About The Crew:
This program is designed for teens, ages 15-17. This new crew will be based in the Mahoosuc Range along the corridor boundaries of the Appalachian Trail. Beginning in 1978, the National Park Service (NPS) began acquiring land on both sides of the A.T. These individual tracts fit together to form a large jigsaw puzzle of ownership, providing a permanent, protective buffer, or Corridor, for the A.T. The Boundary is the edge of the corridor, where the NPS lands end and adjacent landowners’ properties begin. The corridor varies in width from a few hundred feet in some places to several thousand feet in others, but on average, it is approximately 1,000 feet wide. The A.T. and its surrounding corridor make up the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, an officially recognized unit of the National Park Service. This boundary has to be monitored and maintained in order to protect the corridor from encroachment.
This program provides an opportunity to learn about orienteering and land management, and participate in trail work that is actually off-trail. The week will begin on Sunday evening with dinner and an orientation at Camp Dodge. On Monday the crew will pack all food supplies, tools, camping equipment, and personal belongings into a backcountry campsite or Shelter with their crew leaders for the next four nights. Packs usually weigh 40 to 60 pounds. Be prepared for a lot of hiking on this crew, bushwhacking off-trail, seeking to find monument markers and reclaim this boundary.
Projects will include cutting brush to clear the corridor, finding corner monuments, repainting boundary blazes, and hanging signs. Please remember that the hike and the work will be strenuous and demanding, with significantly more hiking than our other week-long crews, and that we’ll be out rain or shine.
The crew will return on Friday to Camp Dodgein time to clean up and join the Friday night barbeque at 6 p.m. Participants may leave Friday evening or Saturday morning– Friday night stay and Saturday morning breakfast is included in program cost.
Camp Life:
The AT Corridor Monitor crew will stay at an AMC backcountry shelter or camp in the woods during the week. These crews are not all work; there are plenty of opportunities to swim, see the views, eat great food, and more. Each day will consist of heading out to hike and work along the corridor boundary, and at the end of the day, head back to camp.
Each morning the crew gets up and helps prepare breakfast. Our crews in the backcountry are contacted each morning by handheld radio to check in to see if any additional food or tools are needed. After breakfast the crew takes what they need for the day, including water, rain gear, lunch, tools and safety gear, and heads into the woods for the day. The hike each day from camp would be up to two miles a day, off-trail, through rugged terrain.
All participants assist with meal preparation in the backcountry. Participants will learn to cook quality meals in the woods, and there will be plenty of it. The crew builds quite an appetite over the course of this active week. After dinner and cleanup, the crew plays games, tells stories, and discusses conservation and environmental ethics — but most of all they just kick back and enjoy the evening.
What The Volunteers Say:
"Bonding. Hard work. Food. I love these trips. Everything was awesome." Yianni (2008 Volunteer Vacations Participant)
"The remarkable thing about the AMC Volunteer Trail Crew is that it is one of the few places that a group of total strangers can become like family within the short span of a week. Out here in the mountains is really where I want to be- under the rays of the sun-tinted green by the infinite greenery. Out here the air is fresh and the water is pure. And most of all I’ve more interesting and cool people out here in the woods than years in the suburbs or the city." Jake (2008 Volunteer Vacations Participant)
"It’s great and fulfilling and not for people who don’t like work." Kelley (2008 Volunteer Vacations Participant)
2009 Dates:
August 16-21
Contribution:
$175 (AMC member)
$195 (non-member)
Register Today!
View Full 2009 Schedule
Photos: Alex DeLucia and Everett Moore
