Join the crew and work on Maine's Appalachian Trail to help preserve this precious resource for future generations of hikers. An enthusiastic staff awaits your arrival and is looking forward to building trail with you.
Persons age 18 or older--of all backgrounds--are welcome. Enthusiasm, good health, physical vigor, and adaptability are vital. Willingness to follow instructions and safety rules and to share equally in camp chores is essential. Experience helps but isn't necessary.
Reserve a weekend, a week, or multiple weeks today. Groups are also welcome to sign on. For additional information and to reserve your space with the Maine Trail Crew, write to Margaret Snell at mtcmasnell@gmail.com.
Crew applications are available on the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Web site at Appalachian Trail Conservancy - Maine Trail Crew.
Each summer, volunteers from other parts of the country join with MATC members to work on the Trail. Directed by experienced crew leaders, volunteers receive food and lodging at a base camp in exchange for their labor.
Come out and learn the correct and safe usage of our various trail construction tools and learn valuable trail construction and reconstruction techniques.
Weekly trail crew season runs from June through early August, Saturday to Wednesday, to allow members of the MATC to work with the crew on weekends.
Crew off-days, Thursday and Friday, are for recreation, preparations for the next work week, and rest. The Maine Trail Crew works on heavy-duty trail construction and reconstruction projects from Grafton Notch to Katahdin in Maine, some of the most rugged and remote terrain on the entire Appalachian Trail.
On recent projects, the Maine Trail Crew has constructed rock steps and waterbars on the south sides of Saddleback and Barren Mountains; installed hundreds of feet of cedar bog bridges near Gulf Hagas; quarried, cut, and placed more than 100 rock steps on the Hunt (Appalachian) Trail near Katahdin; dug new sidehill trail in Horseshoe Canyon; and created a safer ascent out of (or descent into) Orbeton Stream Canyon with 40 rock steps, including three carved into bedrock with the power drill.
Multiple goals of The Maine Trail Crew's program's are:
(1) to teach and accomplish quality treadway construction and repair on the AT in Maine (2) to supplement the ongoing efforts of maintainers and volunteers on the AT in Maine (3) to improve and build the trail-repair skills of the crew participants and MATC volunteers.
In the photo at left, a Maine Trail Crew member safely
crosses the Piscataquis River in Horseshoe Canyon to
reach a remote worksite.
