Tales From the Trail

September 17, 2009 • By Aaron Koepper,
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Class Presents Various Summer Semester-long Projects to Audience at Clementine Café

In May, professor Kate Kessler challenged students in her honors seminar class to not only become experienced hikers out in the Appalachian Trail, but to connect the very foreign environment of the AT to their own lives by developing a project in their own area of interest.

Some of the students were experienced, some had never hiked before, but they all developed projects that they presented to Harrisonburg’s chapter of the Sierra Club Tuesday night at Clementine Café.

The class itself consisted of three separate hikes and overnight trips, which took them from Rockfish Gap to just north of the Big Meadows entrance of Shenandoah National Park on the Appalachian Trail.

The first hike was only 6.6 miles and allowed students to adjust to the environment and find their own area of interest.

“It rained the whole time,” said Kessler, who teaches in the school of writing, rhetoric and technical communication. “Every single day, and at times it was pouring. I was so impressed with their morale — because we were soaked to the bone, to the skin, clear through.”

For junior computer science major Steven Irons, his trip on the trail brought “back memories of hiking with my friends in the first budding days of Spring, when all the trees lie with their barren branches.” He became the trip’s video documentarian, shooting enough footage throughout the trip to create a 15-minute video that aired at the beginning of the presentation at Clementine.

He referred to the trail in his video as a “boundless singularity” — where the students of the seminar could have an opportunity to expand their own academic horizons.

The trail itself was not their only resource: Leonard Atkins, who has hiked the entire AT five times and written two books on the course’s booklist: The Appalachian Trail: A Visitor’s Companion and Walking the Blue Ridge: A Guide to the Trails of the Blue Ridge Parkway, was along for the adventure.

By the end of the first week, the group adaptedto the demands of the trail and focused on developing their projects.

Sophomore engineering major Alex Haney’s project focused on the history and development of the AT: from its conception by Benton McKaye, who hoped the area would be retreat for the miners and factory workers in the area, up to the present-day recreational use.

Senior international affairs major Meagan Clark studied the culture among the hiking community on the AT and the diverse backgrounds of hikers.

“There’s a huge level of respect and connections between people who most of the time don’t know each other,” Clark said during Tuesday’s presentation. “They’re most of the time able to connect because they all share a common goal of moving forward. There’s a big level of trust and companionship between hikers.”

Sophomore biotechnology major Sarah Lott studied the ecology of the trail. She said she followed Atkins’ advice to “slow down and get a chance to notice the different flora and fauna of the forest, and get a change to enjoy that.”

She said that within the section the group hiked, there are more than 1,300 species of plants.

“Only in the rainforest of South America is it possible to find a larger of number of species of plants per acre that can be found in the Appalachians,” Lott said.

Among the trail’s unique plant life is the spider wort plant, which is a more sensitive detector of radiation than any available man-made equipment. Lott also noticed how native species like deer adapt to increased human presence, grazing on roadsides, unaffected by cars or humans.

Sophomore English major Mat Cloak gave a presentation on the books students read, and Lisa Corey, a vocal music education major, performed music composed by artists who spent time on the trail.

The class most of all urged attendees of the event and members of the Sierra Club to go out and hike the AT for themselves and accumulate unique experiences of their own to share.

“Go out in hike!” Corey said at the end of her presentation, who had no hiking experience at all before the trip. “If I can do it, you can do it!”

Contact Aaron Koepper at koeppead@jmu.edu

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One Response to “Tales From the Trail”

Sedentary Steve Fehr on September 17th, 2009 11:16 am

Sorry I missed the presentation, Aaron, and I love the title Tales from the Trail. I learned a lot talking to hikers in 2002. They’re like the kids from Lake Woebegone, a cut above the average. Keep up the good work. Please check:
Tales of the Trail – It’s a Trip!
Appalachian Trail Hikers, Interviews with the Class of 2002 .
http://sedentarysteve.googlepages.com/home

An ATC and Sierra Club member from Duncannon, Pa.

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