HUNTERSVILLE — Boy Scouts from Troop 97, chartered with St. Mark Church, celebrated God’s creation last spring and learned the value of proper trail maintenance by helping to repair a popular hiking trail.
The Boy Scout Troop worked alongside the volunteer Carolina Mountain Club to improve and repair a portion of the famous Appalachian Trail at Big Bald, a mountain located in the Cherokee National Forest near Erwin, Tenn. The service project was part of their preparations for an intensive Scout hike in New Mexico this summer.
The Appalachian Trail is 2,200 miles long, starting in Georgia and ending in Maine. An estimated 700 people hiked the full Appalachian Trail in 2019, and countless others hike portions of the trail every day for pure enjoyment.
The trail at Big Bald has exceptional 360-degree views, and on a clear day visitors can see Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. However, portions of the trail there had deteriorated, with ruts and muddy areas that made it hazardous for hikers.
To repair the trail and prevent further erosion, the U.S. Forest Service provided more than 15 tons of gravel/dirt mixture for the Carolina Mountain Club, and the Scouts pitched in with the effort.
The Scouts were assigned the task of filling buckets and wheelbarrels full of the gravel and dirt mixture – semi-frozen due to unusually cold temperatures at the time – then manually transporting the loads to the trail. The Scout Troop formed a production line to keep the approximately 40 Carolina Mountain Club volunteers well stocked with gravel as they made the repairs. In the words of Chris Werbylo, CMC’s crew leader, “Boy Scout Troop 97 was Saturday’s MVP!”
The Scouts also learned how to install water bars, which enable water to naturally flow off the trail and thus prevent erosion.
Joe Bange, another CMC crew leader, lauded the Scouts, calling them “very hard workers.”
“CMC would appreciate having the troop volunteer with us again,” Bange said.
The workday on the Appalachian Trail was a valuable lesson for the Scouts, who are planning to go to Philmont Scout Ranch this summer.
The arduous experience involves hiking more than 70 miles through the mountains of northeastern New Mexico.
As part of a service project linked to the Philmont trip, the Scouts decided to organize a project that provided an opportunity to learn about how to build and maintain safe hiking trails. A little bit of research turned up the Carolina Mountain Club, and the trail workday at Big Bald was on.
Since their successful trail workday, the Scouts have been meeting weekly to plan for the Philmont trek, honing their skills with monthly backpacking trips to areas as diverse as Mt. Rogers and the Grayson Highlands in Virginia and Congaree National Park in South Carolina.
In the words of Sasha Timkovich, Scout leader and St. Mark parishioner, “The day volunteering with Carolina Mountain Club at Big Bald enlightened the Scouts to the details and complexities of hiking trail maintenance. This work experience will enable our Scouts to more fully appreciate the Philmont 70-mile hike this summer.”
— Donna Bange, Special to the Catholic News Herald