[at-l] Arthur's new adventure

[agaudet at theworld.com (Arthur Gaudet)]

Hello all,

I'd like to share a bit of good news related to my trail activities. I've
applied for & accepted a VISTA/Americorps position starting this July!

It's a one year assignment in West Virginia coordinating trail construction
& park improvements for 8 counties in the "Panhandle" section of the state.
(The northeast section, where Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and
Pennsylvania all come together) It's a great opportunity to combine my long
distance hiking interests with project management & trail advocacy. Perhaps
it'll lead to a professional full-time opportunity doing similar work after
this assignment! With the limited options in the high tech world it seems
like a worthwhile way to spend my time.

VISTA jobs are for one year, low paying, and similar to Peace Corps work. On
a budget of $700/month I'll have to find a way to feed myself and find some
sort of housing. The good news is the government provides health insurance
benefits at low cost (like $2 per month).

The organization I'll be working for is called the Potomac Headwaters
Resource Conservation & Development Council. You can view info about them
(us) at http://www.potomacheadwatersrcd.org. The US Dept of Agriculture
helps many states, through regional offices, take on projects to improve
local environments, in this case the Potomac River watershed. During the
past year this council has helped several communities apply for federal
grants in order to construct trails and linear parks. Now that the money has
arrived it'll be my job to find people, tools, advisors, etc. in order to
construct 4 new trails. One is a nature trail for a local school (I"m not
sure what the others are yet!). That means I'll have to find people who can
perform all the functions involved in laying out new trails, and I hope to
establish a regional group of local advisors to help with issues of fragile
environment, endangered species, archaeologically significant areas, and
then get folks who can teach trail building techniques to local volunteers.

Another project is to find local groups to adopt abandoned highway waysides
in order to beautify them & to minimize any local pollution sources (runoff
or whatever.) The first part of this project is to drive around a bit to
survey the state of the waysides, taking inventory of issues to address. Yet
another project is to patrol the American Discovery Trail in this region and
to plan local information kiosks, and to assess other signage needs for the
ADT. The job description requires hiking long distances under adverse
conditions, spending nights in the woods! Whew! It sounds like a lot, and I
can't pretend I know how to do all of these things. But I expect to meet a
lot of new people, and to live in a beautiful part of the country, near the
Blue Ridge.

I'll be starting on July 19, 2003. I hope to continue with some AT related
volunteer activities from this new base location. Perhaps you'll be seeing
me in Harpers Ferry, about 10 miles away, or at Bear's Den, South Mountain,
Gathland, etc. I also hope to continue making hats for hikers, and with that
in mind I went shopping this week at the factory store for more fleece. For
those also interested the Malden Mills factory is in Lawrence, MA and is
having a sale on remnant fleece, all types, this coming Saturday 5/10. See
their website for directions.

ttfn, Arthur aka RockDancer '97