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Congratulations: 90 Mile Finished

12/31/2024

Congratulations to Nancy Sorrells and Sue Leonard for completing our North River Ranger District 90 Mile Challenge.

Their final hike was a 5.2 mile journey on Tillman Trail and the Tower spur up to the communications tower. That gave them 91.9 miles in 21 hikes.

They attempted to begin the challenge in March of 2022. Instead, they made a trek to Natural Chimneys because deep snow forced them to turn around near North River Gorge before they could get to the trailhead. They were planning to hike Tillman on that day so it is fitting that instead of Tillman being their first hike for the challenge, it was their last one to complete the challenge!

Below are pictures of Nancy and Sue on their final hike and at Augusta Springs.

To learn more about our challenge visit here:
https://www.ssvc.org/north-river-district-challenge.html

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Chapter Updates

12/1/2024

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SSVC Annual Chapter Meeting:
Our annual chapter meeting was held on Friday, November 22. Ranger Chris, Chief Ranger, Byrd Visitor Center shared some of his ranger comedy and told us about his life as a ranger. We had reports from Lynn Cameron (North River District), Dave Bowen (South District AT), Tim Hupp (Great Eastern Trail), Paul Boisen (Massanutten South), Angela Lawrence (Vice President), Jean Stephens (Trail Fest) and John Kolp (Outreach coordinator). It was a great night of delicious food, fellowship, and information.

News From Trail Fest
Michael Seth Receives Honorary Life Member Award

Michael is a long time valued member of our chapter and has been very active as a hike leader, trail maintainer and former chapter vice president. For many years, he has maintained the Second Mountain Trail on Massanutten Mountain. He organizes group work trips on his trail throughout the year, but we especially enjoy when our outings involve clipping blueberries bushes and enjoying some of the ripe fruit. Summer work always adds cooling off with a swim in Boones Run. This combination of work and fun is a special combination that Michael makes sure to include for our members. Not only does Michael work on his own trails, but he participates in Chapter work trips on sections of the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah National Park.

Michael is an avid hike leader for our chapter. Having explored most of the trails in our area, Michael is an expert. He often bases his hikes around the seasons. Examples of his ideas: spring-wildflower focused, summer--great swimming holes, fall--great views for leaf color, and winter--bushwacking to an old copper mine. Michael is a great companion for other leaders learning about local hikes. I can speak from personal experience that Michael is willing to hike anywhere and was a great assistant for me to become familiar with where to take groups hiking.

Finally, Michael has previously served as vice president of our chapter. One of his duties was to create the monthly schedule of hikes and work trips. He published newsletters about upcoming events and hike summaries. Michael was vital in keeping members of our chapter informed. More recently, he has served as a member of our nominating committee and advisor to our current leaders. His many years of service in various capacities, he provides an outlook that is unmatched.

Michael is an excellent ambassador of hiking and the PATC. He is friendly to all who hike-new, regulars, and visitors alike, befriending them all. He is delighted to get to know everyone. The lives of those who hike with Michael are better for it. His wealth of knowledge on varied topics and enthusiasm for the natural world are unmatched. With his helpful attitude, willingness to mentor others, and expert level of knowledge, Michael represents the spirit of volunteerism and is well deserving of the Honorary Life Member Award.

News From Trail Fest
Jean Stephens Receives SSVC's Hawksbill Award
For the past several years, Jean has been a dedicated leader for our chapter. She serves as a hike leader, trail maintainer, and is currently our chapter’s secretary. Jean is the trail maintainer for the AT section from Sawmill Run Overlook to Turks Gap as well as a section of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail. She also joins in helping others on their trails. As a trained Virginia Master Naturalist, Jean leads efforts to educate others about invasive species and works tirelessly to help remove them from the trail. Jean has also previously served as our chapter president for the past four years. She has been a valuable member of the planning committee for Trail Fest.
It is thanks to Jean and members like her that SSVC remains an active and interesting part of the community. Jean has been extremely deserving of this award for many years.

News From Trail Fest
Paul Boisen Receives North River District's Hawksbill Award
Paul Boisen has been an invaluable asset to North River District. He led JMU students in the rebuilding of rock steps from High Knob Parking down to Shenandoah Mountain Trail. These steps are much improved after being a safety hazard for many years. This was a multi-worktrip effort that spanned 2 years. Paul has taught our North River trail maintainers how to use maasdam and rigging on several challenging large blowdowns. Paul has a level of expertise on rock work and crosscut saw use that is greater than any of the other North River maintainers or Shenandoah Mountain Trail Crew members. Paul is a USFS-certified C Level Crosscut Sawyer (perhaps the only C Level in PATC at this time). He is generous with his time in assisting us in the North River District. We all learn from him when he leads or accompanies us. He helped Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS) train, evaluate, and certify or recertify 10 Level B crosscut sawyers in April 2024. He goes on most of our Shenandoah Mountain Trail Crew worktrips. In addition to having a great deal of expertise, Paul is very nice to work with and is very safety conscious.

News From Trail Fest
Pam Heinrich Receives Hike Committee's Hawksbill Award
Iva Gillet chairperson for the Hikes Committee said the following about Pam for her nomination: Pam Heinrich exemplifies an extraordinary PATC volunteer with her thorough involvement in so many aspects of the Club. Not only is she president of the Southern Shenandoah Valley Chapter, but she also leads trail maintenance trips, is a member of the Nominating Committee, and she led more PATC hikes this year than anyone else. She is quietly encouraging for new hikers, and is enthusiastic and inclusive for all who join her PATC activities. Leading 11 hikes in the past year, Pam shared her love of hiking and her concern for protecting our native environment. Pam is helpful to all who ask and demonstrates the best qualities of supreme volunteers. She well deserves this Hawksbill award.

News From Trail Fest
SSVC Members Receive Service Awards
The Service Award is given to members with outstanding volunteer service over the past year. Many thanks to our members that contributed as hike leaders, trail maintainers, outreach volunteers, and much more.

The following SSVC members received the service award: Angela Lawrence, John Kolp, Jim Fye, Jana Newman, Howard Davis, Rob Perry, Karen and Mike Waterman, Gary Flynn, Russell Fitzgerald, Jim Todd, Paul Boisen, Heather and Brian Denny, Lavern Beachy, Myra Robertson, Bob Costanzo, Kate Hoffmeyer, Bev Carver, and Barbara Martin.

PATC North River Sawyer Helps Clear AT near Mt. Rogers
News from the Shenandoah Mountain Trail Crew

As you all know, Hurricane Helene caused extensive damage to the Appalachian Trail in Southwest Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and farther south. This damage goes far beyond what local trail crews can handle on their own.
A couple of weeks ago, ATC contacted PATC to ask if any of our USFS certified crosscut or chain sawyers could help log out the AT in the Mt. Rogers area. PATC has many good crosscut sawyers who are not USFS certified because they work in SNP or in other areas that do not require USFS certification cards. North River District has most of the Club’s USFS-certified crosscut sawyers, a requirement for sawing on National Forest land.
Joe Sinegra, who was just certified as a USFS B Level Crosscut Sawyer in April, was able to go help out as a representative of PATC. He worked for two days with sawyers from other trail clubs. Read Joe’s first-hand account below.
While the crews made good progress, a lot of work remains to be done. ATC may be calling for more certified sawyers to help again.
We know we had several other sawyers who wanted to go and may be able to help out in the future. We will forward any calls for help we receive. Stay tuned.

Lynn and Malcolm Cameron
PATC North River District Managers

Joe Sinegra’s account:
On November 14th and 15th I had the opportunity to be a part of a multi-chapter AT club sawyer crew working on the AT in the Mount Rogers area. Damage from Helene was extensive in southwest Virginia, with the Mount Rogers ATC and USFS estimating as many as 100 down trees per mile impacting the trail between Mount Rogers and the VA-TN line.
Organized by the AT Conservancy, the crew consisted of volunteer crosscut and chainsaw certified sawyers from the Mount Rogers ATC, Natural Bridge ATC, Outdoor Club of Va Tech, Potomac ATC, and Roanoke ATC. USFS maintenance personnel were also involved in briefing the team on what they had encountered in their trail opening efforts in the aftermath of the storm; working 14 hour days since it was deemed safe to enter the woods.
Despite a late start on day 1 due to rain, chainsaw sawyers worked very hard to clear the area around the Trimpi shelter, privy, and spring and open up the blue blaze trail from the shelter to the AT. All total, cutting out approximately 52 trees. Crosscut sawyers worked the AT south into the Raccoon Branch Wilderness, cutting out approximately 31 trees. Many of the cuts for both groups were very complicated due to difficult binds and the fact that in most cases many trees were intertwined and interacting with each other. Notwithstanding these challenges, the wet weather, and not being familiar with one another, the entire crew worked methodically and safely, greatly improving access with no injuries.
Weather permitting, work will continue with the goal of clearing the trail to the state line in the next few weeks. Toward this end, the Forest Service indicated that they are going to pursue an exemption to allow chainsaws in the wilderness areas due to the volume of the work. No word on whether the Conservancy will be organizing more large scale volunteer efforts in the near future.
Respectfully submitted,
Joe Sinegra

A.T. Volunteer Opportunities
PATC President, Jim Fetig sent out notice of opportunities for individuals to volunteer. From the Appalachian Trail Conservancy:
"We also wanted to share that there are still opportunities to volunteer with an A.T. maintaining club this winter. In the southern region, A.T. clubs need your help more than ever as they start down the path of repairing and restoring the Trail after Hurricane Helene."

Use this link to explore opportunities.
https://volunteer.appalachiantrail.org/s/volunteer-project-search

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