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 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.

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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