahala Hiking Club
Susquehanna A.T. Club
Georgia A.T. Club
JULY–AUGUST 2004
BOOKS
Where to hike?
By Robert Rubin
The Best of the Appalachian Trail: Day Hikes, by Victoria Logue,
Frank Logue, and Leonard M. Adkins. Second edition, 184
pages, maps, $15.95, ISBN 0-89732-527-3. The Best of the Appalachian Trail: Overnight Hikes, by Victoria Logue, Frank
Logue, and Leonard M. Adkins. Second edition, 184 pages,
maps, $15.95, ISBN 0-89732-528-1.
A
perennial question among A.T. hikers is…where? Unless you’re planning to do the whole Trail in a single
journey, which most hikers aren’t, the challenge is
often in figuring out where to start, where to finish,
and how much of the Trail to put in between.
If you find yourself in that situation, new editions of two
A.T. favorites may help.
For almost a decade, Victoria and Frank Logue’s The Best
of the Appalachian Trail: Day Hikes and The Best of the Appalachian Trail: Overnight Hikes have been among the favorite short-hike guidebooks for hikers wishing to complete excursions and short section-hikes of the Trail. Now, with the
assistance of multiple-time thru-hiker Leonard M. Adkins,
the two books have been updated and expanded in a second
edition.
The bulk of the new material in the books was contributed
by Adkins, whose Trail name, “Habitual Hiker,” testifies to
his long-standing love of the A.T. Working with volunteers
from Trail clubs between Georgia and Maine, the authors
present a smorgasbord of 64 overnight hikes and 143 dayhikes.
Each hike is accompanied by directions for finding the
Trailhead, mileage data, estimated difficulty, length of time
required for completion, and features (such as birdwatching,
scenic views, waterfalls, and historic structures) along the
way.
The routes listed in Day Hikes vary from short and easy,
such as the two-mile hike over the Pochuck Quagmire in New
Jersey, to long and hard, such as an eight-hour, 10.3-mile
round-trip to the West Peak of the Bigelows in Maine. Many
are “up-and-back” hikes, where the hiker follows the A.T. to
a destination, then retraces his or her steps to the Trailhead.
A few loop hikes are mixed in or are noted as possible alternatives to the hike description.
The routes listed in Overnight Hikes tend to be more challenging and range from 15 to 27 miles in length. Some are
loops or round-trip hikes, and others are traverses that will
require multiple cars or a shuttle. Each hike includes tips on
where to camp and find water along the route.
There are a few drawbacks to the books, which are published
by Menasha Ridge Press in cooperation with the Appalachian
Trail Conference. The new editions feature elaborate decorative typesetting at chapter openers that makes those parts hard
to read and is out of keeping with the utilitarian descriptions
of the hikes. One could also wish for more cultural, historical,
and natural information to accompany the route descriptions.
The land that the A.T. crosses has a lot of stories to tell, and,
as you read these books, you might find yourself wishing that
the authors had taken on the role of tour guide as well as direction-provider.
Some hikers may also chafe at the numerous traverses or
up-and-back round trips included. Loop hikes, employing side
trails and road-walks, are rarely included. Hikers not wanting
to shuttle, or to retrace their steps, may wish to talk to local
outfitters for ideas about alternative routes.
The hike descriptions are straightforward and clear, and
the books are filled with practical suggestions to make your
excursion more enjoyable. But, the best thing about them is
the way in which they highlight the variety of the A.T., as it
rolls from Springer to Katahdin, and back again. That alone
makes these new editions worth adding to your hiking library.
Robert Rubin is editor of Appalachian Trailway News.
29
PUBLIC NOTICES
Hiking Partners Wanted
Thru-hiker. Seeking partner for
April 2005 thru-hike. I am 57,
male, some backpacking experience. Write Jim Herring, 411Rutledge St., Camden, SC 29720.
Section-hiker. Looking for female
hiking buddy or group of mixed
hikers to do part of the A.T., one
week to one month, starting in
May 2005, but flexible with time
frame. Shae Kemerer, 3325 Edgewater Dr., Unit I, Gulf Breeze, FL
32563; phone, (850) 932-9831;
e-mail, <shaebo@aol.com>.
Section-hiker. Partner wanted for
N.Y., N.J., Conn., and Mass. sections. Flexible with times and
dates. Prefer single male, fit, fun
guy. Phone, (845) 321-6388;
e-mail, <sueymooy@aol.com>.
Section-hiker. 2,000-miler seeking
hiking partner to hike A.T. section
from Maine/N.H. border to Hanover, N.H., in September 2004.
Call Tom Fuller, (828) 421-2596.
Section-hiker. Woman, age 50,
seeks hiking companion of either
gender for backpacking trips in
N.Y. and on A.T. Ricki, (585) 7273398.
Lost and Found
Lost. Folding Buck knife, black
handle. It was a special gift. Contact Gene Bost, (704) 857-8476;
e-mail, <sbchaplain@lutheranhome.
net>.
For Sale
Boots. Danner, size 13D, leather
w/Gore-Tex liner, Vibram sole,
model 30800-228657, worn 1
season. Make offer & pay postage.
Phone Don, (717) 933-7011, email, <yb21701@juno.com>.
Boots. Limmers, about size 10 1/2
E, well-used but okay. Fitting is
tricky, so is guaranteed; $45 postpaid. Dick or Marge Dreselly, (207)
729-4001; e-mail, <dreselly@alum.
mit.edu>.
Ski Equipment. Wetskins onepiece wicking suit, size L, black
w/red stripe on sides; Sears bibbed
powder suit, size 36, blue, worn
30
Public notices
are published free for members of the Appalachian Trail Conference. We cannot vouch for any of the advertised items. Ads
must pertain to the A.T. or related hiking/conservation matters.
Send ads to PUBLIC NOTICES, Appalachian Trail Conference,
P.O. Box 807, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425. Deadline for the November/December 2004 issue is September 1, 2004. Public
notices may also be e-mailed to <editor@appalachiantrail.org>;
please include complete contact information.
only once; 1 pr. Kombi ski gloves,
size M, blue, insulated; 1 pr. Overmittens Cordura w/high elastic
cuffs; 1 pr. Cebe Goggles antifog;
1 pr. Skywalk ski boots, EMS, size
42, gray in color. Everything is in
excellent condition. All for $75
plus shipping. Arthur Yates, (931)
258-3295, or e-mail,
<anaryates@info-ed.com>.
Backpack. Mountainsmith internal-frame Pursuit 4000, two side
pockets, two water-bottle holders,
zippered internal compartment
divider, small top pack detachable
for fanny pack, top extendable
collar w/drawstring. Never used.
Paid $116, will sell for $115, plus
shipping, and include a Mountainsmith rain cover for this pack, as
well as a shorty Ridgerest pad.
Arthur Yates (931) 258-3295, or
e-mail, <anaryates@info-ed.com>.
Tent. New North Face Mountain
25 expedition tent with fly. Tags
still attached; never used. $150
plus shipping. Heather, (740) 9646306; e-mail, <gsbirder@netscape.
net>.
Gear. Backpack, Kelty Red Cloud
5400 (blue), $80; tent, North Face
Canyonlands, $90; sleeping bag,
Kelty Lightyear 3-D (30-degree),
$50; rainjacket, Marmot Oracle
(blue, large), $100; cookpots, MSR
blacklite (aluminum), $25. Never
used. Other items also for sale. All
prices include shipping. Alex,
(215) 755-3712, 4-8 p.m. EDT.
Daypack. Lowe Alpine Athena
ND40 day pack, 2,400-cubic-inch,
with hydration system, women’s
with adjustable back length,
never used, $60. Steve Stiger, (570)
326-4600; e-mail,shiloh165@
suscom.net>.
Gear. EMS Summit 5500 backpack, w/ pack cover, $100; EMS
Boreal 20 sleeping bag, w/ stuff
sack, $50; Mountain Hardwear 45�
sleeping bag, w/ stuff sack, $30;
Mountain Hardwear Waypoint
tent, $100; Sierra Clip CD Flashlight Tent, $70; Coleman feather
442 Peak 1 stove w/ carry sack,
$20; MSR Whisperlite w/ kerosene jet, wind screen, carry sack,
and 22-oz. fuel bottle, $35; 1-liter
Titanium cook pot and cup and
spork, $10; Therm-A-Rest fulllength, self-inflating sleeping pad,
$15; Ridgerest foam sleeping pad,
$10; Katadyn water filter (needs
new filter cartridge), $10. All
items are in good condition. Make
an offer if you don’t like the price.
E-mail, <m_robbie@netzero.net>.
Gear. Outdoor Research Gore-Tex
crocodile gaiters, men’s medium,
blue+black, new, $40; Sierra Designs Clip 3 tent, used 3 nights,
never wet, perfect 2-person tent,
$125; Kelty Tioga external-frame
pack, 4,500-cubic-inch, 14”–23”
size, new, blue and black, $75.
Will pay shipping. Call Len, (812)
482-9583.
Wanted
Books. Interested in locating
books on section-hiking the A.T.
Also interested in contacting hikers who may have sectionhiked
the A.T. recently. Contact John
Clark, 4149 Rt. 19, Belmont, NY
14813; phone, (585) 593 2781; email, <funbird10824@yahoo.
com>.
Recipes. One-pot meal recipes,
and other trail-food suggestions,
for a sodium- and fat-conscious
hiker who likes to eat. I do dehydrate and vacuum-pack for some
of my needs. Dick Menke (“Recycled”), P. O. Box 9, Prior
Lake, MN 55372; (952) 447-2212;
e-mail, <rjmenke@aol.com>.
For Your Information
Reunion. Banquet (and roast) on
October 16, 2005, at the Ward
Wildfowl Museum in Salisbury,
Md., to celebrate “Professor Hardcore’s” completion of his sectionhike of the A.T., which began in
August 1975. With worsening
scoliosis (due to childhood polio),
Professor Hardcore (William
Horne of Salisbury University)
completed his hike in October
2004 just before entering Johns
Hopkins Hospital for successful
spinal surgery. He invites his hiking partners, Trail friends, and
former students to join him. Email, <wchorne@salisbury.edu>.
Notice. Occasionally, people are
tempted to add vulgar or insulting
entries to shelter registers and
then sign my Trail name underneath. This has happened several
times this year. I stopped signing
Trail registers about a dozen years
ago, so, if you see a “Wingfoot”
signature in a register nowadays,
it’s a fake. For the same reason,
the only place you will find me
participating in Internet discussions is on the Trailplace.com
Web site. Thanks for passing the
word on to others who may not be
aware. —Dan “Wingfoot” Bruce
Hiking Workshop. October 22-24,
2004. Designed for the beginner or
experienced backpacker who
dreams of a long-distance hike, be
it 100 miles or all 2,174 miles of
the Appalachian Trail. Covers
backpacking skills required for a
long-distance hike, purchasing
gear, planning maildrops, and
other practicalities. Led by Melody Blaney, cofounder of Wildside
Adventures for Women and a 1996
thru-hiker of the A.T. This 2night, 2-day workshop will be held
at primitive Blue Springs Gap
Cabin in Mt. Rogers National
Recreation Area in Virginia. Price:
$120. For details, see <www.wildsideadventures.com>; e-mail,
<info@wildsideadventures.com>;
phone, (540) 384-7023.
JULY–AUGUST 2004
MINISTRY OF FUNNY WALKS
M
Bob Hillyer
y daughter, Ashley (better known on the Trail as “Blue
Skies”), started southbound from Katahdin in June
2000. She had done an admirable job of getting ready
for the trip. I, on the other hand, was blissfully unprepared and living vicariously through her. My wife
was less enthusiastic. “How are we going to get in touch with
her if something happens to her?” she wanted to know. “Or,
what if Grandma dies?”
My answer, a cell phone! Blue Skies wanted to know how
much it and the recharger weighed, so, for about the cost of
two mortgage payments on the house,
I bought the smallest and lightest cell
phone available.
She shipped the
phone home at
Monson. At that point, Mom said, we have to have a plan if
something happens. Our resulting “plan” addressed two types
of emergencies: a hiker’s emergency and a home emergency.
Hiker’s emergencies are easiest. The hiker calls you, saying,
“My pack strap broke, could you send another?” Or, “I fell
yesterday and had to get nine stitches.” (One suggestion for
hikers: If the news involves an injury, call two days after you
have resolved it, and downplay the severity—instead of eighteen
stitches, say you got three.)
The second type of emergency occurs when you have to get
in touch with the hiker. This starts with your knowing approximately where the hiker is. Whenever they call, write down
where they are, how far they will be going in the next few days,
and get the Trail names of the others hiking with them. If
other hikers have e-mail addresses, get those. Make sure you
have all of the following:
Internet access.
Bob Hillyer lives in North Carolina.
Call waiting.
■
A list of the hiker’s gear and where to get replacements.
■
■
A friend’s wife called us and said she had not heard from her
hiker husband in ten days, when he always called twice a week.
She was frantic. We called the motels and hostels one week up
the Trail and talked to several southbounders. Turns out that
Prescription medication for the hiker. (Get extra-heavy-duty
Valium for yourself.)
An answering machine. (Unlike Mom, who never left the
phone for six months, I preferred to get out and do some
hiking of my own.)
■
■
A good manicure kit (use after biting your nails).
“Crow” had called home, but his wife had Caller ID, which
showed his calling card number. Unfortunately, he had bought
a new calling card, and she did not recognize the new ID number, and so did not answer. For three weeks thereafter, he was
bombarded by hikers telling him to call home immediately.
If you must get in touch with a hiker, go on the Internet to
find the names of towns on the Trail. Call the chambers of
commerce, and get the names of the motels or hostels used by
hikers, and request that they post a sign for your hiker to call
home. If there are hikers at the motel, see if you can talk to
them. If your hiker is southbound, a northbounder may have
seen him, might relay a message, and can also post a note in
the shelter registers. Also, go to the Web sites for e-mail addresses of other hikers. You may be able to post a e-note or send
an e-mail that will be read by companion hikers and passed on.
If you know the hiker will stop by the post office, send a nextday-air letter to that post office in care of the postmaster. Park
rangers are very busy, but most will take a message and ask
those hiking through if they have seen your hiker. Also, call
the Trail clubs. See if there will be maintainers in the area who
can give a message.
Fathers of daughters hiking the Trail should beware of a third
type of emergency, which may call for quick action.
When “Blue Skies” got to Virginia, we kept hearing about
two hikers with her. Their trail names were Tenbrooks and
Molly. Then, we found out that Molly was a dog. Worse, Tenbrooks was a boy. Dick, my hiking buddy, and I jumped into
the car and set some speed-trial records on Interstate 81 to reach
the Thunder Hill Shelter in Virginia. There, we met (and grilled)
my future son-in-law. But, that’s another story.
So, hikers, remember four things: First, update your support
staff constantly when you are on the Trail. Second, if it is a
“hiker’s emergency,” take care of it first, and then call home.
Third, remember that others may be living vicariously through
your trip and are as excited as you are.
And fourth, if you are a daughter, don’t tell Dad, “I just met
a great guy.” Say something like, “Dad, I found you a great
hiking partner!”
Advice for
nervous fathers
■
■
Lots of cash or credit in case you have to make a quick
trip.
31
Halfway—Scott Rogers, 34,
who goes by the Trail name of
“One Leg,” stops by Harpers
Ferry July 8, before flip-flopping
north to continue his attempt
at an A.T. thru-hike. Rogers,
who lost his leg in a shotgun
accident, is trying to complete
the Trail using a microprocessorcontrolled prosthetic leg. It is
powered by a solar battery.
(ATC photo.)
Appalachian Trail
Conference
P.O. Box 807
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0807
®
Address Service Requested
Nonprofit Organization
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
Appalachian Trail
Conference

ATN_July-August_2004 - Appalachian Trail Conservancy

Transcription

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