Saturday marks the first of two ETSU Student Appalachian Trail (AT) Maintenance Trips scheduled for this spring. Students will be helping to build a new section of the trail at Iron Mountain Gap outside of the town of Unicoi, Tenn.
Members of the Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club (TEHCC) are coordinating the work while Dr. Kevin O’Donnell, professor of English and director of the environmental studies minor, organizes the effort on behalf of the students.
In the past, ETSU’s student participation has been sporadic at best.
Students connected with his classes in the past six years have volunteered here and there. “But, my feeling is we should get more ETSU students involved, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” O’Donnell said.
The new trail section that students will be helping to blaze, will replace a poorly graded, older section, part of an ongoing plan to improve the AT in this region. “TEHCC maintains the Appalachian Trail and side trails between Spivey Gap, N.C. and Damascus, Va.,” reports the TEHCC Web site http://www.tehcc.org/A.T.maint.
Weather permitting, the TEHCC has dedicated the third Saturday of each month to special projects, which includes trail relocations, shelter repairs and bridge construction, the Web site reports.
Few people realize that the 2,200-mile footpath is maintained by volunteers. O’Donnell got involved with trail maintenance service about six years. “I went out on a couple different trail trips and liked it,” O’Donnell said.
His passion carried over into the classroom. “I started, on a volunteer basis, getting students in my classes together who were interested in going out in small groups,” O’Donnell said.
Through his affiliation with TEHCC, O’Donnell has helped coordinate trips for students in the past couple years. “Last November we had a trip that was really good,” O’Donnell said. “A lot of people came out for it and everyone had fun.”
Since the TEHCC folks are already going out every third Saturday and welcome student help, O’Donnell says his part is relatively small.
“I give them [TEHCC] a rough head count,” O’Donnell said. “The students show up at the parking lot and we carpool to the trailhead. They bring all the tools, all sharpened and ready to go. So, they [TEHCC] really are the key people.”
The trail maintenance trips offer students an opportunity to give back to the community, but benefits don’t stop with just a sense of pride in helping out.
“By getting out on the trail, you learn more about access points to the trail and you meet people from the community. The people who go out always have fun,” O’Donnell said.
Trail maintenance trips also provide those looking to fulfill service commitments such as those required of many fraternities and sororities, with a healthy and meaningful way to meet to those obligations, O’Donnell said.
This Saturday’s activities will be special in that, participants from ETSU will be working side-by-side right along with students volunteering from nearby Appalachian State University as well.
“The work is not exactly easy, but we do work at a relaxed pace,” O’Donnell said. “Chopping at the ground with a Pulaski (a fire service tool) is real work, but nonetheless rewarding.”
Both of the trips are on Saturdays, March 24 and April 21 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and will originate from the parking lot of the Discount Liquors store, on the corner of University Parkway and South Roan Street, Johnson City.
If a trip is to be canceled because of weather, that decision will be made by 6 p.m. on the Friday before the trip.
Those interested are advised to check the environmental studies Web page at: http://www.etsu.edu/environmentalstudies/ for an announcement.
For more information contact: O’Donnell at odonnell@etsu.edu or by phone at 439-6679.

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