By Lisa O'Donnell
Winston-Salem Journal Reporter

WYTHEVILLE, VA -- Not everyone who walks on the Appalachian Trail is equipped with hiking poles, backpacks and mess kits. Some tote Weed Eaters, chain saws and pickaxes.

Members of the Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers are likely to bring any number of lawn tools with them when they make one of their monthly visits to the storied trail. The group is responsible for maintaining a 57-mile section of the 2,100-mile path, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. Their work ranges from building bridges across beaver dams to cutting back overgrown blackberry bushes.

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Many of PATH's 200 members are from Winston-Salem and almost all are from North Carolina. Some members travel between four and six hours to spend their Saturdays splitting wood and cutting roots.

"Like most people here, I like to hike, and if you like to hike, the Appalachian Trail is where you want to go," said Gordon Burgess of Winston-Salem, who was been with PATH for 25 years. "Most of our members have hiked on the Appalachian Trail, and people decided they wanted to give something back." MORE THAN 30 clubs are registered with the Appalachian Trail Conference to maintain the trail, but the PATH club is just one of two - the other is in Maine - that is devoted strictly to trail maintenance. The other clubs are more socially oriented outing groups who work on the trail as side projects.

This year, 137 PATH members spent more than 6,200 hours working on their section of the trail in southwest Virginia, which runs from Secondary Road 670 at the south fork of the Holston River north to Secondary Road 623. The club also maintains an additional eight miles from Secondary Road 615 to U.S. 52 near Bland, Va.

Paul Clayton of Winston-Salem, the president of PATH, said that the group's segment rates favorably with other sections of the trail.

"There's always work to be done, but we are happy with the shape of the trail," he said. "We think hikers coming into the section will enjoy it." PATH's stretch of trail cuts through rolling meadows and open valleys dotted with old farmsteads, offering a refreshing change for hikers who have spent days in dense woods or on ridgelines.

"We're the first section of the trail (from the South) that comes down and crosses big, wide agricultural valleys," Clayton said. "That's our claim to fame really."

PATH members decide what projects to undertake. Complicated tasks such as moving a section of the trail must be approved by the National Forest Service; others, such as building steps along a steep grade, don't need prior approval and are planned and carried out by PATH members.

"To a large degree we wait for things to come up and we handle them," Clayton said. "Projects get done as they can."

PATH members routinely monitor the condition of their trail section, and they get feedback from hikers, who may alert the group to problems.

Major damage gets prompt attention. Earlier this year, beavers built a dam, causing portions of the trail to flood. "If there's something that is closing the trail, then our priority is to get the trail open," Clayton said.

From April to October, PATH members meet on the third Saturday of each month at the National Forest Service station in Wytheville, Va. Because the group leaves for thetrail early on Saturday morning, many spend Friday night at a nearby campground in the Jefferson National Forest. By 9 a.m., the group has scattered to various parts of the trail.

Often, it's a 30- to 45-minute drive to a trail access point, then an additional 30-minute or so hike in rugged terrain to the worksite. Members work until about 4 p.m., then gather at the campground where they may cook out or dine in Wytheville.

The group camaraderie is what keeps Vaughn Thomas of Winston-Salem involved. She joined PATH in 1986 after a friend's son hiked the trail.

"I came in on a work trip, and I was hooked," Thomas said. "It's like an extended family. Obviously, we get a lot of work done. But as devoted as we are to the trail, it's a people thing."

Early one Saturday morning, Thomas; her husband, William Branham; and two others were smoothing over an uneven section of the trail that cuts into Walker Mountain.

Thomas was bent over a pickax, cutting roots, while Steve Lund of Cary combed through the dirt with a fire rake. "We do our yard work on the trail," Thomas said.

Up the trail, about six PATH members were building a set of steps using wood they found in the forest and all the equipment they could carry. As one member sawed through a piece of wood to be used as a support beam, others hammered reinforcement bars into the ground.

A few miles farther along, another group was building waterbars along an eroded section. PATH members dug a trench across the trail and filled it with rocks, leaving about a foot of rock protruding from the trench. The next time water comes pouring down the trail, it will hit the waterbar and veer off the side of the trail.

Club members scouted the hillsides for rocks and hollered for people below who were digging the trenches to watch their feet as they rolled the rocks down the hills.

MUCH OF THE WORK IS physically demanding.

After an ice storm knocked out much of the tree canopy a few years ago, brushy growth began to take over parts of the trail. PATH members hauled Weed Eaters and loppers up the trail and spent hours combatting the growth.

"Running a Weed Eater for six hours solid is as physically demanding as anything you can do," Clayton said.

Some of PATH's most notable work has taken place at the five shelters in its section.

About three years ago, PATH, in conjunction with the National Forest Service and the Appalachian Trail Conference, built Partnership Shelter near the visitors center at Mount Rogers National Recreation Area.

For years, hikers attempting to walk the entire trail, known as thru-hikers, camped on the front porch of the visitors center.

Thru-hikers were drawn to the center because they had access to running water, a drink machine and a telephone where they could order pizza from a restaurant in nearby Marion, Va.

Park visitors, repulsed by the sight - and smell - of grubby hikers washing in the restrooms, complained.

Partnership Shelter was built near the visitors center to accommodate those displaced hikers. PATH wanted to make the shelter a special spot for hikers and added such luxurious amenities as a sink with a tap and a shower with hot water.

"It's a Hilton," Lund said.

Indeed, the shelter has received raves from thru-hikers. One hiker noted in his online journal that the shelter is so popular that some thru-hikers stay for two days.

PATH also refurbished a stone cabin on Chestnut Knob that was used by a fire warden in the 1930s. The shelter had low ceilings and a dirt floor, making it dank and dark. PATH rebuilt the shelter, adding a pitched roof with plexiglass to allow for natural light and a concrete floor.

And as a bonus, the shelter features a privy with a view over a wilderness area.

"It's a beautiful, inviting shelter," Clayton said.

Besides laboring on its section of the trail, PATH is also committed to building friendly relations with people who live along the trail and other outdoors lovers, particularly mountain bikers.

On one workday this year, PATH cleared an overgrown trail on Walker Mountain that was abandoned in the 1970s when the Forest Service re-routed the trail. PATH decided it was important to keep the old trail passable for historical reasons. Members also thought it would be a good trail for mountain bikers, who aren't allowed on the Appalachian Trail.

Such efforts have helped make the trail one of the premier footpaths in the country.

"Initially, the (National) Park Service didn't think there was any way that volunteers could make this work," Clayton said. "But we've proven that volunteers can do it."