Most Arrowmen love to spend time hiking trails through the backcountry. But for Charlie Morgan, nothing is more fun than spending a day working on those trails. Charlie—an Eagle Scout and Brotherhood member of Occoneeche Lodge in North Carolina—devotes a good portion of his time to trail maintenance with the Friends of the Mountain to Sea Trail. The trail spans from the Blue Ridge Parkway, which cuts through the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, to the Atlantic Ocean on the other side of the state. Eventually, the trail will run all the way through the state and backpackers will be able to hike the entire thing, non-stop.
For Charlie, a typical day on the trail involves trail maintenance, like checking bridges and re-routing parts of the path that have been eaten away by erosion. He spends at least four or five hours a week keeping his part of the trail open and available for hikers. "It's very fun," says Charlie.
Even though the trail plays a big part in his life now, Charlie discovered it by accident. "My Mom got an invitation to a Friends of the Mountain to Sea Trail workday for one Saturday afternoon," Charlie explained. "Since I didn't have anything else to do, I decided to go with her." He took to the work immediately - so much so that the organization's president, fellow Arrowman Jeff Brewer, offered Charlie his own segment of the trail to maintain near Jordan Lake.
Working on the trail gives Charlie the satisfaction of giving back. "It's a good service for the community," he says. "You also learn a lot about the environment and all kinds of things about the outdoors." He's also been able to watch the organization grow. When Charlie started, the first workday he attended was only made up for five or six participants. Now, he says, sometimes hundreds of people show up to help build and maintain new sections of the trail. That's something Charlie enjoys, "I've watched it grow and grow."
And this nineteen year old isn't done building trails yet. "Working on my section of the trail motivates me to build more trail," he says. For each new stretch of trail Charlie builds, he'll use the Power of One. How will you use it?
Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616
Great Alaska COuncil
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
NSJ '05 WSJ '07 Philmont AA '08
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