{"id":157675,"date":"2023-10-06T09:32:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T13:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=157675"},"modified":"2023-10-07T16:05:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T20:05:00","slug":"for-bates-students-a-trip-to-the-appalachian-trail-is-a-trip-back-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/06\/for-bates-students-a-trip-to-the-appalachian-trail-is-a-trip-back-in-time\/","title":{"rendered":"For Bates students, a trip to the Appalachian Trail is a trip back in time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During Orientation, a group of first-year Bates students paid a visit to a remote stretch of Maine wilderness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways, it was a return trip for Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting in 1938, student members of the Bates Outing Club, working with the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, have regularly traveled to western Maine to help maintain a specific section of the Appalachian Trail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The so-called Bates section extends from an old railroad line, known as the Bemis Track, to a permanent lean-to on Bemis Mountain, a stretch of about 3.7 miles. (The entire trail in Maine is 282 miles.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1940, The<\/em> Bates Student<\/em> described <\/strong>Bates students helping to \u201cclear the trails, blaze trees, replace signs, and repair lean-tos and foot bridges.\u201d Eighty-three years later, the volunteer work remains the same and remains important, says Sander Katz \u201925 of Wilmington, Del. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katz and fellow junior Fiona Wilson of Barnstead, N.H., led seven first-year students to do trail maintenance on the Bates section around Bemis Mountain and the nearby Bemis lean-to. The trip was one of 57 student-led trips this year sponsored by the Annual Entering Student Orientation Program (AESOP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bates Outing Club members on a 1962 work trip to the Bates section of the Appalachian Trail \u2014 self-described as “The Grubby Group” \u2014 pose for a photograph. Pictured are BOC adviser and professor T.P. Wright, Cilla Bonney-Smith ’65, Paul Ketchum ’64, Suzie Smith ’65, Brad Wyman ’65, Lee Pollock ’64, Cliff Baker ’64, Jack McPartland ’63, Nancy Levine, Marion Schanz Ratcliff ’63, Maribeth Perkins Grant ’65, Jane Downing ’65, Genie Wise Hathaway ’63, Irwin Flashman ’65. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Katz explains that hikers sometimes \u201ctake for granted that the trails we hike on will be in working order, and don\u2019t think about the work that goes into maintaining them. It takes a lot of time and effort to clear the trail as well as bring the gear in to maintain it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the AESOP trip, the Bates group met with Ron Tebbetts, who is one of six district managers for the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. \u201cI really enjoyed my time with the students,\u201d Tebbetts said. \u201cThey treated this old man very well!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Georgia to Maine, maintenance of the Appalachian Trail depends on strong collaboration among various organizations, led by the non-profit Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and on the work of volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout volunteers, the trail wouldn’t exist,\u201d Tebbetts said. \u201cBates\u2019 association with the MATC and trail maintenance started many years ago and the MATC hopes that it continues for many more.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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The work goes beyond trail aesthetics. Trails need to be marked so hikers don\u2019t get lost. Bridges and boardwalks need to be in good shape so hikers don\u2019t trip or fall. Shelters and campsites need to be clean and safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVolunteers maintain signage, paint blazes, and clear the treadway of blowdowns and vegetative ingrowth,\u201d Tebbetts said. \u201cAs a through-hiker, I really appreciated having a clear trail to hike \u2014 not having to maneuver over, under or through blowdowns, which takes a lot of unnecessary effort and energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrangement for Bates to help with trail maintenance was announced in the Student<\/em> in December 1937. Myron Avery, a legendary figure in Appalachian Trail history who chaired what is now the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, said the new volunteers would \u201caid the problem of maintaining the entire trail in Maine.\u201d (Originally, the \u201cBates section\u201d was nearly 40 miles, not 3.7 miles as it is now, and maintenance of the whole length was a four-year process, “by senior year, a student was likely to have experienced the whole thing,” recalls retired BOC adviser Judy Marden ’66.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Circa 1967, Bates students pose at the Sabbath Day Pond lean-to on the Appalachian Trail, a few miles from where Bates student in 2023 did trail maintenance. From left, Tim Reed ’69, Don Searles ’68 (in back, with cup), Dorothy Kinraide ’69, and Colin Fuller ’69. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Starting in 1938, the Bates Outing Club did its work under the direction of another important figure in the history of the AT in Maine, William H. Sawyer Jr. of the Class of 1913, a longtime Bates biology professor and Outing Club adviser. Today, one of the Outing Club\u2019s two annual student leadership prizes is named for Sawyer, the other for Harold Norris Goodspeed, Class of 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Side note: Some historical accounts credit Sawyer and students, in 1934, with scouting and blazing the final section of the trail in Maine. Notwithstanding Sawyer\u2019s contributions to the Outing Club and the AT, that account is disputed.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film clip, from around 1939, shows Sawyer (in the Panama hat leading the group) and students doing maintenance work on the Appalachian Trail.<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/a>After viewing the 1939 video, Katz had a couple reactions. One, gear has come a long way. “Our backpacks are a lot more advanced than the ones that they had,” he says. “We now have very nice sleeping bags and sleeping pads and a shelter pre-prepared for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What hasn\u2019t changed all that much are tools. \u201cWe used saws, loppers, and pruners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1939 clip shows a frying pan filled with bacon. During the 2023 trip, dehydrated meals were used . The clip of the back then shows the students applying old-school bug repellant \u2014 nasty stuff made from pine tar \u2014 while the current students used DEET-based repellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During their stay, the Bates crew met a section hiker (someone who completes the AT in a series of multi-day trips over a period of time) at the Bemis lean-to. He told the Bates group that he was in charge of maintaining a trail system back in Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe said that we now owned that section of trail that we maintained. When we come back someday, we could say we took care of this trail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Additional reporting by Hannah Kothari \u201926<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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