AMC & Outdoor Nation

Join "Outdoor Nation," the next-gen outdoor community for teens and twenty-somethings

The Appalachian Mountain Club has partnered with leading outdoor companies and non-profits to build a youth-led movement to champion the outdoors. Youth and young adults ages 13 to 30 are joining together to create a community called "Outdoor Nation" that combines youth power, political action, and outdoor play. Check it out at www.outdoornation.org -- and when you join, be sure to mention the AMC.

By becoming an Outdoor Nation "Outsider," you'll:

- Win free stuff from brand name companies like The North Face, just for providing feedback and sharing your opinions

- Connect with other Outsiders across the country who share your passion- Advise and work with the top outdoor companies in the world

- Influence federal and state public policies and programs

- Have the chance to earn exclusive internships with cool outdoor organizations

- Have the chance to travel to NYC and attend Outdoor Nation's upcoming event in Central Park

So, what are you waiting for? Check it out at www.outdoornation.org

Delaware Valley Chapter Trail Work: 2009 Rewind

Trail volunteers from AMC's Delaware Valley Chapter can be spotted throughout the Valley from the Appalachian Trail to Valley Forge National Historical Park. Some of them may have yellow paint on them!

Check out only a few of the DV Chapter's Trails 2009 Accomplishments:

Ewok Village removal – phase II
Ewok Village is the name of a set of tree and stone structures built on AT National Park Easement Lands slightly east of Little Gap, Pennsylvania. This is on lands maintained by AMC Delaware Valley. The structures were removed in May of 2008 and then mysteriously rebuilt. They were removed again on National Trails Day, 2009, hopefully for good.

Katellen Drainage week
September 4 to 7. Joint project with ATC to improve water drainage on the Katellen Trail. Katellen trail is mostly on State Game Land (SGL), with a small section on State Forest Land. It is a straight spur up to the Appalachian Trail from a SGL parking area.

Visit by head of AT National Park
October 17. AMC-DV hosted Pamela Underhill, the head of the Appalachian Trail National Park, on a tour of parts of the AT corridor near Smith Gap. Corridor maintainers from other Pennsylvania and New Jersey clubs attended. This was Ms. Underhill’s first visit ever just to see corridor boundaries work and discuss problems with this undertaking.

Maintenance of Leroy Smith
In late May of this year Mike & Kieu Manes (avid trail volunteers)were hiking the AT in New Jersey and stopped to chat with a young couple that were thru hiking. The female member of the young couple appeared complete disinterested in any discussion until she heard mention that we maintained the Leroy Smith Shelter. A fit of excitement hit her, she had to tell us how nice and clean our shelter was, and that we had an adequate supply of toiler paper. She thanked them many times, and informed them that Leroy Smith Shelter is known as one of the best maintained lean-tos. This was confirmed by other thru hikers twice on later occasions, but never as dramatically.

Give back to trails in 2010 by getting dirty and having fun! Hit the trails either on the AT, in Valley Forge NHP or in Nockamixon State Park.

AT Corridor Monitoring: Early spring and Fall are good times to do corridor monitoring along the Appalachian Trail. If you are interested in going for a hike and searching out the corridor, please contact - Mike Manes, 215-855-1315, AMCDVTrails@aol.com

Appalachian Trail Section Maintenance: Our chapter maintains a 15 mile section of the AT between Wind Gap and Little Gap, the Leroy Smith Shelter and two side trails to the AT. If you are interested in helping out please contact Dan Schwartz 610-746-3404 NCA 9PM, Dan.Schwartz@lehigh.edu

Valley Forge National Historic Park We are working the park to re-hab and maintain trails in the Mount Misery and Mount Joy areas of the Park. If you are interested in helping this project along, pleasesend email with your contact info to Mark Kern, bikermjk@amcdv.org or call him at 610-558-9628.

Nockamixon State Park. We are currently maintaining about 3 miles of trail in Nockamixon SP (near Quakertown, PA). If you'd like to help work on trails in this park, call Peter Jarrett, 610-282-4635.

MOC Trail Crew Rewind: 2009 Season in the Gap

The Mohican Outdoor Center (MOC) Trail Crew 2009 season was another season of great feats and fun on the trails of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in NJ & PA. The crew put in over 4,000 volunteer hours with almost 90 volunteers between April-November. There also were a significant amount of first timers that couldn't help but come back for some more!

This year the MOC Trail Crew mainly focused on Adams Creek Trail, Coppermine Trail, and Toms Creek Trail. Their largest project was building a new 37 foot span bridge across Adams Creek. Each year the Crew does an amazing project similar to this.

On Coppermine Trail they reconstructed & reinforced the stone footings for the Coppermine Bridge, replaced bog bridges, and redefined the entrance and trailbed.

It is now much easier to see where the Coppermine Trail branches off from the Appalachian Trail. Thank you!

The Crew also completed trail assessments at the beginning of the season and rebuilt Tom's Creek Trail's trailbed & rehabbed a culvert.

Beyond all the Mohican Trail Crew's hard work out on the trails they also know how to reward their volunteers with great food especially in November. November is the last month of the Crew's season where all the volunteers who have put in at least 20 hours feast on a fine Pre-Thanksgiving meal. See for yourself!

This is also a special time when the volunteers with 20 hours or more get rewarded with a t-shirt or more as part of AMC's Stewardship Society. This year the following volunteers who gave 96-223 hours were receipients of the Marian Pychowska Award:

Cari Boggiano

Gloria Donatelli

Harold Hoeschen

Brad Keller

Bryan Molyneux

Greg Molyneux

Quint Reiff

Philip Romano

Diane Streets

We hope to see you in 2010! Join one of the MOC Trail Crew Weekend Work Parties:

2010 Dates

April 10-11

May 15-16

June 12-13

July 10-11

August 21-22
September 11-12

October 9-10