Appalachian Trails Corridor monitoring Pics

 Just some pics of the 
Appalachian Trail and Corridor Monitoring.

If you love the AT and want to help, consider volunteering to watch over the lands.

In Tyringham, Massachusetts.

I write a little about AT Volunteering in this book:

Source: Bristow, R. (2025).  The Real Appalachian Trail BC.  Appalachian Trail Museum.

All proceeds go to the Museum.

Volunteer Vaca with AHS

 A chance to volunteer on the AT coming soon to Massachusetts.

Special Abbreviated Trip! Appalachian National Scenic Trail, MA - Volunteer Vacation 2024 - American Hiking Society

Clearing the Appalachian Trail Boundary is an important step for volunteers on the AT.

You can also volunteer here.

Camping out in the AT Berkshires (Tuesday 15 October 1974)

 On the 15th of October 1974. I was hiking on the AT south.  I camped out some 3 miles south of Dalton.  As I recall it was a cloudy day.

This is the historic topo for the area south of Dalton, so I camped out somewhere here.

And this map of my hike into Warner Hill area more recently.  I tried the AT on one trip but after climbing Warner Hill, I saw a fairly steep descent into the former homestead.  On the next trip I followed the old wood road into the settlement.

Notice the foundations on this LiDAR image on the AT corridor.

And some details here, showing stone walls, and foundations of the 19th century farm.  Blue lines represent the NPS boundary while the red (even chopped off) shows the Trail:

Here are some pics of the foundations taken November 2020.

This is a north/south roadway.

You can see this old road from the air photos.

Here is a Mass GIS air photo from 2021 showing cleared Warner Hill (old apple orchard) on left and old wood road on right.

So, next time you want to virtually explore an area, try Google Earth with historic imagery and topo maps.

LiDAR maps are a bit more difficult to find so search "LiDAR viewer" and "location" to see what might be available.  The imagery varies by location, availability and quality.

Trail Building Research Survey

 From the American Hiking Society:

Trail Building Research Survey 

You are invited to participate in a research study on trail use and trail building practices as they relate to stewardship ideology, sense of place, and community identity. Researchers from the University of Maryland are reaching out to folks with interest in trails—which is you of course. Your participation will help them develop a more participatory and nuanced understanding of trails and trail work in the United States and elsewhere. Participation involves completing a 15-minute long, anonymous survey.

https://umdsurvey.umd.edu/jfe/form/SV_3kOJAxYAFgAMOOy?Q_CHL=email

 

Appalachian Trail Corridor Monitoring

Time to hit the woods to do boundary monitoring for the National Park Service lands protecting the Appalachian Trail.  I am taking a bunch of students from my Recreation Geography class and joining them will be a few from my Site Planning Studio.

Should be a great day and I hope the weather holds out.

We have two tasks that day.  First will be a quick visit to a cultural resource in Sheffield.  Basically we just need to continue with the photo inventory to make sure the site is not being disturbed.

Next we will head up to Tyringham to do some corridor monitoring.  I have two tracks and haven't decided which one to visit, but in any case our job will be to find these monuments that mark the NPS lands.

So what is monitoring?  Well I created a few YouTube Clips.  The best overall description is this one.

Video 2.

Video 3.

One made in jest is found last.

I will probably make a new one this weekend.

Pretty cold here in New England

I was out on the Appalachian Trail yesterday.  Well not really the trail but the National Park Service lands. We are preparing some background info on cultural resource management.  My task is being a Volunteer Steward for the protection of one of these historic sites.  I get to work with some fine people from the local community, the AT Management Team in Massachusetts and the National Park Service.  Much more on this as it becomes a bit more organized. 

Returning home, I stopped by the corridor in Tyringham, trying out the Arc Collector App on my smart phone.  I am still trying to learn how to do this (and do it the same everytime) so this is still a work in progress.

One thing for sure is that it was cold, darn cold and operating a smart phone meant I had to take gloves off.  It was too cold to do this field work.

So, I hiked over to trail to return to the trail head and go home.  Hot peppermint tea was in a thermos.

Boundary Monitoring on the Appalachian Trail

A beautiful day to hike in the woods today.  So I headed west to the community of Tyringham, Massachusetts to find these monuments.

I hit several sections of the National Park called the Appalachian Trail to bushwhack in the woods to make sure no human or natural encroachments might threaten our park,  I am just one of thousands of volunteers that help our parks.  And what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

This panoramic shot is looking south through valley and in the distance the AT crosses the low Hop Brook valley.

The AT is a great public resource!

Appalachian Trail Boundary Monitoring

So, here is video I shot last fall.  Will try to hit the NPS properties this spring with my students.  Just need to wait for the snow to melt.  Out to hunt for these monuments:

Good stuff.

Appalachian Trail Boundary Bushwhacking

The fall is a great time to get out into the woods, and what better excuse to do so by doing some AT boundary monitoring.  Last weekend, I was in the Tyringham Valley, Massachusetts doing just that.
Here is a video of some work in Tract 246-17 and 246-13.  Enjoy.

Appalachian Trail Boundary Monitoring 2014

A couple times of the year I go out to the AT to walk along the boundary of the National Park.  A video of the walk is found on YouTube.

It is all about finding these monuments.

Appalachian Trail Monitoring

Checked out my section of the Appalachian Trail corridor yesterday during a snow shower. Really wasn't too cold, as long as we kept moving. The secret is to find these survey markers. Generally the yellow paint on the trees will help you find them, but sometimes you need to bushwhack through the woods with a compass to find them.

See this paper to learn more about monitoring:

Bristow, Robert S. 1988. "Volunteer-based recreation land management." Parks & Recreation. Vol 33 no 8, pp 70(7)