It bills itself “Trail City U.S.A.,” and each
May thousands of trekkers descend on tiny Damascus, Va.,
during its annual “Trail Days” festival (Damascus
VA). The Washington County town is the first bit of civilization
north-bound Appalachian Trail hikers encounter after they
cross the border into the Old Dominion. The week-long
celebration culminates with the “Hiker’s Parade”
down the main stretch after days of continuous bluegrass,
gospel or country music and good eating.
More than a quarter of the 2,174-mile-long Appalachian
Trail follows the ridges and valleys of the Commonwealth.
The A.T., as it is known to its enthusiasts, is considered
the brainchild of an early 20th-century forester named
Benton MacKaye, who published an article in 1921, "An
Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning,"
in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects.
A visionary, MacKaye saw the A.T. as a way “to reduce
the day’s drudgery. The toil and chore of life should,
as labor saving devices increase, form a diminishing proportion
of the average day and year. Leisure and the higher pursuits
will thereby come to form an increasing portion of our
lives.” It took another 16 years, but the A.T. opened
as a continuous trail through 14 states from Maine to
Florida in 1937.
In Virginia, the 544 miles of the trail wind north from
Damascus over Mt. Rogers, our highest peak at 5,729 feet,
pass near Blacksburg, up through Rockfish Gap, into Shenandoah
National Park, through Snicker’s Gap near Berryville
and cross into West Virginia briefly at Harper’s
Ferry before continuing on through Maryland. Nine different
organizations maintain the trail as it meanders through
the state, from the Mt. Rogers Appalachian Trail Club
in the south to the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club up
north.
It probably depends on one’s point of view whether
hiking the A.T. is a “leisure activity” as
MacKaye hoped. The number of diehards or “thru hikers”
in A.T. vernacular, has increased exponentially in recent
years. Between 1936 and 1969, only 69 hikers had completed
a thru trip, hiking the entire 2,000-plus miles in one
season. In the 1970s that number jumped to 743 and in
the past six years, 3,502 hardy souls have completed the
trek (Appalachian Trail Conservancy).
Those who attempt the endeavor usually allow six months.
The Virginia portion of the A.T. can take six weeks or
more. In 2003, thru-hiker Whitney Kemper, a Tennessee
resident who posted his A.T. journal to the Nashville
City Paper reached Damascus on April 28, Waynesboro by
May 19 and was in Pennsylvania by June 2, a fairly rapid
journey (Nashville City Paper -- Whitney Kemper A.T. Journal).
Overall, Kemper reported he hiked about 1,153 hours on
his entire trip, an average of 8.94 hours a day and 1.88
miles per hour.
The A.T. hikers are a breed apart and probably only a
small percentage of those who enjoy the Old Dominion’s
trails. Even Damascus boasts its proximity to not only
the Appalachian Trail, but the Virginia Creeper Trail,
a 35-mile hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding
trail that follows an old railroad bed. Its name supposedly
derives either from the speed of the trains as they negotiated
the mountain curves or the foliage that bordered the track.
A portion of the trail is maintained by the U.S. Forest
Service as a National Recreation Trail.
In addition to such federally maintained trails, including
500 miles of trails in Shenandoah National Park and 900
in George Washington National Forest, the commonwealth
offers 450 miles of trails in its 70 parks, natural areas
and historic sites. Almost seven million people visited
our state parks in 2005, many taking to the trails. By
comparison, it’s estimated only three to four million
people hiked portions of the Appalachian Trail along its
entire East Coast route last year.
Virginia introduced its state park system about the same
time that the Appalachian Trail came into being in the
mid-1930s. The commonwealth opened six parks on the same
day – June 15, 1936 – the only state in the
U.S. to open an entire system at one time. The six parks
still exist today: Douthat, which straddles Bath and Alleghany
Counties; First Landing near Virginia Beach; Fairy Stone
in Patrick County; Staunton River near South Boston; Hungry
Mother in Smyth County; and Westmoreland in its namesake
county (Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation).
There are a little over 80 miles of trails in these six
original parks, many built by Roosevelt’s Depression-era
Civilian Conservation Corps. The remaining trail miles
developed over the next 70 years. The state’s newest
parks, James River in Buckingham County; Andy B. Guest
Shenandoah River in Warren County, Wilderness Road in
Lee County and Belle Isle in Lancaster County were all
purchased with funds from the 1992 natural area bonds
referendum. They added a bit more than 30 miles of trails
to the state system.
Who hikes Virginia’s rustic byways? All ages. All
sizes and shapes. Some, such as the A.T. regulars test
themselves. Others are more leisurely birders or wild
flower enthusiasts. Some pedal mountain bikes; others
go on horseback. Some even negotiate the trails in wheelchairs.
Perhaps one of the more unusual trekkers was the shoeless
hiker that writer Maryalice Yakutchik ran into on a rocky
ledge in the Shenandoah Mountains more than a decade ago.
She finally asked him why he hiked barefoot and here’s
how she described his answer: “freedom summed it
up best: freedom from dependence on equipment, freedom
from competition with oneself or with others. His goal
wasn’t to bag Old Rag, wasn’t to check it
off some list, wasn’t to brag ‘Been there,
done that.’ Conquering the mountain had little allure.
He was out to find the new in the ordinary. That, he said,
is the essence of creativity.” It seems that philosophers
also travel our trails.
April 3, 2006
Nice & Curious
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