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Explore East Coast Wonders on the Appalachian Trail

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Appalachian Trail

Summary: The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is always looking for volunteers to help maintain the Trail between May and October.

The Appalachian Trail is not for the faint of heart. At 2,200 miles long from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, passing through North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Don’t Forget to Give Back with Volunteer Work

There are 31 different trail clubs, several partnerships, the National Park Service, United States Forest Service, and the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy that work together to maintain the trail. While the majority of the trail goes through forest and wild lands, there are parts that go along towns, roads and farms.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is a nonprofit organization that strictly focuses on the Trail. Their headquarters is in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Their commitment is to maintain and protect as well as educate. The size of the trail allows for an expansive study of the variety of ecology along the trail.

Finding the Perfect Volunteer Job- The Main Facts

While the positions are for volunteer, they need 6,000 volunteers giving a total of over 200,000 hours to help maintain the trail. The volunteers carry out tasks ranging from basic Trail work to major projects like building bridges and shelters to running outreach projects and supporting education programs. The volunteer crews work from May to October each year on projects that may last over a week to complete. They are expected to work eight to nine hour days in any weather, sharing in the daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, and tool care.

The education programs include teaching users of the Trail to hike and camp while using techniques that minimize damage to the environment. If working on the Trail with the Conservancy is something that sounds like your kind of adventure, applications are due January 31st.

Photo: appalachaintrail.org

Explore East Coast Wonders on the Appalachian Trail by
Authored by: Amanda Griffin