Newsletter of the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club Spring 2017 April, May, June. Sunset on White Top Mountain Photo by Bobby Boyd

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1 THE BLAZE Newsletter of the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club Spring 2017 April, May, June Sunset on White Top Mountain Photo by Bobby Boyd 44 NEW MEMBERS JOINED THE CLUB BETWEEN FEB AND FEB Brian Allgood & Chelsea Goulding, Michael & Marilyn Baker, Robert Baker, Ron & Edie Bobko, Bobby & Glenda Boyd, Ashley, Steven, Trajan & Addison Cannon, Todd Delk, Frank & Megan de Nobriga, Carla Dolce, Beth Fairbanks, Steve & Beverly Hagy, Melissa & David Harrison, Jim Heaney, Jerry Kyle & Rachel Moses, Chris McConnell, Matthew McEndarfer, Ed Pietrzak & Christa Himes, Melody & Randy Poe, Maria Salgado, George & Patty SanFilippo, Jared, Sarah, Will and Andy Sparks, Josh Stovall, Gloria Surber, Judy & Scott Wilson, Diane Wiley, Judith Wylie. Welcome to the Club. The MOUNT ROGERS APPALACHIAN TRAIL CLUB, a member of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy was organized February 29, The club has maintenance responsibilities for 59.4 miles of the APPALACHIAN TRAIL in the Jefferson National Forest, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Grayson Highlands State Park and additional trails in the area.

2 PRESIDENT S REPORT The club is looking forward to a busy spring season. Regular group trailwork hikes resume in March. We are continuing to work some Saturdays as well as some Wednesdays so that club members who have regular jobs during the week will have opportunities to come out and volunteer on the Trail. In January, when we set up our committees and coordinator responsibilities for the year, Doug Levin and Terry Walker took on the responsibilities of Trail Supervisors for club work projects. Terry has been our club President for two years, and with his new knee, he wants to spend more time on the trail and less on paperwork this year. The Trail Supervisors receive reports from those who have been assigned sub-sections of our club s Trail section and will plan group work projects to remediate poor drainage, trail sloughing, overgrowth, and other trail problems. Our membership numbers received a big boost this year, a lot of it due to a member recruitment and training campaign our regional ATC office designed for us. Now that the weather is moving into spring, we hope to see a lot of them on club hikes and work projects. There have been other changes in club responsibilities this year and they are listed in the enclosed list of 2017 club officers and coordinators. We could still use help on the new Outreach and Events Committee, since the club will participate in several festivals this year, and we need someone to serve as Newsletter Secretary to pick up and distribute our quarterly newsletters. To volunteer, please let me know. My contact information is on the enclosed list. I am serving as Interim President this year while we look for a new club President and Vice President. Our Ridgerunner this year, starting the week of April 24 th and ending around Sept. 13 th, will be Jonathan Lemberg. He has been our Ridgerunner for five years out of the last eight, so he knows our trail section well. He will be providing hikers with information and noting trail issues our club needs to address. He will take some time off to work with the Konnarock Crew and to take a break and Regina Reiter, who has been the Tye River Ridgerunner, will fill in. Hope you all get to see them on the trail! This year, we will once again host Hardcore, a two-day work project for AT hikers and Trail alumni. Hikers sign up at Trail Days, then we take about 25 current year hikers and 25 alumni out for a two-day work project. Last year, this was very successful. Last year s Hardcore group made enormous trail tread improvements on Stone Mtn. south of the Scales, which had become very eroded. This year s Hardcore group will work on improving trail tread on Whitetop Mtn. south of Buzzard Rock, supervised by the Konnarock Crew. They will camp at BearTree Recreation Area. Our club will prepare dinners and snacks for them and transport them to the work site each of the two days. That means we need help from a lot of club members! So if you can help serve dinner Sunday, May 21st or Monday, May 22 nd, or can help drive hikers to Whitetop those days, or drive them back to points on the AT on Tuesday, May 23 rd, that would be wonderful!! Let me know (Remember the list of contact information that comes with this newsletter.) and I will pass the word to the other club members who are helping coordinate Hardcore this year. We want to make this a pleasant time for these AT hikers who are volunteering. We appreciate them! -- Anne NEW AREA RANGER The new Area Ranger for the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area is Barry Garten. He replaces Beth Merz, who retired in June. Trail Maintenance This year the club is experimenting with a slightly new way of scheduling trail maintenance. To identify work needing group attention, all 15 section monitors have been asked to prepare a detailed list of work on their section by early March and submit it to the newly formed maintenance committee. Doug Levin and Terry Walker head this committee. To identify the task for a given workday, an outstanding item from this compiled list will be selected with the listing updated based upon the work completed. New items can be added anytime and those requiring more urgent attention can be prioritized as needed. We'll report in a future newsletter how this process is working. Doug Levin

3 ACTIVITY SCHEDULE, April-May-June, 2017 Updates on trail work locations and recreational hike plans are sent out by to club members a few days prior to those activities. If you don t get club , please contact listed hike leader to check on last minute plans or contact mratcinfo@gmail.com for information on trail work or to report trail work needs. Updates are also posted on Week s Information and on our Facebook page: Mt. Rogers Appalachian Trail Club. MRATC FRIDAY HIKERS - A moderately paced hiking group. Group consensus will determine the trail to hike each week. Call Judith at or Snow at to join a hike. April 1. Saturday. Hike on Iron Mtn Trail from Laurel Bloomery to Damascus, about 6 miles. Meet at Caboose in Damascus 9:00 AM. (This hike was cancelled due to snow in January. ). Will leave cars at both ends of hike. Let leader know if plan to come: Sharon Trumbley at or trumbleys@hotmail.com. 1-2 Saturday Sunday. Crosscut saw certification class at Sugar Grove for those who have signed up with Josh of the ATC. 8 Saturday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. 12 Wednesday. Wednesday. Meeting at Washington County Library in Abingdon at 7 p.m. All club members invited. Topics include: Earth Day, Naturalist Rally,Trail Days, Konnarock projects, Hardcore plans. 15 Saturday. 10 A.M. Early spring wildflowers on the New River Trail. Contact hike leader Carol Broderson to join this hike: (before 7 P.M.) or carol@ls.net. 19 Wednesday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. 21 Friday. Meet at Food Country on Rte. 19 at 9 AM for a wildflower hike at The Pinnacle led by Claiborne Woodall. Contact Judith Foster for information. jaf@centurylink.net or Saturday. Earth Day in Abingdon, Fields Penn House, 9 a.m. 1 p.m. Theme: Energy conservation and alternative energy sources. MRATC will have a booth Sunday Tuesday. All MRATC hikers are invited to join a wildflower exploration in the Hot Springs area on April 23, 24, and 25. The plan is to drive to Hot Springs and set up camp on April 23 (just after their Trail-Fest). Several of us plan to camp at the Hot Springs Resort and Spa Campground on the French Broad River, but this is a choose your own lodging outing, if you prefer indoors. On Monday, April 24 we will drive to Max Patch and hike 10 miles from there to Lemon Gap and back. For shorter options, just bring your own car and turn around when you like. On the 25th, we plan to do the easy 7-mile, in and out, hike along the Laurel River and then drive home. Bad weather may alter plans. carol@ls.net to join the planning. 26 Wednesday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. 29 Saturday. MRATC and the ATC will have a booth at Abingdon s celebration of the 30 th anniversary of the VA Creeper Trail plus other outdoor experiences and equipment Saturday Sunday. Chainsaw certification class at Sugar Grove for those who have signed up with Josh of the ATC.

4 May 3 Wednesday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. 6 Saturday. Hike the Whiterock Mountain trail in the Clinch Wildlife Management Area.. About 6 mile loop hike, shorter if hunter roads open. Great views at the top, Meet at Meadowview town square 9:00 am. Contact hike leader Jim Warden if you plan to come: jawarden@ehc.edu or Wednesday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. 11 Thursday. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m. for garlic mustard pulling with Conner McBane of the ATC. We will pull this invasive plant in Damascus, then carpool to Teas Rd. at the end of our club s trail section to pull some more! Friday eve., Saturday, Sunday. Naturalist Rally. Konnarock Community Center. See website: blueridgediscoverycenter.org/mrnr for complete list of activities. Club members will be leading naturalist walks. 17 Wednesday. Meet at the Heartwood Community Lot at 8:30AM. We will car pool to FS293 near the town of Roan Mtn and do a 8.5 to 9 mile total hike, finishing at Rt 19, with cars on either end. End points are about 10 minutes apart. This hike will cover two sections of the AT with a 1.5 mile connector (included in total distance) on a gravel/paved road. Bring lunch and water and dress appropriately. Hike leader Doug Levin. Please e- mail staceydoug@centurylink.net if you plan to join Friday & Saturday. Damascus AppalachianTrail Days. The club will have a booth and we will sign up hikers for Hardcore project. We will march in the parade at 2 p.m. Saturday. Come join us! Check Trail Days website ( for schedule of activities Friday Wednesday. The Konnarock Crew will be working on Whitetop Mtn., preparing the site for Hardcore, then finishing work afterward Sunday & Monday. Hardcore project Whitetop Mtn.. Club members needed to transport hikers to and from their work site Sunday and Monday and back to the A.T. on Tuesday morning, 5/23. Also need people to bake and to help serve food at Beartree Campground, where the hikers will camp. Contact Anne: trailsamkm@aol.com; Thursday. Trail work with Anja Whittington s Radford University students and the Forest Service. Location TBA. 27 Saturday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. June 3 Saturday. National Trails Day. Join a family hike 1 ½ miles to and from Buzzard Rock on Whitetop Mountain, the second highest mountain in Virginia. Meet at LOWES, Falcon Blvd., exit 19 off I-81, garden end of parking lot, at 9:30 AM. Bring lunch, water, rain gear and poles (walking sticks) if you have them. We will have mountain views of North Carolina and look into the valleys and mountains of Virginia. For more information contact Judith at or jaf@centurylink.net. 7 Wednesday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. 10 Saturday. National Get Outdoors Day. The public is welcome. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m. to hike the Straight Branch/Iron Mtn. Trail area. Distance and route depends on interest of participants. Bring lunch and water. Leader: Anne Maio , trailsamkm@aol.com.

5 14 Wednesday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m Friday Tuesday. Konnarock Crew will be working on our trail section, probably between Massie Gap and Thomas Knob. Club members may be needed to watch their campsite while they are working. 24 Saturday. Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. 27 Tuesday. Potluck for Konnarock Crew at Sugar Grove F.S. Work Center. Need club members to bring a side or dessert to share. The club will supply the main course. Setup: 5:30. Dinner at 6 p.m. Contact Anne trailsamkm@aol.com; for more information. 28 Wednesday. Hike in Grayson Highlands State Park: Park at Massie Gap. Hike the Cabin Creek Trail to see waterfall (a loop) and have snack, then over to Backpacker s parking lot and up spur trail to the AT. Follow to Wise Shelter for lunch, then hike back to Massie Gap and down to parking lot. About 7 miles. Let leader, Sharon Trumbley, know if you plan to attend (trumbleys@hotmail.com or ). Meet at 8:30 at exit 19 Lowes in Abingdon, or at Massie Gap at 9:30-9:40. Last year s hardcore crew made enormous trail tread improvements on Stone Mtn. south of the Scales, which had become very eroded. Fun hike participants at Comers Creek Falls - from left to right - Anne Maio, Marcia Pruner (guest hiker), Aubry Arrington, Diane Wiley

6 Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club P.O. Box 789 Damascus, VA THE BLAZE Spring 2017 April, May, June " MRATC, P.O. Box 789, Damascus, VA General questions: Interim President: Anne Maio, Trail Supervisors: Doug Levin & Terry Walker, Treasurer: Kathy Walker, Club Hikes and Walks: Judith Foster Youth Groups: Carol Broderson