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OLD RAG

During his eight hours on the mountainside in Shenandoah National Park that's deluged this time of year, the mountain guide and outdoor entrepreneur helped a hiker with a sprained ankle, chatted with hikers about adequate water and respecting nature along the trails, and found time to practice basic rescue techniques.

It was a typical Sunday for Nichols, who grew up hiking, rock-climbing and mountain biking--before it was actually called that--on the mountainsides near Sperryville.

It was also a typical day for the seven other Old Rag Mountain Stewards volunteering here, about 50 miles from Fredericksburg.

"Things had gotten so crowded, with some hikers damaging the trails and overlooks here, that the Park Service was being forced to think about limiting access in some spots," said Nichols, who runs a company called Teamlink out of Frederick, Md., which offers team development and classes ranging from kayaking to camping to wilderness survival.

"Some of us who care about Old Rag thought we might be able to prevent losing that access by volunteering to be here on peak days to teach visitors how to better respect this resource," said Nichols.

Since last spring, with the park services' blessing, volunteers coordinated and trained largely by Teamlink professionals have shown up on weekend days when hundreds--and sometimes, over a thousand--visitors hike Old Rag's rocky, picturesque trails.

Wearing bright orange T-shirts, the volunteers, who during the week are teachers, students or EMTs, work daylong shifts helping Old Rag and those who visit it.

"We're here to explain why it's kinder to the sensitive vegetation and safer to the hikers on the trails to give advice about having safe and enjoyable hikes and to help those who might need first aid or rescue," said Nichols, who's been up the mountain 35 times since April.

Some of the advice is simple but necessary on trails where unenlightened novices have been seen hiking in high heels or wingtips, with no water in the blazing heat or no flashlights in pitch-black darkness.

"We ended up helping a couple from Fredericksburg who started from the bottom in tank tops and cutoffs on a day when it was 34 degrees at the top," said Nichols. "It was 70 when they left home, and they didn't realize how much colder it would be here, especially at the top."

That doesn't mean the stewards, who rendezvous at the parking area at the Madison County spot and hike up either side of the mountain, overreach.

"We're eyes and ears for the National Park Service, not rangers," said Nichols, noting that they can't order hikers to obey rules. "But we are in radio contact with rangers in case we see a problem."

Those problems could be as simple as bringing along bikes or dogs, both prohibited, camping in prohibited areas or hikers injuring themselves seriously.

When the latter happens, the volunteers--many with medical and/or mountain rescue training--can drastically cut the time it takes to get an injured hiker down.

"Instead of having to call for help and wait while it takes hours to get up the mountain, we're already here," said Nichols, who shared grateful notes from hikers who'd suffered everything from broken legs to dislocations to serious head injuries in falls.

Driving a need for basic advice, according to Nichols, is the fact that on any given day, 75 percent of the hundreds heading up Old Rag are on their first hike there.

Of those, he said, 75 percent will be taking their first hike anywhere, heading up trails filled with enough big boulders and serious inclines to give even veteran hikers a workout.

That's why, on a recent Sunday visit, it made sense when Mountain Steward Maria Keith and Valerie Heidbreder engaged hikers to, in a friendly way, ask if they had plenty of water, knowledge of the trails and a familiarity with basic Leave No Trace ethics.

"It only takes finding someone's leavings of human waste and toilet paper in the middle of a trail to see that there are those who don't think," said Keith of Martinsville, W.Va.

"One of the common things we deal with is people getting separated on the trails," said Heidbreder of Lorton. "Having a planned spot to meet if that happens can prevent that."

A National Park Service statement online says the Mountain Steward program is expected to result in better-informed visitors on Old Rag, better protection of sensitive vegetation, improved sanitation, quicker response to visitor injuries and an overall improved weekend visitor experience on Old Rag Mountain.

oldragmountainsteward.blogspot .com

Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com

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