Hardcore

This weekend we drove down to Damascus, VA for Trail Days, the annual Appalachian Trail festival, and worked with Bob Peoples on his Hardcore trail building project. Bob Peoples, and his wife, Pat, are something of a legend on the AT, and for good reason. They run a lovely $4 hostel, for one. What thru-hiker can pass up a hot shower, warm bunk and laundry for that price? Last year, when we passed through we were among about 40 hikers that were housed and fed Easter dinner, as we sought shelter from a late spring snow storm. The accommodations at Kincora are simple, but the hospitality is endless.

Another thing Bob Peoples does is an annual trail building and maintenance project called Hardcore. He works with local trail clubs and recruits thru-hikers and alums (that's us!) to come out for a few days. Trail maintenance involves carrying very heavy tools, such as axes, pulaskis, and rock bars several miles into the forest (or over the balds, as it were), and then doing heavy labor all day before hiking back out. It's not for the faint-hearted. But Bob Peoples makes everyone work with a smile on their face. Over a hundred people came out this year, and we built about 3,800 feet of trail.

The best part of Trail Days was running into our hiker friends from last year. Bush Whacker, Eulah, Backyard Boogie, Brain, Yard Sale and Waffle, Diesel, Focus, Professor, Hellbender, Boo Boo, April Showers and Montreal, Shadow and Numbtoe, Hemlock and many others were there. It was great to see Bonnie Caroline, who started north on the very same day we did. I think the whole "walk a mile in another man's shoes" thing has some real validity, because I didn't know any of these people for a very long time, but I feel such a connection to them, even now.

We also met some kindred spirits who are making the trek this year. We'll be keeping track of Train Wreck and Pearl as they head north, and hopefully we'll be spreading around some Trail Magic later in the summer as the hikers hit Pennsylvania.

If I could do just one thing for my special education students, it would be to take them out into the woods and chill for a few days. Hunt for salamanders, walk some trail, build a campfire....these are the things that prime a young mind for true learning. I am working towards the day when that is the kind of instruction I will provide for children, compared to the bubble-filling-sit-in-your-desk crap I do now. I think it would be quite a bit easier to teach my hyperactive boys to read if their legs were tired from hard work and exercise.