Appalachian Trail Conservancy's Trails to Every Classroom Workshop
Grayson Highlands State Park, Saturday, May 5th,
2012
Saturday began iffy in the weather department. I arrived at the Massey Gap parking area a
bit after 7am, in order to set up one of BRDC’s educational components along
Cabin Creek. Soon after, Roald Kirby,
BRDC volunteer, former park interpreter, historian of local lore, well-rounded
naturalist, and one heck of a story teller arrived. The park’s Chief Ranger Kevin Kelley
drove up, soon followed by Fred Newcomb and then Deborah Greif, teacher and BRDC friend.
Fred is a geology teacher, whose interest in and support for BRDC have
been previously shared on this blogspot, (as well as both Roald’s and Kevin’s).
BRDC’s assignment was to offer guides for 29 teachers
involved with this workshop. Carol
Broderson, teacher and long-time volunteer for BRDC is also associated with the Mount
Rogers Appalachian Trail Club, and provides a working relationship between the
two organizations. Carol and her MRATC
friends, Eleanor Grasselli and Ann Maio, instructed the teachers on their
club’s volunteer work, including trail maintenance, descriptions of local
trees, shrubs, wildflowers and the issues of invasive species.
Angie Sheldon and Julie Judkins, the ATC organizers of this
workshop, kept everyone on schedule…and amazingly well. Delia Clark provided the structure to this
weekend through Quest, which was described to me as something like a treasure
hunt.
Basically, the entire group, somewhere around 41 (including
two young park employees), hiked up the Rhododendron Trail to its intersection
with the AT. Along the way, various
discussions took place, with Carol, Eleanor and Ann pointing out the invasives, the
hardy and abundant wild blueberry bushes, some of the remarkable trees,
including hawthorn and the signature Frazer firs and red spruces. The presence of the spruce/fir forest is a
remnant of the last glacial age, as are many features of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian
mountains. As someone commented, we were
in a bit of Canada. Left behind on the
higher elevations as the glacier retreated, are many species of plants and
animals not seen in the lower elevations at this latitude.
Having Roald along helped fill out the ongoing verbal
questionnaire, sharing his breadth of local and natural history knowledge. The
park was established, under controversy typical of seizures of land from
private hands, in 1965. It was not until
the early 1970s that it was opened to the public. At nearly 5000 acres, the park rises from
3900’ at its entrance, to nearly 5100’ on its highest peak known as Little
Pinnacle. Roald spoke of the strong
evidence of Native American presence through the preponderance of arrowheads,
or points found all throughout the area.
We headed to a rock outcropping for lunch and a geological talk from
Fred.
Right beneath where we munched on lunch, Fred explained, lies
the Mt. Rogers Formation. Consisting of
70% volcanic rock, known as rhyolite, and approximately 30% sedimentary rock,
this formation extends like a belt from the tri-state boundaries of Tennessee,
Virginia and North Carolina northeast into Grayson County. Rhyolite is what the Native Americans
were after, as this volcanic material was prized for shaping into sharp and durable
tools.
After lunch, the group trooped back down the mountain side to
Cabin Creek, where BRDC had a stream-side aquatic invertebrate survey station
set up. I had collected some
specimens for viewing both with the naked eye as well as through a
microscope. Featured were caddisflies,
mayflies, and stoneflies. I
explained to the teachers BRDC’s approach to working with kids, and a bit about
Project Fish Bugs.
From there, everyone (except for me) headed up the Cabin
Creek Trail to view spring wildflowers, as a final demonstration of the natural
wonders of Grayson Highlands State Park.
For more on the TTEC workshop weekend, please check this
out: www.trailtoeveryclassroom.
