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Dan Sweet, ATC’s volunteer of the month for December, learned about the Appalachian Trail’s Crew program while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail last year. He met a lot of people familiar with the Appalachian Trail during his PCT thru-hike. As it’s Dan’s goal to hike the A.T., he decided to join a Trail Crew to learn more about the A.T. and to support A.T. hikers before he officially joined that group himself.
Dan is not someone who like to take the easy path – he enjoys pushing his limits and trying new things. Before he began his six week stint on the Konnarock Trail crew, for instance, he spent three days on a bus, travelling from his home in Washington State to the crew base camp in Virginia.
In his six weeks on the crew, Dan gained a lot of Trail building experience, including time spent building sidehill in the rain and working a week with a “bum ankle.” Dan was able to challenge himself, but he also enjoyed the simplicity of crew life - his favorite part of his time on crew (other than the view from McAfee Knob) was spending time with other crew volunteers. They all “wanted to be there,” says Dan, it was “really awesome.”
Dan “worked really hard, and was always up for a challenge” says crew leader Kathryn Herndon, “he contributed a lot to crew morale - he often started games . . . and he has a great deadpan sense of humor.” Thanks, Dan!