The Dedication of A.T. Volunteers

Imagine it’s your day off. You’re exhausted from a hard work week. Nothing would feel better than a few more hours of sleep, wrapped warmly in the bedsheets.

Your alarm goes off: 6 a.m.

You look outside. The skies are still gray from last night’s heavy rain. The mud will be thick.

You get up, get ready, guzzle some coffee, scribble a note describing where you’re headed, grab your pack with a day of food and supplies — maybe an extra few Snickers bars, just in case — and head out the door to meet your team.

Today you are a volunteer on the Appalachian Trail (A.T.).

You spend the day working hard. You swing a mattock countless times, to better stabilize the footpath. You and five other volunteers push, groan, and sweat to move a boulder — half a ton, maybe — to a new spot to make a few more yards of Trail more resilient against erosion and the trampling feet of thousands of hikers each year. You hammer stones into gravel. You clean out water bars and haul a container of white paint for several miles, repainting any white blazes that have faded over time.

The sun is getting low, so you and your team pack up and head back to the trailhead. You head home, tired but somehow energized. You inhale dinner — didn’t realize you were that hungry — take a hot shower, crawl into bed.

Your mind goes back over the day. That small section of the A.T. will last a little while longer now. I gave new life to that small piece of the Trail, you think, and drop into a deep sleep.

A few weeks pass. You do it again.

And you keep doing it again for 30 years.

Go to any of the 31 A.T. Maintaining Clubs or one of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) Trail Maintaining Crews, and you will meet individuals who have come back month after month, year after year to help maintain a world-renowned footpath. Few will tell you it is easy work. From huge projects like Trail relocations and reinforcing erosion-prone areas; to renovating shelters, privies, bridges and other infrastructure; to simply ensuring the treadway is in good shape for another year of hiking, hundreds of thousands of hours of volunteer time is dedicated to maintaining and protecting the A.T.

Yet every year, while fresh faces show up ready to do their part to protect and maintain the Trail, there is always a crowd of familiar faces ready to — once again — haul heavy maintaining gear into the A.T. backwoods.

Some of you might be thinking: if it requires so much effort and dedication, why do so many continue year after year?

For our 2017 myATstory short film A Lasting Legacy, we profiled Maine Appalachian Trail Club volunteer Dave Field, who has spent over 50 years maintaining the New England backcountry. Between repainting white blazes and surveying the Trail for necessary maintenance, he found time to talk about why he continues to volunteer today:

“The Appalachian Trail was what I had decided to do to make a favorable difference during my life. My personal commitment over all of those years was a combination of feeling good contributing to this magnificent project we call the Appalachian Trail and being able to see a sense of accomplishment in cleared Trail… I designed a hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail in Maine and helped to build it. And probably more than anything else, that is the lasting legacy that I would have to claim.”

Marge Fish, a Green Mountain Club volunteer since 1975, also recognizes the benefits volunteering has had not only on the Trail, but also for her own well-being.

“I get so much from the Trail, it’s important that I give something back to it,” she said. “I refill my personal well by hiking these trails, especially for being out multiple nights at a time, and volunteering allows me to give back to something that I love and value.”