Newsletter of the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club Fall 2015 October, November, December. Volunteers of the Month - Doug and Stacey Levin

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1 THE BLAZE Newsletter of the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club Fall 2015 October, November, December Volunteers of the Month - Doug and Stacey Levin Doug and Stacey Levin s search for the ideal place to retire led them to Abingdon, Virginia, where they found plentiful opportunities for hiking, kayaking, cycling, gardening and volunteering. They attended a presentation at the local library on rare plant monitoring with the Mount Rogers A.T. Club (MRATC) and signed up as volunteers. They also began participating in regular Wednesday trail-work trips and soon adopted the A.T. section between Thomas Knob Shelter and Elk Garden. Doug has become chainsaw and crosscut-saw certified, and especially enjoys crosscut sawing in the wilderness areas. Stacey now serves on the club s board. A couple of years ago they began monitoring the A.T. corridor, and it has become their favorite volunteer job. They appreciate the different perspective that comes from being on the side of a mountain instead of on the Trail. It s like going on a treasure hunt, using a compass and map and navigating skills to find hidden monuments, says Stacey. According to ATC s Regional Resource Manager Josh Kloehn, Within two years, Doug and Stacey led the charge to monitor and maintain the club s entire section of corridor over five miles of boundary with close to a hundred monuments. Not only are they hard workers, but they are fun and a joy to work with. Their commitment to the Trail, boundless energy, high standards, and friendly demeanor make them a dynamic duo. They have also updated boundary records from the 1980s and 90s. In addition to the AT trail work, they are both involved in American Chestnut Foundation activities. [Photo: Stacey (left front) and Doug Levin (right front) leading a boundary project with ATC's Josh Kloehn and Emory & Henry College students] 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 After a wet and humid summer, it is nice to start experiencing cooler weather. Not many major events occurred this past summer but there were some significant changes in club operations. The board has voted to invest its $11,000 (currently in CD s) in hopefully more income generating funds. Thanks to Doug Levin, George Kilgore, Bill Prueshner, and Bill Hurlebaus, we have a developed a plan to invest the CD s in a wise and safe manner. They will go into one or two Vanguard no-load funds as Investor class shares that will have a nominal annual expense of about.2%. There will be no purchase or sale fees. The yield on these funds normally follow the S&P Index which has historically returned 6-8%. Our current CD return is less than.5%. Another significant change is that the board voted to start having work days on the second Saturday of each month starting in October. On those weeks fun hikes can be on Wednesdays. I think this is a very positive step towards getting younger people into our club. It may take awhile to attract younger people, but not having weekend work sessions will surely keep the young people away. We made valiant efforts to recruit people once a month at Wolfhills Brewery but so far that has not produced noticeable results. Four of us, Doug and Stacey Levin, Sharon Trumbley and myself participated in a listening session with the ATC in June. There were some interesting questions and discussion but I did not walk away with the feeling that there was too much valuable exchange. I thought Doug had the best suggestion that ATC have training sessions with our club workers so that we all had a common understanding of trail maintaining standards. When we were asked about diversity, Stacey added a little humor by stating that our club s definition of diversity was someone under 70. Another issue has been our liability if minors participate in our work or fun hikes. Anne Maio attended a two day workshop regarding this at Emory & Henry. It is an extremely difficult issue to address because we do not have insurance and an accident could result in very serious problems for us. To this end the ATC is trying to develop a liability program (I think insurance) so that all clubs are covered. Currently I think that we should not accept a minor in our activities unless it is an outside organization s sponsored event or that a parent or legal guardian accompanies the minor. Some of the trail issues mentioned in my summer report are further along including trail inventory and group campsites. Those will be addressed in the trail report. A final note our fellow member, Donna Barkley, had completed 800 miles of hiking near the end of August. Harper s Ferry is her destination this year. Congratulations Donna! Emory & Henry Service Project Emory & Henry College has a "Service Plunge" at the beginning of each school year to introduce freshmen and transfer students to the idea of getting involved in the community through service projects with various community organizations. The group MRATC hosted August 25th was not large, but the students demonstrated great attitudes, enthusiasm and hard work and they got a lot done. The project was digging to widen the AT spur trail in Taylor's Valley. Shopping on Amazon Remember that if you order gifts and other merchandise online from Amazon.com, you can order using Amazon Smile and a penny of every dollar will come back to the club! Please use the following link:

3 TRAIL REPORT As we await the impact of the movie A Walk in the Woods, we have survived another hiking season with only minor events. We received a notice from Donna Barkley as she was hiking into Damascus that there were very significant blowdowns a couple of miles south of Damascus. The notice was on a Friday and MRO knew it was there Monday. When our work crew got up there Wednesday, someone outside the club had expertly cut them out. We have no idea who did it. We also received notice that the Wise privies were full and one was unusable. Although they did need attention, they are still in action. Another time we got a report of a blowdown near Hurricane Shelter that we never found. However, most of the times we were able to work on our intended tasks. We got lucky with Konnarock this summer. There are normally two Konnarock crews working, often on separate projects. Having one crew work in our area is considered one week. To have two weeks scheduled is fortunate but we were able to have five weeks of work in our section because of others misfortunes. The first two weeks occurred in May and both crews worked north of the Scales to about two miles away. Then later in the summer norovirus hit Konnarock so they had to work locally and stay at base camp. By the end of the week I think both crews were close to full strength. They worked just south of the stile between Grayson Highlands and the national forest putting in steps (shown below). For those of you that have not been there recently, their work is impressive. Then the crew that was supposed to work somewhere in North Carolina had one of their vehicles slide off a mountain road so they had to return to our section again. They continued the work north of the Scales. The long awaited trail inventory program is now here. Several of us had a lengthy training session in late August. It was a full 8 hour work day but very informative. When any of our club members participate in taking inventory, do not anticipate covering 2 miles an hour. We did 4.5 miles in 5 or 6 hours. The specs were circulated in one of my broadcasts but I would not attempt to take inventory without the accompaniment of an ATC person or one of the trained club members. ATC has staff available to help thru January of Trained club members are G. Dickert, G. Kilgore, S. Trumbley, A. Maio, D. Levin, D. Troth, J. Davis, and myself. Much of this is judgmental mainly in the cribbing categories. Group campsite specifications were circulated in August. So far we have a committee of Anne Maio and Sharon Trumbley to identify potential sites. If anyone else wishes to help, please notify Anne. On the last day of August we were notified by Pete Irvine to put this on hold with no restart date given. That is because most of our section is in national forest and those folks need to do more homework.

4 ACTIVITY SCHEDULE FALL 2015 October November - December Contact our Trail Supervisor, George Kilgore (276) (gkilgore07@comcast.net), if: - you would like to be on the call list for when trail work is scheduled at the last minute to address a trail problem. - you can t come on scheduled work days, but would like to arrange to do some work on the trail on another day. - you happen to notice a maintenance need on the Trail that the Club should address. Weekly updates on club hikes and specific work projects and locations are posted on Facebook (Mt. Rogers Appalachian Trail Club (MRATC)) and also under Current Week s Information in the sidebar on our website: HIKERS, PLEASE CHECK IN WITH THE HIKE LEADER PRIOR TO THE HIKE FOR ANY CHANGES. Wear blaze orange during hunting season! October 3 Saturday. Fox Creek hike south on AT in and out to Pine Mtn. Trail intersection (7 miles total) led by Snow Ferreniea ( ). Meet at Lowe's 9:00 AM. Bring lunch, water, rain gear and orange outer clothing or hat. Check with leader in case of inclement weather forecast. 10 Saturday: Trail work. Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m. 14 Wednesday. Trail work: meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m. 21 Wednesday. Trail work: meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m. 24 Saturday. One way hike from Indian Grave Gap to the Nolichucky River (both near Erwin TN). Hike is 8.3 miles and predominantly downhill. We will spot cars. Meeting time 8:30AM at Heartwood (approx 1 hr drive). Bring lunch, water, raingear (always a good idea) and wear some blaze orange if possible. Leaders: Doug and Stacey Levin (staceydoug@centurylink.net ) 28 Wednesday. Trail work: meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m. November 4 Wednesday. Trail work: meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m. 14 Saturday. Trail work: meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m. 14 Saturday. Hike on the AT from Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area Visitor Center (near Partnership Shelter) to Settler s Museum in Groseclose. About 9 miles. Cars at both ends. Meet at Lowes in Abingdon at 9 a.m. Other meeting places can be arranged. Contact leader if coming. Leader: Sharon Trumbley trumbleys@hotmail.com. 18 Wednesday. Meeting with our Agency Partners at Sugar Grove Forest Service Work Center on Flatridge Rd. (Rte. 601). (Second driveway brings you closest to the Work Center classroom.) The Club s business meeting will start at 11 a.m. We will then break to eat our sack lunches at noon. Desserts to share are welcome. Beverages provided. The Partnership meeting will start at 12:30. (Note: This meeting would normally have taken place on the second Wednesday of November, but since that is Veterans Day, we are holding our meeting a week later.) 25 Wednesday. Trail work: meet at the caboose in Damascus at 9 a.m.

5 26 & 28 Thursday and Saturday. "Before and After" Thanksgiving Day hikes on the A.T. Thursday morning's hike will be from Straight Branch to Damascus, about 4.5 miles, finishing in time for mid-day dinner. Bring water, snack. Saturday's hike will be a little longer to work off that dinner: BearTree Gap to Straight Branch, passing Saunders Shelter. Cars at both ends. About 7 miles. Bring lunch, water. For both hikes: Meet at the caboose in Damascus at 8:30 a.m. Wear sturdy shoes and dress for the weather. Steady rain cancels. Call leader if questions. Leader: Anne Maio or trailsamkm@aol.com. December Trail work in December, January, and February will be scheduled as needed and when weather permits. 1 Deadline for Winter newsletter. 5 Saturday. Judith Foster leads an 'in and out' from Damascus to the state line. (7 miles) Meet at the caboose at 9 AM, and bring lunch, water, rain gear and orange outer wear. Inclement weather may cancel the hike; check with the leader jaf@centurylink.net Saturday. Hike on the Iron Mtn. Trail from Skull's Gap to Shaw Gap, then down Beartree Gap Trail to Fisherman's parking lot at Bear Tree. About 5-6 miles, cars at both ends. If a lot of snow, may consider Bear Tree to Rt 58 via Beartree Gap trail, then IMT, then Feathercamp trail. Meet at 9 a.m. at Lowes in Abingdon. Other meeting places can be arranged. Notify leader if coming. Leader: Sharon Trumbley trumbleys@hotmail.com. Jay Prevatt is our ATC VISTA this year. He learned online that June 20th was "Hike the AT in a Day," so he organized a hike south out of Damascus to the TN/VA state line, the southern terminus of our club's maintenance section, and we passed along the information to club members. Hikers in the photo are (left to right) Jay, Anna Sherrill, Anne Maio, and Linda Carder. Photo from a recent fun hike to Whitetop Mtn. The hike was led by Snow Ferreniea. Hikers shown are Anna Sherrill, Carol Broderson, Donna Barkley, and Snow. Photo by Anne Maio.

6 Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club P.O. Box 789 Damascus, VA THE BLAZE Fall 2015 October, November, December! MRATC, P.O. Box 789, Damascus, VA General questions: President: Terry Walker, Trail Supervisor: George Kilgore, Treasurer: Kathy Walker, Club Hikes and Walks: Judith Foster Youth Groups: Carol Broderson