Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC), January – April 2024 — There was a lot going on over the winter, broken wrist aside.

The PATC dedicated a new website at http://www.patc.net. It replaced a 1995 design. That was a welcome change.

A few PATC stats are in order. We are a volunteer managed and led organization. For the past 97 years the club has been connecting people to the outdoors through rental cabins, guided hikes and volunteer opportunities, mostly maintaining hiking trails, our 49 cabins and 45 shelters.

We have 8,400 members, 1,000 of whom are active volunteers, plus 9 full-time employees and several seasonals. The remainder of the membership rents cabins and participates in hikes.

Our volunteers maintain 1,200 miles of hiking trails in the National Capitol Region, including 240 miles of the AT and 500 miles in Shenandoah National Park. We work with a total 16 national parks, two national forests and various state parks, forests and wildlife management areas.

The PATC’s geographical footprint covers 45,000 sq. miles in four states (Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania) and the District of Columbia.

Those stats represent a lot of effort, tradition and history.

Richard Lee and Venus Foshay dig a rolling grade dip (drain) on an AT section in Shenandoah National Park.

Trail maintenance goes on year-round, but becomes a force to be reckoned with starting in mid-March with the ground in our region begins to thaw. That’s when prep begins for thru hiking season on the AT and the influx of hikers everywhere.

Meanwhile there are winter meetings with our agency partners across the region, including regional planning meetings that include sister trail clubs.

PATC also hosted a book signing for Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. His new book, “Walk, Ride Paddle: A life outside” is about hiking the AT, biking the Blue Ridge Parkway and paddling the James River in Virginia. https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Ride-Paddle-Life-Outside/dp/1400339456 PATC is prominently mentioned, not to mention he used vintage PATC guidebooks so he could see what’s changed in the past several decades.

If you think winter was busy, stand by. Spring and summer will be busy like this past winter on steroids.

Sisu