Meet Our New Volunteers!

Young Ryan joined his famous Grandfather on the trail Saturday. This was the first time he had joined us and he had great guidance and encouragement from his Grandpa.

John and Ryan were a delight to see together and I can tell already he is going to be a pretty particular about doing it right when he works on the trail.
Of course with Allen and John as his mentors, he will know trail building as well as the best of us.
Thanks for your good work Ryan, you fixed that area up perfectly!

Melissa and Jack joined us for the first time Saturday too. They got up at sunrise in order to drive up from Charlotte to do volunteer service on the MST.

Jack and Melissa were eager to learn about the trail and be a part of the excitement. During our lunch break, Allen pulled out his MST maps to share. It is always fascinating to see maps that have notations from as far back as 1998 handwritten on the doggeared pages.

We were educated about the "Civil War Trenches" that were in the area we were working. At one time the trail actually neared them, now it is on the other side of the parkway. A short walk down to see what remains of the trenches was taken before heading back up to the trail to work.

In the afternoon Melissa and Jack helped with setting posts for the safety fencing we were installing. And why do we need safety fencing??? That light area behind them is the Blue Ridge Parkway, less than 12 feet away and 40 feet down the cliff!!!

That was the hard work, but their day begun with a task no one else would take!

Look at the photos below and try to figure out what they did.

Melissa commented it was sorta like looking for Easter eggs! ;-)

You can tell by the bounty they did a good job!

Little did they know that they were doing a task that indicates our progress. Finally, they were removing all tags, flags, surveys, and tapes from the 1.5 mile stretch starting at the 421 Bridge all the way to Osbourne Mountain Overlook! Thanks!

It is the involvement of new volunteers and inspired youngsters that will carry our trail forward for generations to come.

I think its time we have a "bring someone new" with you to work next week!

Thanks to all our volunteers, new and old, you are as valuable to MST as solid gold!