Trail To Every Classroom Led to Calf Mountain!

by Mark Gatewood

Saturday, November 19, 2011 was a service-learning day for students from Riverheads High School and work trip for the Flying McLeods. It was a fine, late-fall day with unseasonable warmth, allowing more significant work on the 1.2-mile relocation of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail on Little Calf Mountain in the South District of Shenandoah National Park.

Students and graduates of Riverheads High School in Staunton, Virginia, joined with three freshmen from Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Virginia, for a day of work on the Little Calf Mountain AT relocation.

Riverhead High School students meet at Beagle Gap

Mark leads the Tailgate Review about tools and safety

Students at the dry stone field wall on Little Calf Mountain

Mark explains how to follow the flag line

And, here's the flag line!

Mark followed up with individuals and their technique

Digging sidehill is a group "thing"

The sidehill continues up hill...

You take a break when you need a break

These young people worked well together

Keep spread out away from your neighbor's tools

Day's End - But these people are ready for more!

The TTEC participants were led by:

• Jo-el Nelson, a 2008 Trail to Every Classroom (TTEC) graduate.
• Ken and Lori Overway, faculty members at Bridgewater College.
• Betty Gatewood, member of the TTEC advisory group, and Jenny Groh, mentorship supervisor for Augusta County Schools, worked, observed, and photographed the crew members and their results.
• Mark Gatewood, Flying McLeods crew leader, Introduced the volunteer history of the Appalachian Trail, safety and tool talk and described the need to relocate this AT section. The participants completed 80 yards of sidehill, which brought the AT project on Little Calf Mountain to a stopping point until spring.