Brandon Denney joined three sessions of S.W.E.A.T in 2013.
Here’s his account of his experience, as a new trail volunteer and new
backpacker. His experience varied with each session, so it’s nice cross-section
of what trail crew life is like in all of its sundry iterations.
Thanks to his good humor and his commitment to write about his
experiences, we have a three-part blog (combined into one here) on what he did with his summer on
S.W.E.A.T. Crew. Pictures by Sarah Green.
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Appalachian Trail Week One: Freshness
is Not An Option
Before I begin, I wanted to state again the purpose of thee
journals: to document the weeks of trail work I’ll be doing this summer in
order to fulfill scholarship requirements (but mostly to seek out the most
adventure as possible!)
There were a few things I didn’t anticipate when coming to
volunteer with the S.W.E.A.T Crew (Smokies Wilderness Elite Appalachian Trail).
Mainly, that we’d have internet access, that we’d be returning to the Crew
House on a daily basis, and that there were showers at the shelter. As it turns
out, not showering on the A.T. isn’t the exception, but the rule. The adventure
begins.
I was dropped off on Friday night at the Crew House with all the
volunteers there, helping prepare a fantastic dinner. Amy and Ben are the trail
leaders for the trip; twentysomethings with a love for hiking and bluegrass
music.
Four other volunteers were there besides me, as follows:
Jane: 19, your everyday southern farm girl who’s not afraid to
work hard.
Larry, 52, an almost retired cop who looks like he’s seen a lot in
his career. Just by looking at him you can say that without a doubt, “Dang,
here’s a guy who has a lot of stories.” Hilarious. Loves Jefferson
Starship.
Jeff: 50, a strange cross between Bill from King of the Hill and a
professor in solar technology, is a really intelligent guy.
Cam, 25, a short bald dude with an encyclopedic knowledge of all
music and music known to man. It’s as if he has a section of his brain solely
dedicated to IMDB. Fantastic person.
 |
| Larry, Cam and Jeff |
After a fantastic dinner at the Crew House, we were off. I had
never backpacked before, so I had little to no idea what I was to be immersed
in. Our backpacks; tools, water, food for the week, and camping supplies,
came to about fifty pounds more or less. To access the AT, we had to hike Cosby
Trail, a 5.3 mile, kick-your -rear-uphill circus. Though I’ve had much
experience running cross country, I have no problem admitting every step
forward was agonizing. Beautiful, scenic agony. We crossed beautiful
waterfalls, pine forests, and stretches of beautiful Rhododendron. Despite
this, with every step came the brutal realization that no matter how close you
thought you were to the camp, chances are, that was a stupid thought and you’re
still five miles away, “gah. how could you be so stupid?”
Certain things made the trail go by much quicker. The mere mention
of any topic would prompt Cam into an inquiry about a movie or a song. From Bio
Dome to Casablanca, he’s seen pretty much everything. By the end of the week, I
had a laundry list of movies I needed to see because Cam was so damn good at
storytelling and selling a plot.
Larry was hilarious. He says that on the police force, everyone
gives everybody a hard time, and his sense of humor is exactly what you’d
imagine an old cop with a Brooklyn accent would be like.
Walking through the AT is akin to walking through the mind of a
person who is drifting in and out of consciousness. One moment you’ll be in an
overgrown, sunny area reminiscent of Vietnam, and five minutes later you’ll be
in a breathtaking pine forest with fog consuming almost all sight, like something
out of a Tolkien novel. It was easy to lose sight of time, look up, and be
taken aback by the sheer beauty of the surroundings. One particular area had
trees that appeared to be covered in frost, but was simply a gorgeous white
moss that had covered the pines.
In total, the walk to the camp was nine miles. The week would
involve at least fifty miles of hiking and working. The work itself, which
included slashing at blackberry patches along the trail, was not challenging.
However, getting from one work site to another, or just from point A to point
B, was a nightmare.
One particular night the weather called for a torrential downpour
to last for 24 hours. The longest parts of the day were easily the walk back to
camp in the rain, where the inside of your boots are soaked, and you’re always
farther than you think you are from the camp. That night I felt extremely
homesick for not only friends and family, but a normal mattress as well. I
asked myself that night what sort of masochist enjoyed getting eaten by bugs
all day and not taking showers.
This brings me to another point. When the Crew mentioned a shelter
near our campsite, I thought, “oh neat a shower” but I was mistaken. So very
mistaken. Judging from the appearance and conversation from the “thru-hikers”
of the AT (who hike the full trail; 2,179 miles), showers were alien.
Though there were many hardships, I had a great
time. The food was fantastic, and dinner time saw everyone at their finest. However, I am seriously missing my
family and friends. It’s a great learning experience, and I highly recommend it
to anyone who wants to do script writing to develop characters. There’s more
this coming week, and I’m excited to see a new batch of volunteers! Next week,
I’ll also bring the camera along in my dry bag to accurately capture the trail.
Rainpocalypse
2013: It’s as bad as you think.
Before I begin this, a big “thank you” is in order for both Amy
and Ben, who have been driving me to the store and to the library to get wifi
to make these posts possible. You guys rule!
I have a genius plan. Really. Maybe it’s more appropriate that I
put that in the past tense, but one way or another, a genius plan was hatched.
You see, when doing trail work, preparation is key. My plan was to have a
quick-drying undershirt on, underneath a windbreaker; all underneath a
water-resistant work outfit that sort of looks like a Ghostbusters uniform. Not
only am I warm and toasty, but completely dry as well.
Truth be told,
none of us were quite prepared for Rainpocalypse 2013. We waited in the car for
about an hour, completely suited up, just waiting for the thunderstorms to
stop. This is before even getting on the trail. When a break in the rain came,
we grabbed our tools and hobbled along the trail. Little did I know, something dark and sinister was about
to happen. About thirty minutes in, the rain began pouring with a fervor
equaling that of before. Unfortunately, around this time, my backpack began to
de-pants my water resistant Frogtoggs, leaving a perfect chance for rain to
soak into my windbreaker. “Darn,”
I think to my self, “this was foolproof.” I would not experience dryness for
the next 48 hours. The rain was icy cold, the trail was a river, and each
ten-mile hike was the definition of miserable. I kept a stone face for most of
the time and focused on the finer things in life I was now doing without:
toilets, showers, being dry, and smelling nice.
Appalachian Trail
Conclusions!
Where to begin?
The time between writing this entry and when I began my third week on the Trail
feels like an eternity. Rainpocalypse
had just ended, but the feeling of not wanting to ever look at a can of Spam or
hear “Wagon Wheel” again had reached full capacity. While slipping into some
well-deserved fresh clothing at the Base Camp, I stumbled upon a pamphlet
entitled, “Preparing Yourself for The Appalachian Trail.” After having my
morale kicked in the sack repeatedly the previous week, I thought that this
might be my key to success. The chapter entitled “Mental Preparation” was located
appropriately at the beginning. It asked the following questions:
Does the idea of hiking fifteen miles in the
rain with seemingly no reward at the end seem like an exciting venture?
Would the idea of trail food (Spam, dehydrated
vegetables, rice) on a daily basis seem daunting?
Do you have at least $2000-$3000 to pilfer away?
At the time, none of those sounded like good ideas. As the
volunteers poured in for this week, however, I could tell this week would be
different. Much different. By far, this was THE GOLDEN WEEK OF SUMMER! The
characters for this week are:
Mary: Probably
the nicest person on the planet, she’s a very devout Christian who planned on
staying the rest of the summer. She’s my age, goes to college in Florida, and
came from Pennsylvania to volunteer!
Elizabeth: An eighth grade language arts teacher with the
personality of a happy kid on caffeine, she’s hiked the AT once before and
knows how to have fun on the trail. YEAH! Her ability to throw caution to the
wind and jump into a river made it clear it was going to be a fun week.
Sarah: A fellow Ohioan! She looks like she hit age twenty, took a
time machine to age thirty, and then proceeded to not age a day. For some
reason at the orientation, everyone thought that she said she was 42 years old.
The flood gates opened and it was age jokes the entire week.
Keith: A fifty-something who hiked the whole AT a couple of years
ago. Can speak fluent Spanish, has a wife from Columbia, and is using this
volunteer experience to cap off working at a single company for 26 years.
Keith was
probably the oddest member of the bunch: he’d often times just vanish without
reason, walking ahead of the group for miles or just going to sleep at very
early times. I honestly don’t know if he got photographed the entire trip. He
was, in many ways, an essential part of my survival on the trail. It’s like he
could sense whenever I was hungry, and would offer a granola bar out of
nowhere. Whenever I was stressed from walking all day, without me saying
anything, he’d sing this peaceful, traditional Columbian song. One particular
instance I was missing home, he appeared out of thin air and offered his cell phone so I could
call my mom briefly. I questioned whether or not I had manifested him from my
thoughts of wanting the simple creature comforts of home.
Turns out, we do have one picture of him:
The whole crew! From left to
right: Mary, Ben, Me, Ben’s dad with some donuts he brought us, Jeff, Amy,
Elizabeth, Sarah, and Keith!
Jeff: Our returning character from the first week! I’ll forever
know him as the two sheets of toilet paper man!
And of course, our fantastic trail leaders, Ben and Amy made a
return for their third week. Finally, we had a 50/50 gender balance.
To sum it up, from beginning to end, the trip was amazing. Our
hike up to the campsite was unbelievable: we started at Tremont, which I had
hiked earlier that year in Mountain Challenge! It’s a gorgeous walk that is
great for hiking, mainly due to how flat it is. Holy crap, not having to hike
uphill for 9 miles was a blessing. It also has a river that lines throughout
the entirety of the trail. Elizabeth, being a ray of sunshine, took it upon
herself to take a dip in. Like releasing a flood of fun times that lasted the
whole week, half of the crew followed suit. Beauty was underway.
 |
| Elizabeth seeking out water for swimming. |
This was also the first week where the crew truly
felt like family: I’m not sure if it was the beautiful, sunny days, or just an
unknown influx of good vibes, but I felt like I could spend the whole summer
with this group. Everyone was an effective worker, and I couldn’t have been
happier.
Crew Leader Ben
and I, enjoying some well deserved trail food.
Mary and I kicked butt for
several days as a dynamic duo that lopped branches, cut some serious blackberry
and fern growth, and dug ditches. She was so much fun to talk with and hear
stories about her family life. Her new stepdad was at one point the leader of
the Jewish mafia in Cleveland, Ohio. This is about as
ridiculous as you can imagine: threatening college professors with “a very
not-kosher tuckus whooping” is just scratching the surface. She is an incredible story teller and a great worker.
The final workday was easily the best. Not
only did we saw a tree that blocked the trail (photographic evidence below),
but the day was cool, sunny and dry. Unfortunately, my foot had swollen (I wonder which
one of the fifteen bug bites could have caused it. We may never know.) and I
was relegated to sitting on a comfy synthetic mat while the rest of the crew
prepared dinner. Everyone was smiling, cracking jokes, and being at
their best. We had wonderful conversations and the sunset was the perfect cap
to a 10/10 week. Limited rain, perfect people, no blisters, and good vibes all
around. It was a week that I miss to this day.
