Smokies Trails Forever Volunteer Week – October 2012
I’ve often thought about a volunteer vacation, spending aweek doing trail maintenance in some exotic location I’ve always wanted tovisit, returning some of the good that has been granted to me on trails bythose who went before me. But what isexpected of a trail volunteer? Was Istrong enough? Hardy enough? Willing to be cold, wet, and exhausted? For several years I scrolled through AmericanHiking Society’s volunteer vacations listings, daydreaming about Alaska andOregon. What do these ratings mean,moderate, difficult, strenuous, very strenuous? I didn’t want to just pick up trash or trim vegetation, but could I liftrocks or dig new trail?
Looking over the 2012 trip descriptions, a familiar phrasecaught my attention: Great SmokyMountains. Now this is something I knowa little about! I was familiar with theterrain, the weather conditions, and I could add a day or two at the end of theweek (if I wasn’t too exhausted) and hike a little bit in my favorite place onearth. I had heard of the Trails Foreverprogram that sponsored the work and knew the trail that the crew wasrehabbing. The work was described asmoderate so I could probably handle it. Solet’s go on a volunteer vacation.
Our crew gathered together for intro- ductions on a Sundayafternoon. We had a volunteer crewleader (Tina) and a GSMNP park ranger (Christine) to guide us through theweek. There were 10 of us in the crew,some from as far away as California, a couple of us from North Carolina, andothers from Tennessee, Maryland and Illinois. A great group of like-minded folks and we bonded very well as the weekprogressed. And I was so thrilled to bein the Smokies I couldn’t stop smiling. 
The GSMNP provides an established camping site for trailcrews, complete with a covered shelter with picnic tables, a refrigerator,propane stoves, and secure food storage. We even had access to a hot shower and a washer/dryer setup, veryunusual for most volunteer vacations. Every day we were transported between our camp and the work site.
Trails Forever is an endowment for a permanent work crew toperform major trail reconstruc- tion throughout the Park. Volunteer crews like ours supplement theirwork. 
The project for 2012 and 2013 isthe Chimney Tops Trail, a very popular and heavily eroded two-mile trail. During the work season the trail was closedto the public Mondays through Thursdays. 
Some of the incredible work done by the professionalcrew. These steps were built with rockpulled from the creek. Take time to lookat this website to see what wonders have been wrought thus far on the ChimneyTops Trail.Our daily routine consisted of getting up before daylight,taking turns cooking breakfast and cleaning up (Tina had purchased all the foodahead of time and supplied menus), packing personal lunches and snacks, ridingto the trailhead and hiking a little less than a mile up to the work site. After work we rode back to camp, took turnsat the showers and washing clothes, cooking supper and cleaning up.
Smokies weather played a big role in our work week. On Day 1 we were humbled by rain and had toquit after a few hours because we were eroding the trail with our ownfootsteps. On Day 2 we skipped trailwork altogether because of the wet conditions and Christine gave us a littletour of the main part of the Park, including hiking on Forney Ridge Trail, theTrails Forever crew’s project for the last couple of years, and a stop atNewfound Gap. Day 3 and 4 were workdays. Day 5 was a wrap-up and slide showof our adventures, and then we all went hiking.
Making lunches in the morning
Cleaning up after supper (side note: these two won this "vacation" in a contest - they had never heard of the Great Smoky Mountains. We are so glad they joined us!)
Someone doesn’t like mosquitos
Our commute to work was pretty beautiful
Here, have some tools
Digging trenches for water flow
Looks great so far but we're not done yet
Busting up rocks
If you break a mallet you get your picture taken
Frieda knows how to relax on a break
Nice cribbing constructed by the Trails Forever crew – now weget to fill it up with rocks
Good job – now cover them all with dirt from the trench we willdig alongside it
Looking good, girls
Standing on our completed section
Looks like it’s been this way a long time? Nope, only about 15 minutes
In the evenings we strolled over to see the elk hanging outin the fields by Occona- luftee Visitor Center. During the night we could hear this bad boy bugling at challengers.The week was hard work, but not awful, and incrediblyrewarding. I learned so much about how atrail is constructed and will always look at rock steps, trenching and cribbingdifferently. I am looking forward tomany volunteer vacations in the future.
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