When? Friday-Saturday, November 2-3, 2007
What? Appalachian Trail Maintenance
Where? Symm's Gap.
Fellow trail maintainers spent a cold night in Symm's Gap, which arguably is the most spectacular site of the section of the Appalachian Trail maintained by the Outdoor Club at Virginia Tech. Gordon let me use his truck, which provided a great service in transporting students to the Gap. After sipping tea with Jerry, an utterly inspiring senior maintainer, I tried to get some sleep in my subpar sleeping bag. The temperature plummeted, and I got a terrible head cold that keep me hurting all night long. Some more tea in the morning kept me alive. Our mission was accomplished. The group did some desperately needed blowdown clearing and trail blazing. We also stabilized a few posts near the gap with rock. Finally, we improved the water source in the gap, which had been abused by ATV madness. It was great to be so close to nature. I need to get back to that remote place sometime soon.
This blog aims to inspire readers to love the place where they live. Such a simple prescription would go a long way to make this world a better place globally. The blog will relate experiences from a citizen of Blacksburg, a college town in southwest Virginia, and his efforts to give back to the community. Readers are encouraged to provide feedback. Information about the various organizations cited throughout the blog can be found in the links at the bottom of the page.
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