A.T. Corridor Stewardship: "NO LIMITS....JUST BOUNDARIES"

NPS - ATC Boundary Program Task Agreement

2011-03-10T11:54:00.000-05:00

For any volunteer A.T. Corridor monitors interested is how the ATC is supposed to be regulated by ATPO on how they spend the approx. $100,000 they receive annually from the National Park Service, here's the link to the Federal "Task Agreement".

http://www.doxtop.com/browse/31376016/atc-nps-corridor-boundary-ecbs-task-agreement-09.aspx

The vast majority of that funding is supposed to be applied towards exterior corridor boundary maintenance in an effort to insure the National Park Service's $183+ million dollar investment to acquire a permanent protective corridor of lands to buffer the Appalachian National Scenic Trail between Maine and southwest Virginia.

Mahoosuc Boundary Adventures with 2010 AMC Teen Crew

2010-08-11T12:45:00.000-04:00

Excellent work and kudos to AMC for a second successful Teen Crew season on the AT Corridor boundaries. With the exception of some of the AT corridor boundaries through many parts of ME, it doesn't get much more physically challenging than in the Mahoosucs when it comes to this very important, but often overlooked aspect of AT land management and Trail protection. Well done!

http://trailsblog.outdoors.org/2010/08/leadership-crew-on-at-corridor.html

LIFE ON THE EDGE in VT

2010-02-05T20:52:00.000-05:00

Another great piece entitled "Beyond the Blazes". A great write up written by Ben Rose of the Green Mountain Club highlighting the often overlooked, but very important work of corridor monitors and boundary maintainers in VT to help preserve and protect the trail corridor of both the Long Trail and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. If you're looking for a unique off trail volunteer experience & to help bridge the gap between the trail community and the countless number of landowners that today share a common boundary with the LT and AT Corridors, contact Pete Antos Ketcham at pantosketcham@greenmountainclub.org or by phone at (802) 244-7037 Ext. 17.

http://www.vtsports.com/articles/beyond-blazes-behind-closed-doors-april-2009-issue

AMC-Delaware Valley Chapter

2010-02-05T20:37:00.000-05:00

Check out the recent AMC Trails Blog post highlighting the dedicated AT Boundary Ambassadors from the Delaware Valley Chapter in PA.

http://amctrails.blogspot.com/2010/02/delaware-valley-chapter-trail-work-2009.html

Walk on the Wild Side - Part II by Sally of the Mahoosucs (AMC Mahoosuc Rover)

2009-10-20T05:35:00.000-04:00

For a newest installment of EXTREME AT Boundaries - Mahoosuc Style, check out a great blog piece by Sally Manikan (AMCs Mahoosuc Rover) detailing AMC's amazing boundary reclamation efforts for 2009. The mileage is starting to add up now and piece together: 8 miles total by ATC/AMC cooperative efforts 2005-2007 + 5.75 miles by AMC (so far this year) = 13.75 miles. Only 14.25 miles left to go and the majority of the most demanding miles have alraedy been tackled. But the work is NEVER done. The challenge now is to find some local conservation minded volunteers interested in taking on a monitoring section to walk at least once/year and keep up on the maintenance before the successional spruce/fir regrowth swallows the boundary markings back up again. If you're willing and able, sign up now to become a Mahoosuc Corridor Steward. The LINE needs you!

http://amctrails.blogspot.com/2009/10/life-on-edge-reclaiming-5-miles-of-at.html

"Let me admit, right off the bat, that I love boundary work because every day starts and ends with a bushwhack. This summer, I’ve punched through pockets of spruce-fir, scaled 500 foot ledges, and walked cleanly through open hardwood forest. I have the scars on my hands, the holes in my shirts, and, embarrassingly, maybe still the spruce needles in my hair, to prove it."

AT Corridor Boundary Data Management Project

2009-09-26T03:05:00.004-04:00

Project Justification:

In partnership with the National Park Service (NPS), the primary goal of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Boundary Program is to serve as the guarantor to NPS and the federal tax payers to insure the long term protection of the $149 million investment in the 111,269 acres of NPS corridor lands acquired to provide a protective buffer for the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. An additional $9 million has been expended by NPS to contract professional land surveyors to monument, mark, and map over 1,373 miles of exterior corridor boundaries in 11 states from VA to ME.

Over the last 25+ years, the NPS Appalachian Trail Land Acquisition Field Office (ATLAFO) located in Martinsburg, WV contracted 22 separate land surveying firms to perform the exterior corridor boundary survey work required to delineate the federally owned A.T. Corridor lands. Well over 60% of this mapping is from the pre-AutoCAD era and therefore exist only as mylar originals which are stored at ATLAFO. At present, paper copies of the A.T. boundary survey maps are run off from the mylars and are used primarily by Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) Boundary field staff and trail club volunteers to do the necessary monitoring, maintenance, and encroachment mitigation work required to protect this vulnerable corridor. With the increase in adjacent landowners, the threat level of encroachment due to such a large length of boundary and the increasing age since these surveys were completed (over 50% being 15+ years old), the need to incorporate this survey information into the existing AT GIS system has become critical. By incorporating this more accurate survey data into the AT GIS system, NPS and ATC will be able to more accurately deal with encroachment situations, assess land development changes in the vicinity of the A.T. corridor, and share this information with cooperative land management partners and adjacent landowners. Utilizing a GIS-based platform will not only enable NPS and ATC to produce more user friendly boundary survey and land ownership maps, but also enhance the existing AT GIS database system to accommodate the complexity of effectively managing the corridor lands, the condition of the surveyed boundaries, and tracking of past, present, and future maintenance data.

At present, neither NPS nor ATC have a common database to effectively capture and organize the monitoring and maintenance work performed annually along the A.T. corridor boundaries. Incorporating the boundary line and monument locations into a geodatabase along with their existing conditions, maintenance data, and discovered encroachments will enable ATC to more effectively fulfill their role as “guarantor” to NPS that the corridor lands are being properly cared for and managed. Using GIS technology will also enable ATC Boundary staff to query what areas are most threatened by probable encroachment, what areas are in most need of maintenance and boundary line reclamation efforts to re-establish the survey lines, and where annual staff time and resources should be budgeted and allocated to ensure the longevity of the surveyed boundary lines and the corridor lands they protect. With more surveyed boundary than any other national park and an average corridor width of 1,000 ft or less, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail is one of the most vulnerable units of the national park system by encroachment via the thousands of Trail neighbors that share a common boundary with the National Park Service.

Which map would you prefer to have when setting out for a day of bushwhacking along the A.T. Corridor boundary?

"AT Corridor Boundary Work" by Benton McKay Schwartz

2009-09-25T00:23:00.001-04:00

I like to work on the Appalachian Trail corridor boundary and now I’ll tell you about it.

The work on the boundary includes painting blazes, cutting a clear line of sight between blazes, finding monuments and working with boundary neighbors. To mark the boundary, we repaint the faded yellow blazes and hang signs along the boundary line, following the lines determined by the surveyors. The yellow paint used is easy to see in the woods, but it gets everywhere on clothes. It is best to work on the boundary during spring or fall because it is easier to see the blazes when the leaves are off the trees. It’s best to work with a small group of up to six Trail Club Volunteers on the boundary at a time. We use saws and loppers to clear a line from one monument or blaze to the next when it gets thick. We cut a clear line every five to seven years.

The AT Corridor boundaries have been surveyed by many land surveyors. A monument is a physical marker set by a surveyor to mark the boundary line. There are several types of monuments found along the boundary lines such as standard monuments, rock tablets, iron pipes, concrete posts and sometimes even natural features like a rock or a very large, old tree. Sometimes a monument is missing or buried and can take awhile to find. To help us find in our search, we triangulate and surveyor’s measurements from reference points back to the boundary monument. Using your map & compass skills effectively and knowing the type of monument and its location can all be helpful tools to find the monuments and the faded blazes along the boundary line.

The compasses we use on the boundary are surveyor’s compasses. I sometimes use my compass to sight the boundary to find the survey monuments and the blazes. Out on the boundary, the survey map is labeled clockwise. We like to work clockwise since the compass settings go clockwise too. Then we don’t have to set the compasses backwards. We use the compasses often enough to know that they can mess up near radio towers, power lines and high voltage lines and some times even near rocks.

We use several types of maps. The maps we use on the boundary are mostly exterior corridor boundary survey (ECBS) maps. ECBS maps are drawn by the surveyor and have the compass settings on them for us to use. These maps show where the boundary is for the AT. They tell the monument numbers and the compass angle and direction of the line between the monuments. A segment map is useful for finding your way into and out of the woods and to the area of work for the day.

Violations are a big problem to the Trail and boundary of the AT Corridor. Violations of the boundary can be trees cut, tree stands erected and roads built inside the corridor. As volunteers, we strive to solve the problems along the boundary between Trail neighbors and the National Park Service. We use green spray paint to erase a violator’s illegal trail markings or we pull dead trees branches and brush across the ATV paths that trespass into the AT Corridor. The green spray paint we use blends in with the trees and mosses on the boundary. We work to get along with the Trail neighbors and the communities around the trail so they don’t become violators. (Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you)

Caring for the AT boundary is as much fun as work. The more work done on the boundary the better. Caring for the AT is fun too, but it’s fun to work off the well beaten path of the AT.

Written by Benton McKay Schwartz, age 12, with AMC-Delware Valley, the youngest Jr. Boundary Ranger on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and an uber Corridor Steward. Watch out A.T. Violators because Harry Potter of the Boundary in on the watch!

Gene Espy's new book "The Trail of My Life"

2009-09-23T19:55:00.024-04:00

It's been awhile since I posted to the boundary blog and there have most certainly been some major changes in my professional A.T. Corridor duties, but rest assured, nothing has changed with regard to my passion for the boundary and continuing to try to help and support the dedicated volunteers that carry on doing this largely thankless, but incredibly essential task to help preserve and protect the integrity of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and its surrounding NPS corridor lands.

On a more uplifting note though, I wanted to pass along a personal recommendation for Gene Espy's new autobiography entitled "The Trail of My Life." For those of you who perhaps may have never heard of Gene Espy, he was the second person ever to thru hike the Appalachian Trail from GA to ME back in 1951. Earl of course went before him and when they corresponded later in life, they referred to each other as "Crazy One" and "Crazy Two." Over the past 4 years of doing my job out on the A.T. boundary, my crew and I certainly heard our share of that word as well. My favorite reference though by far to the places where we went to work and what we did was by a certain NPS colleague (who will remain anonymous) who called it "a forced death march!" A tad bit extreme I think!

As I read "The Trail of my Life," I couldn't help but think that back then many of the overgrown and unmaintained sections of the A.T. that Gene encountered on his thru hike and had to bushwhack through to refind the Trail probably looked a lot like numerous sections along the surveyed A.T. Corridor boundaries today that likewise have often gone without any maintenance since the original survey was completed 10, 15, to 20+ years ago. Just like Gene looking for the next white blaze to get him back on the Trail, I'm sure many of you have experienced similar challenges in trying to locate the next yellow boundary blaze, whether trying to navigate through an inpenetrable stand of spruce/fir in the backcountry of ME or NH or even worse, a 10 ft. high, tick infested tangle of invasive exotics battling each other to reach the sunlight on the line in places like CT or PA.

I'd like to think if Gene lived a bit closer to a section of the A.T. where the A.T. Corridor lands exist between VA & ME, I might just be able to recruit him to help out on the boundary. I suspect he might just be a natural when it came to having an educational, little chat with a Trail neighbor unknowingly behaving as an A.T. Violator.

I heard a great quote recently saying that if a picture's worth a thousand words, then a map is worth a million. But in the case of Gene Espy and the remarkable life he's lead, I offer you instead a YouTube video made by my friend Weathercarrot to honor him at the 2008 ALDHA gathering.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpjBtR0AGSw

For more more on Gene Espy's or to order a copy of his new book, go to http://www.geneespyhiker.com/.

There's also a nice write up about him on the new National Scenic Trails Blog at: http://nationalscenictrails.com/wordpress/

Getting to Know Your Monitor Coordinators - Dave Field (MATC)

2009-02-23T14:56:00.015-05:00

Dave Field, Overseer of Lands, Maine Appalachian Trail Club

1. How did you become (and what inspired you to become) the Monitor Coordinator for your club?

I created the position of "Overseer of Lands" in the Maine Appalachian Trail Club when I stepped down after 10 years as Club President in 1988. This is the MATC's "Corridor Monitor Coordinator" position. I volunteered to fill the position, stepped down when I became Chair of the ATC Board of Managers in 1995, and resumed the role in 2003.

2. What are your responsibilities in that position?

Duties are defined in the MATC Constitution/Bylaws:
1. Maintain the Club land record files for all corridor lands acquired by the National Park Service and managed by the MATC.
2. Serve as Corridor Monitor Coordinator for the MATC, to organize and oversee the monitoring of the condition of corridor lands.
3. Represent the MATC in matters involving corridor design and boundary surveying and oversee whatever activities the MATC accepts in connection with Trail corridor boundary maintenance.
4. Represent the MATC in matters that involve interactions between corridor lands and lands of adjacent landowners, including the exercise of residual rights by former landowners and use of easement crossings of the corridor.
5. Coordinate the work of the MATC independent corridor monitors (those without a Trail Maintenance assignment) and corridor monitoring specialists ( a team of individuals with special expertise in boundary inspection and maintenance, road closures, etc.).
6. Provide support for corridor monitoring training.
7. Submit an annual report to the Appalachian Trail Conference for corridor monitoring activities.

3. What are some of the unique challenges to doing corridor monitoring/boundary maintenance in your club’s section?

The MATC is responsible for monitoring 31,646 acres of ATPO fee lands, 492 acres of ATPO easements, 8,362 acres of State-owned corridor lands, 4,353 acres of State-held easements, 301 miles of exterior corridor boundary lines, 130 ATPO tracts, and 2,042 ATPO monuments. I maintain all of the deeds for ATPO lands in Maine, keep files on every one of the 130 ATPO tracts, stock multiple copies of 164 ECBS map sheets for distribution to 70 corridor monitors. The lands in Maine are remote and rugged. Boundary lines are so long that monuments are set only every 1000 feet between corners. Surveys date back to 1984, so some of the lines are in pretty poor shape. To our benefit, our remote tracts suffer from little of the encroachment pressure that is common in more settled areas. Almost all of the corridor in Maine is in the "Unorganized Territory", where there is no local government and few residents.

4. How long have you volunteered for A.T. and in what capacity (ies)?

I have been a member of the MATC for 53 years, have maintained 6-7 miles of the AT footpath for 52 years, served as MATC Overseer of the Trail for Western Maine (100 miles) for ten years, as President for 10 years, and have been on the MATC Executive Committee for 40 years. I served on the ATC Board of Managers for 26 years, including 10 as Secretary, two as Vice Chair for New England, and six as Chair.

5. What do (or did) you do in your professional life?

I'm a professional forester, worked for the USDA Forest Service for three years, taught forestry at Purdue University, Yale University, and the University of Maine for 36 years, and administered the Forestry program at Maine for 25 years. I "retired" in 2006.

6. What inspires you (over all) to do volunteer work on the Trail? What keeps you coming back to boundary work?

I'm a forester. I love the woods and believe whole-heartedly in the AT program. Boundary work involves an element of exploration that reveals new wonders every time I go into the woods.

7. What do (or would) you say to a volunteer interested to giving A.T. boundary work a try?

This is enormously rewarding work and a lot of fun, but you do need to understand that it is very different from working on the AT footpath. You won't be following a blazed trail and you need to be comfortable working in remote forest areas, off the footpath. If you get into trouble, you can't count on a hiker coming along to help you out. If you're in a place like Maine, you can't count on a cell phone signal either. But, the whole AT community fought and worked hard to create the protection corridor. As a corridor monitor, you are in the vanguard of the volunteers dedicated to protecting the Trail.

8. What do you like (and/or dislike) the most about volunteering?

I'm the same as every other volunteer--paperwork is the most unpleasant part of the job.

Dave:

You have put an incredible amount of work into the AT and the AT Boundary. The shear size and complexity of the Maine Boundary is daunting. Thank you for dedication!

- the gals at the Boundary Program

AMC-DV Encroachment Mitigation

2008-12-03T18:13:00.033-05:00

This October, members of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the AMC worked with the ATC to remove an illegal deer stand that had been put up on National Park Service Appalachian Trail corridor land.

The day began with a hike up the Katellen Trail.

Benton is ready to be put to work on the Boundary.

The deer stand.

A "NO HUNTING" sign was posted on an earlier visit.

Volunteers arrive with implements of destruction.

Everybody's working hard to clean up the area.

A portable circular saw was used to cut off the roof supports.

Working further down on the now roof-less stand.

Neil takes a swing at the supporting joist.

Neil puts up one of several "NO HUNTING" signs.

Hsin-Chien carries out the chair from the deer stand. All of the non-wood debris from the site was removed.

Charlie, Dan, and Sally enjoy a fine ending to a day of hard work for the AT.

Kieu and Mike look happy with what was accomplished.

Sally provided some well earned patches for the boys, Dmitri and Benton. And introducing - Neil! Neil is Sally's new field assistant. He was a ridgerunner on the AT in the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area this past summer before being brought over to the "Yellow Side".

Great job everybody with AMC-DV that made this work trip successful. This is a great example of encraochment mitigation at its finest!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T08:00:00.003-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving from the AT Boundary Program!

Remember, Fall is the best time to be out on the boundary - Get out and enjoy yourself!

Getting to Know Your Monitor Coordinators - Tom Lupp (PATC)

2008-11-21T15:46:00.009-05:00

Tom Lupp, Monitor Coordinator,

and PATC Corridor Monitors

Dick & Laurie Potteiger

1. How did you become (and what inspired you to become) the Monitor Coordinator for PATC?

I was asked to run for and then elected to the position of Supervisor of Corridor Management in 1999 and held that position for 4 years. In 2003 the position was changed to a committee chair position on the PATC council.

2. What are your responsibilities in that position?

Within the club my primary position responsibility is to supervise the AT corridor committee which consist of my volunteer corridor monitors. I also coordinate with the Supervisor of Trails and the District Trails Managers to fund and participate in various activities such as mowing of open areas, fencing and placement of kiosks.

3. What are some of the unique challenges to doing corridor monitoring/boundary maintenance in your club’s section?

The AT through PATC territory has the potential for a lot of encroachment problems from housing developments. Fortunately most issues have been minor and quickly corrected. We have a lot of ATV issues which are not so easily dealt with. With a very large boundary especially in VA there are access issues for the monitors so some area get visited infrequently.

4. How long have you volunteered for A.T. and in what capacity (ies)?

I started working with PATC in 1986 helping on the monthly work trips with the North Chapter trail crew in PA. I helped with trail construction & maintenance, shelter and cabin construction and repair and took on the role of a corridor monitor in 1992.

5. What do (or did) you do in your professional life?

I am an entomologist with the Maryland Dept. of Agriculture and work in the Forest Pest Management section. I am responsible survey and control of forest pest problems in 5 counties including those with the AT. The primary pest is the gypsy moth but I also work on other forest pests and diseases affecting both rural and urban forest.

What inspires you (over all) to do volunteer work on the Trail? What keeps you coming back to boundary work?

I began section hiking the AT in 1980 and after hiking the local sections wanted to keep involved with trail related activities. I like boundary work as it is off the beaten path and is a good off season activity.

6. What do (or would) you say to a volunteer interested to giving A.T. boundary work a try?

They need to know that the work is very strenuous and that there is not a clear path to follow like trail maintenance. They will work independently and must be self motivated to monitor and do the maintenance. I always strive to provide training and offer help from both myself and the ATC to assist with difficult work in hard to follow boundary sections.

7. What do you like (and/or dislike) the most about volunteering?

As a volunteer supervisor I like meeting and training new club members. I like working with groups on larger projects. I don’t like having to push for volunteers to file their reports and I don’t like having to dismiss volunteer that are not doing there assignments.

Tom:
We're really excited about what PATC is doing right now to take their Boundary Program into high gear. Great job!
- ATC Boundary Program

Happy Birthday, Sally!

2008-11-06T20:53:00.003-05:00

It's Sally's Birthday today! Yay! Happy birthday, Sally!

For your birthday, I made you the star of your very own music video! Haven't you always wanted to be a rock star?

So, here is how this video works. Since I am not at all musically inclined, as you listen to Sal's birthday song, you have to pretend that the words you are reading are actually the words being sung. Make sense? Turn your sound up and enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrOk-4eLBoU

Getting to Know your Monitor Coordinators - Mike Manes

2008-10-24T16:25:00.012-04:00

Mike Manes, Monitor Coordinator,

and Kieu Manes, Corridor Monitor,

AMC Delaware Valley

1. How did you become (and what inspired you to become) the Monitor Coordinator for AMC-DV?

In May of 2003 we were both retired and were looking to do something both volunteer and constructive with our favorite pastime, hiking, and particularly hiking off trails. Having done volunteer trail maintenance we tried several different approaches, but once we tried corridor monitoring, our decision was final. It was the most fun part of trail maintenance. We decided to devote more time to corridor monitoring than to conventional maintenance.

2. What are your responsibilities in that position?

When we started corridor monitoring considerable lengths of our boundary had not been monitored for 20 plus years. The job was to reestablish the boundary, locate and possibly resolve encroachment problems.

Actually I believe the biggest part of the job is coordinating efforts and documenting results. Also to try to interest other members of AMC-DV in both conventional trail maintenance and corridor monitoring.

Sometimes I think our main responsibility is to find every loose rock on the side of the mountain that the AT travels on. (Our conventional maintainers take care of the trail itself.) Sometimes we look for good pointed rocks, get them to the conventional maintainers so that they can be placed in an inconvenient spot for thru hikers.

3. What are some of the unique challenges to doing corridor monitoring/boundary maintenance in your club’s section?

Rocks, rocks and more rocks. We do not have the rockiest area of the trail, or even the rockiest in Pennsylvania. The majority of our boundary is on a steep slope, trees do not grow well, and rocks tend to roll. Part or our problem is that trees that were suppose to be witnesses are all small, and often disappear. Many of our yellow boundary marks are on rocks. Often these rocks may be covered by snow or leaves.

4. How long have you volunteered for A.T. and in what capacity (ies)?

On this subject we have different answers for Kieu and Mike. Kieu started trail maintenance with AMC-DV somewhere about 1988 or 89. Mike met Kieu on a hike in January 1993, and started dating almost immediately. In late March or early April of 1993 Kieu convinced Mike that if he hikes, he should also perform trail maintenance. Checking the schedule for that weekend, we volunteered for trail maintenance starting at Little Gap, Pennsylvania. This was not only Mike’s first contact with trail maintenance, but also his first activity with AMC-DV. We continued working on the same area until we both retired in May of 2003, and decided to do more trail work.

5. What do (or did) you do in your professional life?

Kieu (Kieutien) – She was born in Vietnam, and was trained as a teacher. After her first marriage she moved to Pennsylvania and started raising her son. A few years later she returned to school and became a computer programmer, and worked in the computer field as both a programmer and an instructor before retiring.

Mike – Has a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and worked for the US Navy (Civil Service) for over 35 years as a Mechanical, Electronic, Environmental, and/or Civil Engineer. In his first 14 years for the Navy Mike worked in navigational R&D. Navigational work included some work on GPS, and gave Mike an understanding of various coordinate systems, such as State Planar systems that are used in surveying.

Having the kind of background we have corridor monitoring is a natural. For this job a good mathematical background, and the requirement to objectively record all you observe is essential.

6. What inspires you (over all) to do volunteer work on the Trail? What keeps you coming back to boundary work?

Most trail maintainers will give you the argument that if you take you should return. This is only a sub-reason for us. The main reason is it is fun.

7. What do (or would) you say to a volunteer interested to giving A.T. boundary work a try?

We try to entice them with nice words about the work. If they like bushwhacking, then this is ideal. If they like to work with map and compass, or GPS, then this is an excellent application.

We try to encourage new volunteers from the hikers who are basically looking for something they have not done. Those with a science, math or mechanical background appear to be the most likely prospects.

8. What do you like (and/or dislike) the most about volunteering?

What we both like and dislike is dealing with other people. So far with corridor monitoring we have been lucky with the people we had to be in contact with. We like being together, and have found friends that we enjoy being in the woods with. We do not enjoy being in a large group, and corridor monitoring does not lend itself to large groups.

Mike & Kieu:

From the gals in the Boundary Program - Thanks for all your hard work on the boundary! We look forward to working with you again!

One Year and Counting

2008-10-24T16:03:00.016-04:00

It's been a year since we started our AT Boundary Blog! We apologize for the lack of posts lately. We've been pretty busy with some other projects. One of which is our new AT Boundary T-Shirts (design above)!! If you're curious how to get one, contact your monitor coordinator or send us an email.

On the blog, we've decided to start a new series called "Getting to Know Your Monitor Coordinators!" Monitor Coordinators do just that - they coordinator the volunteer monitors/maintainers within their AT Trail club. They divide the total boundary their club is responsible for into sections, assign volunteers to sections, train new volunteers, and coordinate with AT staff to successfully manage the boundary and corridor in their club's section. Their hard work and good attitudes are invaluable to the Boundary Program. And this series is our way of introducing them to you, giving them a big pat on the back, and hopefully inspiring some people out there to get out and experience Life on the Edge!

AT Clean Up near Blue Mt Ski Resort

2008-05-30T08:10:00.007-04:00

In the early spring of 2007, Sally Naser and some AMC-Delaware Valley volunteers discovered an impressive encroachment on easement lands near the Blue Mountain Ski Area. This encroachment is a very good example of how a small encroachment can lead to an even bigger one if proper monitoring and reporting is not going on as this structure has obviously been expanded year after year. A cooperative effort by ATC, ATPO, AMC-Delaware Valley, and our trail neighbors, the Blue Mt Ski Resort led to the removal of this encroachment on May 17, 2008. AMC-Delaware Valley and the Blue Mt Ski Area Ski Patrol volunteers participated in this project. Blue Mt Ski Area also provided a few staff, a front end loader, 2 pickups, 2 stake trucks, and an assortment of tools for the demolition. Thanks to everyone who was a part of getting this problem taken care of!

You are invited to view a photo album: AT Clean Up near Blue Mt Ski Area

View Album Play slideshow

Boundary Program in the A.T. Journeys

2008-03-19T12:37:00.009-04:00

If you don't get an Appalachian Trail Journeys magazine (you should!), the Boundary Program was highlighted in the Jan/Feb issue with an article about our work in the Mahoosucs this past Fall. Here's the link to the PDF, so if you haven't already, check it out!!

Walk on the Wild Side

Also in the Jan/Feb issues was a volunteer profile of our thru-hiker helpers (Ben & Lauren) who worked with us in the Mahoosucs.

Volunteer Profile

Mid-Atlantic Stellar Volunteers of 2007

2008-01-29T15:33:00.001-05:00

George Shollenberger, Monitor Coordinator for BMECC along with Al Shrom went a step above just monitoring the boundary and repainted almost 18 miles of rugged and rocky PA boundaries between the fall of 2006 and spring 2007. Thanks Al & George for all of your continued hard work to protect the AT and the surrounding corridor lands. Hope to get out on the line with you both soon!

Having worked the boundary in BMECC territory as well, believe me that the name Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club is quite fitting. It's not the Mahoosucs, but for the many AT hikers that dread the infamous Pennsylvania rocks, keep in mind that many of the AT corridor boundaries throughout PA are even rockier than the AT, traversing up, down, and along some pretty steep slopes. After a hard day's work on a BMECC boundary like the one shown above, it definitely leaves you feeling like one leg is longer than the other.

PATC Monitor Coordinator Tom Lupp doing Boundary 101 Training with new Corridor Monintors Dick and Laurie Potteiger on the Duke Hollow section in northern VA.

A long time PATC trail maintainer, Dick Potteiger signed up as a corridor monitor in March 2007 on the overgrown Duke Hollow section in northern VA. This area had gone without maintenance for far too long and took over 9 full days along with ATC Boundary Survey Manager Sally Naser to recover the line. This monitoring section was full of challenges including extremely faded paint conditions, overgrown brush, numerous non traditional AT monuments including dead trees and iron pipes, and to top it off had a very confusing set of ECBS (exterior corridor boundary survey) maps to navigate with requiring two different era surveys to work from. Throw in the occasional "violator" and there's never a dull day out on the Duke Hollow boundaries! Thanks for keeping with it Dick and holding the line!

Rick Loggia is the Monitor Coordinator of the Orange Rockland Chapter of NYNJTC. He is one of the finest Monitor Coordinators trailwide and assisted with the Corridor Monitoring & Encroachment Mitigation workshop held at the 2007 ATC Biennial Conference in Ramapo , NJ. Being a Monitor Coordinator takes good leadership, teaching, and especially reporting skills. Thanks Rick! You continue to set a great example for others in terms of the big picture of AT Corridor Stewardship.

The Most Improved Club of 2007 is AMC-Delaware Valley! Mike Manes has done a greatjob as the new Monitor Coordinator for the club. In 2007, Mike and his wife Kieu (in center of photo above) along with other club volunteers monitored and maintained over 75% of the club’s monitoring section in PA. Y'all have set the bar high for 2008. We can't wait to get back out on the boundary with you and help with the follow up on many of the encroachments that were discovered. Thanks AMC-Delaware Valley!

New England Stellar Volunteers of 2007

2008-01-16T13:39:00.000-05:00

Tom Wheeler with the Dartmouth Outing Club is a new Monitor Coordinator this year. Tom has been a Corridor Steward (a volunteer role which combines the tasks of Corridor Monitor and Boundary Maintainer) since 2005. He has eagerly taken over this new role and is doing an outstanding job. Even with that and his trail maintaining responsibilities, Tom found the time to volunteer in another club's boundary section with the ATC Boundary Crew in the Mahoosucs this fall for 8 days traveling over 200 miles round trip. His contributions to the Boundary Program this year have been immeasurable. Thanks Tom!

Dave Pirog of AMC-Berkshire is a brand new Corridor Steward. He was trained by Steve Smith, the AMC-Berkshire Monitor Coordinator, and Sally Naser, ATC Boundary Program Manager in July 2007. He then took over a section near Dalton, MA that had gone far too long without much needed maintenance. He initially worked 55 hours in over 9 days in order to clear and identify his 8 mile boundary section. He then put in an additional 41.5 hours to repaint & resign this section. Thanks to Dave's hard work, all 80 monuments were found and the boundary is now ready for yearly monitoring. Thanks Dave! Keep up the great work!

Why You Should Be A Corridor Monitor

2008-01-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

Do you . . .?

(If you answer yes to one or more of these, then there's a special place for you in the boundary program as a corridor monitor! Email us at ATCBoundary@gmail.com)

Have a sense of adventure?

Enjoy getting off-trail and seeing places that not many people get to see?

Enjoy bushwhacking with maps & a compass?

Really like getting your feet wet?

Have kids you want to teach about the importance of our natural places?

Love the environment and want to volunteer to protect it (here volunteers are closing down an ATV trail through the corridor)?

Want to be a trail amabassador and educate our trail neighbors about the AT?

Want to hang out in the snow with new friends?

Want to hang out in the rain with new friends?

Want to hang out in warm weather with new friends?

Like painting, nailing up signs, and/or cutting back brush?

Enjoy a good old treasure hunt, where "X" marks the spot?

And are you a salamander-lover, moose-lover, owl-lover, porcupine-lover, dog-lover, or animal-lover of all kinds? Help us protect them and their habitat by becoming a corridor monitor!

Season's Greetings!

2007-12-22T09:24:00.000-05:00

Click on the link below for a greeting from the ATC Boundary Crew!

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1386846136258&source=jl999

Working with the ATC Land Trust

2007-12-07T14:08:00.004-05:00

The week before Thanksgiving, Sally & I went up to New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut with Caroline Dufour, ATC's Land Resources Coordinator. One of Caroline's job duties includes making sure that the properties that the ATC holds in conservation easements are being properly managed. These properties usually abut the corridor. Therefore, it only made sense for all of us to go together and get two things done at once. In addition to assisting Caroline with locating the ATC easement property boundaries, talking with the easement owners, and walking their properties with them, we were also able to assess field conditions along the shared boundaries with the NPS corridor lands. Likewise, the opportunity for us to meet face to face with our trail neighbors is highly beneficial to all, especially in areas like these where the threat of development continues to inch ever closer to A.T. lands. Whether ATC field staff or a volunteer corridor monitor with the local trail club, building these relationships not only helps to promote the Trail community, but also provides neighbors with a point of contact if they notice misuse on A.T. corridor lands.

Talking with an easement owner:

Walking the properties:

These two guys didn't want to stay back at the house since walking a conservation easement is just too much fun:

We got Adam Brown (ATC's N. Eng. Trail Resource Mgr.) in on the land trust fun. Here he and Caroline are looking at the conservation easement file in S. Egremont, MA.

Later, Sally utilized Adam's height to get a "No Hunting" sign up nice and high on the NPS corridor lands across from the Kellogg Conservation Center.

Here Sally's proving that she can hang signs even higher than Adam. Wait, is that a ladder she's standing on - that's cheating!

ATC's Land Trust

2007-12-07T14:08:00.001-05:00

Why does ATC have a Land Trust? To protect special places like these:

The ATC Land Trust manages and monitors the properties that the ATC holds in conservation easements. Conservation easements are voluntary agreements between willing landowners and the ATC that permanently protect the land's natural qualities. A landowner who agrees to an easement still owns and uses the land, and can sell it or pass it on to their heirs. The easement limits land development on the property in exchange for certain tax or financial benefits. Each easement is tailored to suit each individual property and the needs and interests of the landowner. Easements are permanent and bind all present and future owners of the land, specifying what can be done to the surface of the land and its natural resources. Easements can allow farming, logging, and other uses of natural resources, or they can keep the land in an undisturbed natural condition. In regard to the AT, these easements serve to supplement the corridor and are intended to preserve values important to the Trail experiences, including major viewsheds, springs and watersheds, agricultural lands, and sensitive wildlife habitats.

If you are interested in learning more information about ATC's Land Trust, you can check it out online at: http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.jkLXJ8MQKtH/b.851193/k.FF90/Land_Trust.htm

And for more resources about land trusts, you can go to http://www.lta.org/

Fieldbook

2007-11-14T16:57:00.001-05:00

If y'all have been wondering "What have the ATC Boundary crew been up to lately?" We're still here, but stuck in the office for a little bit. No worries, we're getting back into the field this weekend (more fun posts to come . . .) We've been putting the finishing touches on the new A.T. Corridor Stewardship Fieldbook, which will be hitting the presses this year and ready to hand out early next year. So all you Corridor Monitors and Boundary Maintainers out there, here's a preview of what you can be expecting to find in the new fieldbook:

Thanks Sue for the awesome graphics! Thanks Wendy and Kathleen for your graphic design input and continued help! Thank you to all of our editors who have read and given great suggestions!

Congratulations Steve!

2007-11-05T16:52:00.001-05:00

This year's recipient of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's New England Region "Volunteer of the Year" award was none other than Steve Smith with the Berkshire Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club. The award was presented to him by Cosmo Catalano, fellow AMC-Berkshire club member and chair of the New England RPC (Regional Planning Committee). Under Steve's excellent leadership as Monitor Coordinator, Cosmo reported an amazing 90% completion rate for recent boundary maintenance work along the A.T. corridor boundaries throughout Massachusetts. In addition to keeping up with both the boundary maintenance and corridor monitoring aspects of A.T. Corridor Stewardship, Steve also does a stellar job in the realms of encroachment mitigation and educating trail neighbors about what it means to live next door to their closest National Park, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

Week 8/DOC Territory

2007-11-05T16:51:00.007-05:00

Our last week of this 2 month trip in New England was spent in Dartmouth Outing Club's section. It was nice and full of hardwoods. Though, of course, the blazes were faded and in dire need of paint. We spent most of our time with and training new volunteers, so we jumped around a bit, but worked predominately in the Pomfret, VT area.

We went out with the Dartmouth Outing Club's Monitor Coordinator, Tom Wheeler, whom y'all have met before. In the second pic, he's showing off his yellow eye makeup!

Sally training new volunteer Brianne to use her maps and compass.

Michael, a local neighbor to the A.T. Corridor in Pomfret and a recent '06 DOC Corridor Monitor recruit spent a morning out with the boundary crew learning some of the the finer points of the maintenance side of the job.

The blaze and sign conditions in all of the areas we worked were definitely in need of maintenance.

VINS

2007-11-05T16:51:00.003-05:00

On the way home, we stopped by the Vermont Institute of Natural Science Nature Center in Quechee, VT. They take in and rehabilitate injured wild birds with the goal of releasing them back in the wild. The Nature Center houses the birds that cannot be released. It was a great visit. The educational presentation with the birds was awesome. It was amazing to be so close to such beautiful creatures, and we got some really neat pictures of a few of the raptors we saw.

ATC is a partner with VINS for their Mountain Bird Watch. Check them out at http://www.vinsweb.org/raptor-center/index.html or http://www.vinsweb.org/cbd/mtn_birdwatch.html for info on their Mountain Bird Watch program.

A red-tailed hawk:

An American kestrel:

A barred owl:

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-05T16:37:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit late posting this, but we wanted to wish all of you a Happy Halloween. We (Sally, Adam & I) carved pumpkins one night at Matt Steven's place. In addition to her many amazing corridor stewardship talents, Sally is also a very talented jack-o-lantern carver. Luckily for the A.T. boundaries, there are no full-time jobs in professional jack-o-lantern carving. I helped with one, and Sally had to spruce it up a bit. Adam's is the more traditional little guy.

Week 7/Maine/100 Mile Wilderness

2007-10-25T10:11:00.013-04:00

Well, folks, we packed up, left the Mahoosucs, and went up to the beginning of the 100 Mile Wilderness near Monson, Maine.

Here's Stihl on the road trip up to Maine:

This week, we worked on a section of boundary where the survey is 20+ years old, the spruce and firs are extremely thick, the blazes are so faded that the boundary is almost unrecognizable, and some of the adjacent land is being logged. Sound familiar? We're pretty much encountering the same, and in some cases worse, conditions of the boundary here in the 100 Miles Wilderness as we did in the Mahoosucs.

Most of this boundary was extremely thick with spruce and firs. Once you stepped about 5 feet into the trees, you were pretty much hidden. Here's Sally, or at least the "X" on her vest. She's out in front finding and flagging the boundary line.

Sally managed to get a photo back at us through all of the brush.

Along with the faded paint and thick spruce/fir conditions, there were spots of about 300 feet long where there wasn't a line tree. Where there were line trees, they were in very faded condition. Where there were signs, which were fewer than line trees, they had either popped off of the trees or were about to. The boundary team was pretty much looking for specks of yellow paint in an dense forest.

And in some spots, we didn't even have those flecks. Here's a reference tree blaze:

Here's a freshly cleared section of boundary. What is now cut was as thick as the trees on either side and the trees in the next photos. It was a rough and demanding section of boundary to work in, but we had a good time!

Painted line - much easier to see!

Eventually, and thankfully, we did get into some hardwoods. The paint was still extremely faded and the signs were still in bad shape, but at least it was less dense.

Can you tell there's a boundary blaze on this next tree?

Painted Blaze - much easier to see:

And here's the team. Sally looking at maps. Ray checking the bearings. And Ellen with her saw, or course.

Being in the 100 Mile Wilderness, we got to hike past some beautiful ponds. And we found a really nice stream on the boundary. It was even a warm enough day that we dunked our heads in and cooled down.

And from here, we're headed back down to New Hampshire to work with the Dartmouth Outing Club for a week.

Stihl Surgery

2007-10-25T10:11:00.009-04:00

This week, the clearing saw - the love of our lives, one of the big reasons we've been able to get as much done as we have, and our mascot Stihl's namesake - started acting a little congested. So, we immediately put her to bed and called the doctor (Harry at Lucy's Hardware in Intervale, NH). Harry told us about the remedies/surgeries that we could try to help her get back to feeling her best. Some of it we did in the field and some of it we had to do back at Shaw's Boarding House, where we're staying.

In the field, we put some white lithium grease on the shaft to keep things running smoothly inside of the saw.

The two surgeons putting the shaft back into the saw:

Yuck! Greasy hands!

Reattaching the gear head with the instruction manual and notes from Harry close by:

Everybody feels better when they're a little dressed up, so we put a new blade on, too:

We checked everything out inside the engine and discovered that the saw's muffler screen was a bit clogged up.

So, we removed the muffler screen, covered the hole, and took it out to clean it.

Ray then de-congested the muffler by burning off the crud clogging it up with a propane torch.

Stihl was a bit worried about his buddy. So he came out to see what we were doing to make her feel better. Safety applies to everyone, so Sally made him his own personal safety glasses.

Then we put everything back together:

Here's Stihl and the clearing saw - all better and ready to get back to work!

Where's Waldo? (almost)

2007-10-25T10:11:00.007-04:00

Not exactly Waldo, but here are some pics of a couple of little guys who came over to check us out on the boundary. Becoming a corridor monitor or boundary maintainer is more than just about protecting the Trail. It's about protecting little guys like these from habitat destruction, from dumping on the corridor, and from being squashed by ATVs.

So, the question for ya'll is, can you see our little friends in all of these pics?

How many Frog-o's did you find?

Thanks Frank!

2007-10-25T10:11:00.003-04:00

On our way up to Maine, our friend Frank put us up for the night and showed us around Sugarloaf Ski Resort, where he works.

Ray getting directions.

Hi Frank! We really enjoyed getting to see you! And, of course, getting to sit in one of the snow cats!

There we are looking all nice and posed for the photo.

Oh, it looks like Ray's gonna try to start 'er up!

And away we go! Look how fast this thing goes! (Not really, we just sat for the pics, but it looks like we were going fast, doesn't it?)

Perhaps a new way to get to the boundary? Doesn't that sound fun?!?

The Mahoosucs Say Goodbye

2007-10-25T10:11:00.001-04:00

Well, after 6 weeks in the Mahoosucs it was time to say goodbye. After all of our wanting to see and get pictures of moose (meese? I still don't know the correct plural!), the Mahoosucs, on our last day, finally cooperated. We figure it was their way of saying goodbye. We saw a young moose early in the morning, then a mama and her baby later that evening. AND we got great pics of the young moose. Maybe she wants to be a model when she grows up. So, after a long wait for good moose pics, here they are:

Apparently, her left side is her good side!

Sorry about no good pics of the mama and her baby. The big black shadowy things with the bright back legs are them. Mama was a bit protective and hurried her baby off into the woods almost as soon as we saw them. They brings our current moose count for the fall boundary trip to 9!

We also saw a saw-whet owl this same day! The owl hung around long enough for us to get some good pics of him, too.

And, the day we left there was snow up on Mt. Washington. Snow is a definite sign for this Southerner to move on. Though, going north to Maine doesn't seem quite the right direction to warm up!

Week 6

2007-10-15T16:20:00.005-04:00

Week 6! Our last week in the Mahoosucs, and . . . we "got 'r done"! All of the boundary from the Maine line to Gentian pond is cleared, painted, signed, and ready for monitors! This was our goal for this project this year, and it is great knowing that we accomplished it. We're happy to be leaving the Mahoosucs, but not to worry, ya'll! The blog will keep going, and as we're heading up to Maine on Wednesday, we're sure that there'll be lots more fun adventures to post!

This week was pretty much a little bit of everything and more that we've experienced in the Mahoosucs.

There was a little bit of hiking in and hiking out:

At the beginning of the hike in - Emily and Sally are all smiles!

Now, looking a bit more tired on the hike out.

Oh so glad to be back at the cars at the end of the week! Boots off and sitting down!

There was a quite a bit more than a little bit of rain and cold weather:

Emily, Ray, and Ellen soaked but getting some clearing done. Sally's getting soaked, too, as she's taking the picture.

I know, it's surprising to all of you who know me to see me working in (what's that on the trees?) ice!?! I told Sally I would work, but I wasn't sure I would be able to smile!

There was a little bit of sleeping in the shelter and trying to stay warm:

What's that black sleeping bag with a hat? Oh that's where Ray went. He looks warmer than Sally & I do!

There was quite a lot of trying to get our wet clothes to dry out:

There was a little bit of cards at night (Emily beat us all soundly at rummy!):

There was a little bit of help from the Lyme Regional office (thanks Matt Stevens for coming out and helping for a day!)

There was a little cliff that seems more little in the pictures, but took a bit to get down:

Matt & Ray helping Ellen get down.

Ray helping Sally the next day. He even set up a rope for safety to help us get down.

There was a little bit of really thick spruce/fir trees and a little bit of clearing saw action:

There was a little bit of nice hardwoods that we could walk our saws through and paint as we went:

There's Ellen & Emily walking their saws. No more sawing this year in the Mahoosucs. It was a hard goodbye!

Funny Faces

2007-10-15T16:20:00.003-04:00

As this was our last week in the Mahoosucs, I thought I should put some pics of us in our finest moments in the Mahoosucs. Remember, the blog's not over . . . There's more adventures to come from the Boundary Crew. After all, don't you want to keep up with what these cool folks are up to?

Sally & Emily looking excited to be at Carlo Col Shelter.

Ellen looks like she may have gotten overheated that day.

Oops! Kilt on a windy day!

Emily sporting the characteristic boundary hands.

Tree . . . Must . . . Die!

Ray looks quite stunned to be in this pic.

Tom's coming up the hoooole.

Not an appropriate way to blaze a line tree!

Lunch is one of the best times of the day! Ray loves his yummy tuna salad sandwich!

Oh, how happy I was about that sandwich. It was the highlight of my day!

And here's one bit of wonderful that I wanted to share with all of you. You may wonder what we all think about while hiking in the Mahoosucs for hours every day. Well, I think about lots of important things. One day I was contemplating Luna bars (if you've never had one, they're energy/health bars that are like granola bars with a layer of chocolate). Now, that sounds good, but I thought I could make it better. So, I invented Ellen's homemade Luna bars. (Or as Casey calls them Ellen's Sugar Snacks). I will share the secret just this once on this blog and just because y'all are so great. So here's the secret: you start off with fudge brownies and you finish with Rice Krispie treats. Oh yumm!

Wildlife #3

2007-10-15T16:19:00.001-04:00

The Mahoosucs are a great place to see some amazing and different kinds of wildlife. Actually, just being out on the boundary is a great way to see wildlife since your are off trail and not around lots of people.

A beaver dam on the way up to Gentian Pond Shelter. We heard one of the beaver's slap his tail to announce our presence, but we didn't actually see one.

And the beaver's house:

Some more evidence of the beavers:

A little guy living near the dam:

A toad:

This is one of of my favorites, a salamander we saw on the boundary:

A woodpecker:

Woodpeckers have definitely been on this boundary!

Here's some evidence of another visitor to the boundary - a black bear!

Sometimes you don't have to even leave your home to see some cool wildlife. This little guy (a weasel) came and visited us at home and even checked our place out when we accidentally left the door open!

Insects are a pretty cool type of wildlife as well. Here's a great picture Ray got of a little ladybug:

And, of course, moose are an incredible animal that the Mahoosucs are home to. We saw 2 more moose this week bringing our total up to 6, but, alas, got no pictures. So, once again, here's Stihl announcing our moose count:

Contest Results!

2007-10-15T16:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks to all of you who replied to our compass contest. We had a lot of good answers and a lot of really good tries. Here is a correct compass (on the left) next to our incorrect compass (on the right). If you want to try to figure it out don't keep reading as the winners and their answers are posted below:

And the winner is . . . Frank Dogil, Corridor Supervisor of the AT section from NY Dutchess County 20 to the Connecticut line and Corridor Monitor of a section therein. His correct answer was "The 0-90 quadrants scale bezel is incorrect. It should read 0-90 both east and west from the north and south. I would also like to comment on the ATC Boundary Blog. This is a great place to send prospective corridor monitors to see real projects first hand…nice job."

Other honorable mentions and really well written answers are:

Bernh Lohner, corridor monitor of the Boundary between Rt. 55 and Penny Road(Nuclear Lake) in Dutchess County, NY (both sides). "I got it: The Quadrants are labeld wrong: N and S should be 0 degreesW and S should be 90 degrees. The correct layout is: N -> E goes from 0 to 90 then E to S goes from 90 to 0. The one you have goes from 0 to 90 in both cases. Happy Monitoring."

Ron Rosen (NYNJTC) "Has anyone else yet noticed that these compasses go 0-90 ascending in each quadrant, instead of going 0 to 90 N to E, 90 to 0 E to S, 0 to 90 S to W, and 90 to 0 W to N???"

Frank Klein (long-term & multi-week Konnarock volunteer) "Unless you guys are using an entirely different call system for your bearing readouts up there in Maine-New Hampshire, I'd say the whole number sequencing set up on that compass is reversed in two quadrants, NxxW, and SxxE. Should start at N or S, read the same going either E or W. So how do you guys read them, ? with a little mental gymnastics ?Thanks for the great blog, and the Wow-worthy pics......"

Week 5

2007-10-07T15:30:00.000-04:00

We did it! We kicked out the south/east side of the boundary this week. So it is completed and ready for a corridor monitor all the way from Maine to Gentian Pond! Our goal for this project this year was to get all of the boundary on both sides of the corridor from Maine to Gentian Pond cleared, painted, signed, and ready for a volunteer. With just the north/west side left, it's looking like we're going to get all of that done! (knock on wood)

Part of the goal of this project was to get these sections of boundary ready for a corridor monitor. As we've shown on previous posts, having a corridor monitor makes a huge difference in the condition of the boundary.

Therefore, we spent one day this week taking out blow downs on a section of boundary near Success Pond Trail in order to make it more accessible for a monitor. It was a really fun day. I'm sure ya'll have seen plenty of pictures of us painting, clearing, and swamping. So, imagine how we feel some days. Sometimes, you've just got to change it up a bit . . . so on this particular day we went out with a couple of axes (including the one Ray found on the boundary) and cleared blow downs.

Another very exciting part of this week is that we came down from the spruce/fir trees and into the hardwoods. Since these areas are not nearly as dense, we got to spend a couple of days without the clearing saws working with handtools and painting.

Through these areas, we were recovering 4 monuments a day, as opposed to only 1 in the denser spruce/fir areas. Here's Sally taking notes on the maps since we were making such progress:

Here's us moving the saw and our tools forward as we didn't need the saw through this section:

Here's how beautiful a hardwood boundary looks (after it's been painted):

Sally getting into some clearing action:

Getting in touch with our artistic sides:

Hanging on while hanging signs:

At the end of the day we we're a little too tired to stand up but never too tired to laugh!

A Contest for You

2007-10-07T15:29:00.003-04:00

Win a Free Compass

(for current corridor monitors/boundary maintainers only)

Do you want to be cool like these gals on your boundary section?

This week, the boundary team discovered a major defect in some of the new compasses we have. So, we decided to make a contest for all of our corridor monitors and boundary maintainers out there. The first corridor monitor/boundary maintainer to email us back telling us correctly what is wrong with this compass will get a free compass!

Email us back at atcboundary@gmail.com.

Please do not leave your answers as a comment so that everyone can have a chance to figure it out.

Also, if you happen to have one of these compasses with this defect, please email us as well as we are sending them back to get corrected compasses!

The Week of the Cliffs

2007-10-07T15:29:00.000-04:00

We dubbed this week the Week of the Cliffs! (Doesn't that sound ominous?) It wasn't too bad, but did lead to some non typical days on the boundary!

We started the week, looking out at this rock cliff:

Here's Sally painting a blaze on the first cliff we encountered:

Here's our view from that first cliff:

Here's the first cliff from below:

It looks a little treacherous, but Safety Officer Ray found us a safe way down. If you look closely, you can see the yellow blaze shining in the middle of that last picture on a darker section of the rock.

We did have to be a bit creative in getting our tools, especially the saw, and packs down. It was a multi-step process passing them down:

The second cliff was a lot more treacherous. We had to cut back to the Trail as there was no safe way down.

The red line is the boundary. You can actually see both the first and second cliffs in this picture. The second cliff is the closer one, and the first is the white spot further uphill.

We had to come in to the bottom of the cliff. Here's Emily painting the first blaze at the bottom of the second cliff:

Then our third cliff that we came upon, we managed to go around it and get back to the boundary after Sally painted a blaze on it, of course:

Sally had a little accident this week not on a cliff, but on a steep downhill on the boundary. She's just fine, but we thought that this comic was amazingly appropriate!

So, that's the Week of the Cliffs. We're definitely Living on the Edge out here in the Mahoosucs!

Beautiful Fall Foliage

2007-10-07T15:28:00.000-04:00

We just have to share some of the beautiful fall foliage we've been seeing up here in the Mahoosucs. Boundary maintenance is really the best job in the world to be outside with beautiful scenery and colors everywhere you look.

Week 4

2007-09-28T15:32:00.000-04:00

Another great week on the boundary, though rearranged due to some uncooperative weather. The whole crew was very excited about the progress we made this week. The A.T. is divided up into segment maps. The Mahoosucs are on segment maps 161-164. This week, on both the north and south sides of the corridor, we finished segment 161 and are now working on segment 162! Yay!

We spent most of our time this week (due to primarily staying in one crew) on the south/east side of the boundary. We came upon sections that had been monitored by volunteer Paul Chartier, so there was less clearing but still a lot of painting to do. When we were on the north/west side of the boundary, it was again very thick (what we call swimming in spruce/firs) and had very steep terrain making the use of the clearing saw impossible. Thus, work on the north/west side of the boundary was pretty slow.

So, here's week 4 in the Mahoosucs:

A lot of hiking:

A lot of painting:

A lot of signing (Sally's so good she can do both at once!)

A lot of sharpening:

A lot of clearing:

With the Stihl:

With the big guns (that's Ray sheathing his saw after a cut):

A lot of swamping:

A lot of looking for monuments:

A very few moments when Sally stops cracking that whip and lets us rest! (not really, here's Ray taking advantage of lunch break):

A little time for picture taking (here's Ray in his new kilt and one of our more challenging weather days):

A lot of neat stuff we find on the boundary (U.S. Boundary sign completely bleached due to 20 years in the sun):

And, my favorite, a lot of beautiful views and the leaves in color!

Why We Need Corridor Monitors

2007-09-28T13:59:00.009-04:00

Following is the terrain on the north/west side. We can't emphasize enough that this is the kind of terrain and brushiness we are facing on most of this boundary. Now that it has been 20 years since the survey and most of these sections have never had a maintainer, it is unrealistic to think that a single volunteer could walk this boundary let alone clear it by themselves. The necessity of this project and of us having at least a three person crew on these boundaries cannot be underestimated.

Here is what a boundary that has been monitored consistently by a volunteer looks like. It was realtively clear but not painted. There were places that we could even have two people painting and one sawing instead of our normal one painter, one sawyer, and one swamper.

Before:

After:

Tom was excited to get to paint blazes instead of clearing or swamping:

Thank you to all of our dedicated corridor monitors out there!!! And thank you Paul Chartier for all of your hard work in the Mahoosucs!

The Plane Crash

2007-09-28T13:59:00.005-04:00

One of the things we have been looking forward to is coming up to the plane crash on the boundary. The plane literally lies about half on NPS lands and half on the adjacent landowners, with the boundary running across the wing.

When we got to the plane, we took some time to explore:

Ellen and Aaron in the back of the plane:

Tom exploring the plane:

There were random pieces of plane all of over the place:

The wing that lies on the boundary:

Sally painting a blaze on the wing:

It was kind of creepy and definitely bad footing walking over the gnarled and sharp metal of the crash site and the wing to get to the other side of the boundary. I did not enjoy it.

One thing that we were very disappointed to find was an extremely obvious social trail from the A.T. to the plane crash that went across a fragile alpine environment AND was marked with red paint. The red paint was even on the A.T. Although many locals know through the grapevine that the plane crash exists, this obvious destruction of natural resources is inappropriate. Therefore, we obliterated the red paint that was marking this social trail. Unfortunately, the amount of foot traffic on the social trail has already killed all of the fragile alpine plants on the path. These plants are unlikely to ever regenerate due to the compaction of the soil and their extremely slow growth rate.

The obvious social trail:

The red paint on the A.T. (not allowed!):

Ray obliterating the red paint with camouflage paint:

Red paint along the social trail before and after:

Here are some of Ray's close-up photos of the beautiful alpine vegetation that has been destroyed by this social trail.

Wildlife #2

2007-09-28T13:58:00.001-04:00

We have learned something about moose in the last weeks. It is that when you are ready with your camera out and a sharp eye, they are no where to be found! And especially if you go out looking for them, then you don't have a chance. But when you are just sitting back in the truck, still a little sleepy since you're on the way to work, with your camera in your bag in the back of the truck BAM! there's a moose. (Don't worry, not BAM in a we hit a moose kind of sense, but in a oh my gosh a huge moose walking on the side of the road!) So, once again, we did not get a picture of moose 4. But we will be more strict with our camera accessibility in the future! Moose 4 was the biggest moose we've seen. He also had the giant moose rack that you always think of when you think of a moose. It was breathtaking! So, once again, here is Stihl standing in for his older brother.

Even without a moose picture, this has been a great week for wildelife! We saw what we thought might be a wolf but is actually a coyote.

We saw a lot of grouse and spruce grouse on the trail. Sometimes they just walk in front of us, but sometimes they fly away with a lot of fuss and noise.

This gal didn't seem bothered by us at all and even stopped for a drink of water while we watched.

The other type of bird that we've been seeing a lot of are grey jays. Tom told us how they are thought to be the ghosts of dead loggers. They are the friendliest, most curious birds I have ever seen. They are this way naturally, not because they have been acclimated or trained by humans. They fly alongside us as we hike and come sit by us as we eat lunch. That is why they are thought to be the ghosts of dead loggers, because of their friendliness and curiosity towards humans. They even came and sat on Ray's and my hands during lunch one day! It was amazing!

Week 3

2007-09-23T12:34:00.011-04:00

This is the halfway point. Yes, we have survived 3 weeks of working on the boundary in the Mahoosucs and are ready for 3 more! This week was awesome! We had great weather, great views, and great people out on the boundary.

For those of you keeping up on our progress (see Maps post from last week). Here is how far we got this week.

We had two crews running 3 of the 5 days this week, so we made a lot of progress.

The east crew consisted of Sally, Ray, & Ellen most of the time, with Adam, Emily, and David (our volunteer camp coordinator) each spending a day on it as well.

(before)
(after)

These are a before and after of what we're dealing with on the east side of the boundary.

Here's David, our volunteer Camp Coordinator, who came out and volunteered with us on Friday. He's a friend of Sally's and after hearing about the Mahoosucs for 2 years wanted to come and check them out himself. He swamped with Ray and Ellen on Friday. He did an awesome job, though I do think we may have tuckered him out a little! Thanks David for coming out and volunteering! He also helped us get our food stuffs organized and cooked us blueberry pancakes for breakfast on Saturday and cooked us dinner on Saturday, our day off, when we were all too tired to do anything.

The west crew consisted of Emily, Aaron (an AMC staffer who's working with us for 2 weeks and worked with us last year), and Adam (a New England ATC staff), with Sally spending Friday with them after Adam had to go back to the office.

Here's what they were dealing with on the west side of the boundary.

Here's the crew from the west side: Emily with the saw (yes, 2 crews means 2 saws - thanks AMC for letting us use yours), Adam (or as Sally calls him "Tall Dude") and Aaron.

Here's a cool comparison of a 20 year old US Boundary sign and blaze and a new one that Sally had just put up:

A Day on the Boundary

2007-09-23T12:34:00.009-04:00

Our work days don't just consist of being on the boundary. There's a lot more that goes into a project like this. This week, since our work site is in between two shelters, we are doing day hikes. So, first, we have to get up (now for those of you that know me, this is definitely the hardest part of my day) with complaining muscles and sore legs to start the new day. Then we drive up to Success Pond Road. Then we hike in 3.6 miles to where we stopped the day before (and as we're working trail south, the more progress we make means the longer this distance gets). Then we have to get all of our stuff ready:

There's gas to pour, extra supplies (like paint, nails, and signs) to get ready, and of course, the clearing saw to sharpen. There's Ray and Sally pouring gas into "sigg" fuel bottles, which are easier to carry on the boundary.

There's Emily sharpening her saw - now that she's using the AMC saw every day, she's definitely feeling the love for the saw.

Then we've all got to get suited up for the day. It's too thick and the terrain is too bad to be wearing packs all day, so we all put on what tools and equipment we'll need to work and hump our packs forward when we stop for breaks.

There's Sally with her orange vest on for safety, so it's easier for the person with the clearing saw to see her in the sea of spruce and firs. It also has nails, washers, and flagging tape in its pockets. Then on her belt, she's got a saw, the camera, her water bottles, and US Boundary signs.

Here's a good shot of Ray working, but notice the saw attached to his belt and the orange vest for safety. It also has his water, measuring tapes, and other equipment he'll need as swamper.

Then there's me, Ellen, I've got my saw harness, my camelback, and of course my PPE (personal protective equipment) to put on before I can start using the saw.

This week we again, had some fun stuff to climb over on the boundary to get to where we had stopped the day before.

Then we work all day on the boundary:

Sally obliterating a mistaken blaze, blacked-out 20 years ago.

Me with my saw, yay!

Emily sawing, and Aaron swamping.

Ray digging for a monument.

Then we hike another 3.6 miles home:

It's a great life!

The Axe

2007-09-23T12:34:00.007-04:00

Ray found an axe on the boundary this week just before monument 161-NH-4A. Now, we know this line hasn't been walked in 20 years. The axe while still in good condition and very sharp is covered with a pretty nice layer of rust. If you've been keeping up with our blog, you may remember from the surveyor's notes (see our first post - Mahoosucs) that Bill cut his leg to the bone at one point. When we first found the axe we got excited that maybe this was where Bill had cut his leg, but after looking back at the surveyor's notes, we found out that it wasn't as that happened around 162-NH-12A. It's still very cool to have found a 20 year old Estwing (best brand ever!) axe on the boundary.

The Views/Leaves

2007-09-23T12:34:00.005-04:00

This week has definitely been full of the most beautiful views we have seen. AND the leaves are starting to change colors. So here are some pics of the great views and the great colors we've gotten to see:

Here are views from Mt. Success:

(Wendy, here's your cover shot for the ATC 2009 calendar!)

Sally & Ellen on the boundary:

The quaking alpine bog on top of Mt. Success:

The leaves - oh so pretty!

Some Greyjays that followed us for a little while on the Trail:

Week 2

2007-09-16T16:55:00.000-04:00

All right, week 2 was again a great week. We camped out at Carlo Col Shelter again. We succeeded in getting the entire north/west side of the boundary from the ME/NH state line to Success Trail done. Yay! (And we saw 2 moose - see Wildlife post)

This week the crew was Sally, Tom, Ray, Ellen, and Emily. Tristan, an AT hiker who helped out on with the Sherpa Train came out and volunteered on day 1 as well.

Here are Tristan, Ray, and Tom cheering to a good first day of work.

After the first day, we split into two teams. Ray, Ellen, and Emily made up one team. We worked from the middle of the north side of the boundary to Maine, then back south to meet up with Sally & Tom, who were working north from the Success Trail. This is us at 161-NH-8, the monument on the ME/NH state line. Ellen's in Maine. Ray's in New Hampshire. Emily's in a little bit of both! Just because our team had the camera, doesn't mean that Sally & Tom weren't working hard, too. Actually, they were probably working harder as a 3 person team can get about twice as much done in a day as a 2 person team. The added benefit of a swamper makes a huge difference.

Ellen & Emily shared time on the saw this week.

Here's Ray digging (with gusto!) for a monument.

This is a before picture of this boundary line. While the terrain wasn't as merciless as last week, it was still pretty overgrown in places. This line was "maintained" in the spring of 2004. Unfortunately, we found that it had to be completely redone, since the brushing, painting, and signing was inadequate considering the threat of encroachment.

One funny story from this week: We stopped for lunch at a monument but had not located it yet. When we did find it, we discovered that Ray had been sitting over it at lunch with his feet literally on either side of it and his lunch sitting right on top of the monument!

Wildlife

2007-09-16T13:55:00.001-04:00

Along with our quest for meese? mooses? multiple moose? we have seen quite a bit of wildlife in our last two weeks.

But first . . . our 3 moose that we have seen. Matt Stevens in the Lyme Regional Office promised me 5, so be prepared for more moose pics in the future.

No, this isn't our real first moose. This is Stihl - our boundary crew mascot. He's representing our first moose sighting, which happened week 1 while driving home at night. The female moose ran by our car for a little while, then turned into the woods. I was so excited I didn't get a picture until the moose had already headed into the woods and all I got was a really dark pic of a moose butt.

This is moose #2. We saw him on our hike up on the Carlo Col Trail week 2. He hung around long enough to pose for some pictures. It was really cool to see a moose in the wild!

Again, Stihl is standing in for moose #3 as I didn't manage to get pics . Sally, Emily, & I were driving out Success Pond Road on Friday night. Everyone has told us how all you see of a moose when you drive up on it is it's legs, and they're right. Sally stopped a good 15 feet from the moose, but all we really saw was some shadowy looking stick things in the headlights at first. This moose was not at all impressed by us. He actually aggressively blew air out his nostrils at us. Emily told Sally not to honk her horn, which Sally had no intention of doing. Emily said that moose in rutt have been known to flip trucks that honked their horn at them! We definitely don't want to get in a fight with a moose (I have a feeling we would end up on the wrong end of that), so we just sat and waited until he decided to leave. The camera was in the back in my pack, so no photo of that guy either. :(

Other cool wildlife we have seen on this trip:

A saw-whet owl one night at Carlo Col Shelther.

A toad came and visited me at my tent platform the first night I set up.

Mom, don't look at the next pic!

A snake that was sunning on the trail one day on our hike into the boundary.

We've also seen multiple squirrels, chipmunks, and mice.

Maps

2007-09-16T13:54:00.000-04:00

We've had some requests for maps showing where we are and what we're getting done.

This is where we are. We're working in the Mahoosucs going trail south from the ME/NH state line toward the Androscoggin River. The NPS corridor ends at the shared boundary of the Lead Mine State Forest in New Hampshire.

This is a topo map of the Mahoosucs with what and when we've been working. And below is a blow up of the upper right corner showing more detail on where and when we've been working.

We have been working from the ME/NH state line trail south. The state line to the yellow pin is part of the boundary that was cleared, painted, and signed in 2005 by Sally & Lauren. The yellow pin to the green pin is the boundary we cleared, painted, and signed week 1. The state line to the blue pin is the boundary we cleared, painted, and signed week 2.

Logging in New Hampshire

2007-09-16T13:52:00.000-04:00

Here is an MSNBC article from May 2005 about logging in New Hampshire. T. R. Dillon is the one of the loggers who owns lands adjacent to the corridor.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7722058/

Ben & Lauren (aka Stitch & Figgy)

2007-09-09T17:13:00.001-04:00

Thru-hikers Ben & Lauren (aka Stitch & Figgy) took 2 days off of their thru-hike to volunteer with us on the boundary. We really appreciate their time and enthusiasm to come out with us. They helped out with the Sherpa Train, then met us two days later on the trail to do a day of boundary work.

Ben & Lauren on the Sherpa Train.

Ben swamped most of the day, which means he cleared spruce and fir trees that Sally & Ellen had cut down off the boundary.

Lauren helped clear the line and swamp.

Check out Ben & Lauren's AT adventure at http://www.bltadventure.blogspot.com/

Thanks ya'll and have a great rest of your hike! We hope to hear from you after you summit!

Sherpa Train

2007-09-09T17:06:00.000-04:00

On Labor Day, we packed in supplies, tools, paint, gas, the clearing saw - yay!, etc. Emily Meachem, the AMC Mahoosuc Rover, Sally, Tom Wheeler (the Dartmouth Outing Club Monitor Coordinator, aka New Hampshire Hill Walker), thru-hikers Ben & Lauren (aka Stitch & Figgy), and Tristan, an AT hiker (aka Clearwater), and Ellen (not pictured) were the Sherpa Train. We met at a playground in the morning, then carpooled to do the Sherpa Train.

Everyone was pretty well weighed down. Our thanks to Dick Potteiger for making the freighter packs we used! They made carrying our stuff much easier.

The Sherpa Train. Ellen with the clearing saw in the Granite Gear pack went last.

Sally did a short boundary lesson after the Sherpa Train.

Sally teaching Lauren how to sight the boundary line using the compass.

The Forestry Clearing Saw

2007-09-09T16:41:00.000-04:00

Our new toy, I mean tool, on the Boundary Crew is the Stihl Forestry Clearing Saw 450 - yay! It just gives you shivers reading the name, doesn't it. Due to the efficiency and just plain kick-assedness of this tool, we are able to get so much more done than we could by hand. Here are some pics of this wonderful, beautiful, amazing tool. Yay!

Here's Ellen using the clearing saw. These pictures don't even begin to show the thickness of the spruce and fir trees on the boundary!

Carrying the clearing saw on the Pack In. It made it ok most of the time, but I did get clothes-lined a couple of times.

Sally & I discussing the poor footing on the boundary and deciding to stop using the saw. Safety first.

I'm officially the Keeper of the Saw. You can try to pry it from my cold dead hands, but I wouldn't suggest it.

Our Commute to Work

2007-09-09T16:22:00.001-04:00

Love it or hate it, we all have to commute to work. Here are some pics from our commute this week.

We had some beautiful views! This is an overlook just south of Carlo Col Shelter.

Ellen on one of several rock scrambles on our hike from Carlo Col Shelter on the AT to where we're working on the boundary. This one is fun but hard for us with leetle legs.

Sally hiking on puncheon through a boggy area.

Sections like this got much harder as the week went on.

More rock scrambles. Fun, but oh so exhausting!

Yes, these rocks are steep and slippery!

Ray taking a break on the hike to work.

Week 1

2007-09-09T15:32:00.000-04:00

Well, folks, here we are in the Mahoosucs. We hiked up to Carlo Col Shelter on Wednesday morning and started working on the boundary. We accomplished our goal for the week, which was to clear, paint, and sign the line from Success Pond Trail to the Maine line. Both Sally & I agree that this was the hardest week we have ever worked on the AT. (And that's after 2 years of trail crew for me!) We've been beaten up by spruce and fir trees and crawled over some of the steepest and most difficult terrain we've ever worked on the boundary. We had to go down a very steep ravine and back up on footing that consisted of roots and rocks covered by moss, so that you look and say, "that looks like solid ground" and then end up knee to hip deep in a hole. We also came to the other side of where the line dropped off a vertical rock face. That's where we stopped as we could not go any further. But, we stayed safe, we had fun, and we accomplished our goal for the week!

This doesn't even begin to show how thick the boundary is with spruce and fir trees.

Sally went out first, found and painted the line. She was pretty much swimming in trees the whole time, and had to wear the orange safety vest so the person on the clearing saw would be sure to see her.

The excitement of finding a monument! Yay!

We had to clear, paint, and sign from one side of this very steep ravine to the other. Follow the compass sight to see where the boundary line goes.

Tom passing gear up through the "keyhole," one of many obstacles we encountered on the boundary.

Sally & Ray (the third member of our crew, who just finished his ridgerunning season and joined us on Saturday) on the steepest section of the boundary yet!

Ray painting the last blaze as it's pretty obvious that we couldn't follow this side of the boundary any further. Sally & Lauren had worked the other end of the boundary line in 2005. The monument in between where they worked and we finished is on a vertical rock face on this rock outcropping above Ray's head.

Ray & Tom hiking up the boundary line. It was slow, tough going!

More pics of how tough this boundary was - the toughest boundary section Sally & I have seen!

And The Journey Begins

2007-08-28T10:21:00.000-04:00

We started our trip up to the Mahoosucs on August 30. Here's a couple of videos showing us getting and being ready:

Mahoosucs

2007-08-27T13:42:00.000-04:00

The historic month long boundary project in the Mahoosucs begins in just 2 days when we start our drive up to Gorham, New Hampshire. The reason this boundary reclamation project is so important is that most of Appalachian Mountain Club's (AMC) 28 mile section of boundary has not been maintained in the past 20+ years since the original survey work was completed by Civil Consultants. In 2007, the surveyed boundary lines are now almost unrecognizable and buried within extremely thick spruce fir successional regrowth, the yellow paint is faded, the monuments are hidden under moss and duff, and many of the the U.S. Boundary signs are missing or falling off the trees. As much as we might wish to say that this lack of maintenance is rare along the Appalachian Trail (AT) Corridor boundaries, it's not uncommon given both the extreme backcountry setting that the corridor winds through in this area and that boundary maintenance work by the local volunteer trail maintaining clubs is optional.

So why then are we devoting so much of our 2007 fall field season in the Mahoosucs? Is it just because it is amazingly beautiful and we enjoy spending time there and sleeping on the CWG (AKA cold, wet ground)? Is it because it's just a damn fun word to say - say it - Ma-hoo-sucs! While all of these are true (well, Sally isn't the biggest fan of the CWG), the areas where the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) Boundary Crew works during their fall and spring field seasons is determined by several things: where the highest priority areas are for the surveyed line being permanently lost; where the biggest threats are to the AT corridor by adjoining land use or development; and/or where the local AT club has requested help from ATC with boundary maintenance. In the case of the Mahoosucs, all three of these situations apply. Due to intensive logging, both sustainable and liquidation, on both sides of the AT Corridor, this project couldn't be more timely. Due to how faded and overgrown most all of the boundaries throughout the Mahoosucs have become, the potential for loggers cutting over the boundary and into the corridor is a very real threat. The intensive logging currently going on in New Hampshire's Success Twp. has put the Mahoosuc boundary recovery work at the top of ATC's boundary maintenance priority list for the last several years and has led us to devote the entire month of September 2007 to reclaiming as many boundary miles as possible.

(Before pictures from last year of how thick and faded the boundary is)

(Ellen hanging signs last year looking from a not-yet-cleared section of boundary to a cleared and painted section.)

The crew is excited about the challenge of repainting, clearing, and signing the boundary while living and camping in the Mahoosuc backcountry. The full-time crew consists of our Boundary Program Manager -Sally Naser (AKA "the Surveyor General"), the Pennsylvania Cumberland Valley Ridgerunner - Ray Brassington; and me - Ellen Gass, former Konnarock Assistant Trail Crew Leader, and now devoted and returning boundary crew seasonal. We are also excited about being joined by any willing and able boundary volunteers from AMC (at present, there are only 2) or other neighboring AT Clubs (including DOC), hopefully some '07 AT thru-hikers wanting to give something back to the Trail on their northward journey to Mt. Katahdin, AMC field staff, and other ATC New England field staff. We'll be sure to introduce all our boundary helpers along the way. Needless to say, the next month of boundary work in the Mahoosucs followed by 2 weeks in October in the 100 Mile Wilderness will be extremely hard both physically and mentally, but we're up the challenge and looking forward to working with the local clubs to help them with the equally important maintenance aspect for successful boundary management. Civil Consultants, the firm who surveyed the boundary in the Mahoosucs, won the Engineering in Excellence Honor Award for 2001 for surveying this and other AT Corridor boundaries in Maine. As you can see below in some of their work log entries, they had it a lot harder than we ever will (we hope) to monument and mark the original survey. They took some very interesting notes detailing some specific challenges and demoralizing incidents they faced in the Mahoosucs:

"I was stung 4 times and Matt once. After hitting the third nest it inhibits your eagerness to cut new line!"

"An exhausting day physically and mentally (sometimes you get nervous on the edge of a cliff with a $10,000 box on your back). Oh, I almost forgot I got stung 3 more times."

"RAIN Accomplished Nothing"

"Bill cut leg ~ 11:00 am - 3/4 " long cut to bone - walked back to camp for Butterflys - decided to continue out" (NOTE" the rest of the crew kept working!)

"What a useless place to put a Boundary traverse line!"

We will be posting our progress, our challenges, our triumphs, our new boundary friends, and hopefully some moose pictures on this blog (Sally promised me at least 2 moose sightings this year, let's see if she can follow through!) We would really enjoy hearing your comments and questions and look forward to seeing you out on your club's boundary section sometime soon!