Clearing the Way
The Appalachian Trail Bill was signed by President Carter last year, enabling the National Park Service to acquire — through purchase or eminent domain — a 1,000-foot-wide corridor of land to serve as a right-of-way for the 2,000-mile-long footpath stretching through 14 states from Maine to Georgia. The corridor will either surround the trail in its present location — .and protect it from development pressures — or relocate it from roads and other undesirable settings to a more natural route. Because the Dartmouth Outing Club is one of about 60 volunteer organizations with responsibility for maintaining sections of the trail, we asked Earl Jette, the executive director, about the club's involvement in the federal project.
He told us that of the 75 miles of Appalachian Trail maintained by the Outing Club, 55 miles are being moved out of swampy areas, off steep slopes, and away from roads to make a better section of hiking trail that will generally follow a ridge line and be easier to maintain. About ten miles of upgrading and relocation already have been completed, he said. The work was started four years ago in the White Mountain National Forest (because no agreements with private landowners were necessary there), and is presently underway on sections of trail that cross Dartmouth property or pieces of land where owners have given permission. As soon as the Park Service concludes agreements with the other property owners, Jette said, the club will tackle some 40 miles of trail between the edge of the National Forest and Hanover — a project scheduled for completion in three or four years. The remaining miles of DOC trail in Vermont will be last to receive attention, Jette noted, because the Park Service has met some opposition there.
Jette explained that when constructing a new trail, one thinks of a tunnel through the woods, six feet wide and ten feet high, and attempts to remove all the vegetation inside it, in addition to leveling a path suitable to walk on. After the proposed route is surveyed, the first step in trail building is to fell trees so that they drop perpendicular to the trail, then to clear and scatter brush so that it deteriorates rapidly. "You want things to look as natural as possible." Next, where the trail traverses steep side pitches, the path is dug out and flattened, and on steep downgrades water-bars or log steps are built to prevent erosion. In low, marshy areas the crew tries to anticipate wet spots and digs drainage ditches — or installs steppingstones large enough to keep from sinking into the ground. On rocky areas, where leveling is impossible, rock steps are built. Finally, the new trail is blazed by painting two-by-six-inch stripes on trees. (The object is to make it possible for a hiker to see no more than one blaze ahead — enough to mark the way but not so much that the route looks painted.) It recently took an experienced crew of three a total of ten weeks to put in slightly less than three miles of not particularly difficult trail, Jette pointed out.
The work is all being done by students — this year under the direction of Paula Clemens '80 — who volunteer on weekends or, during the summer, work full-time for the DOC trail crew. "There's lots of interest in trails in the club," Jette said. "The students see the relocation project as a challenge, and they're anxious and ready to go. They have a real sense of pride in the Dartmouth section of the Appalachian Trail, and they want to make it a showplace."
