Blackburn Trail Center Caretakers

Blackburn Trail Center of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club!

April through October, 20008
Eric Toombs and I finished the Appalachian Trail in Georgia December of 2007. In January, we were so enamored with each other, we decided to marry September 2008, and spend our engagement time as the caretakers at the Blackburn Trail Center on the Appalachian Trail. After being accepted by Trail Boss as the new caretakers, we were excited to be a part of the AT community so fresh off the trail. We had so many good experiences on the trail from good people individually and together, and we wanted to give back. We also thought it would be adventurous to live in the woods in an area with which we were unfamiliar such as the ridge 50 miles outside of Washington DC!

The caretakers main duty are maintaining the grounds and the remote gravel road to the cabin. We could also opt to cook dinners for hikers that come down the ridge each night (the food prepared is compliments of the PATC). The Blackburn Trail Center, run solely off donations, is a log cabin, which was built in 1910 as a summer home to a doctor in DC. The original owners rode the W&OD railroad, before it was a rail-to-trail, to the town of Round Hill, VA. They then rode up the ridge in horse and carriage, hence the Carriage House where our apartement is located. Another building on the grounds is the hiker bunkhouse, which might have served as servant quarters back then. It was ordered from Sears Roebuck catalog! The two other buildings are quite small, but very handy primitive toilets: the outhouses. What I have learned is to appreciate outhouses because when the power goes out, they work just fine!

In exchange for greeting hikers and PATC members that rent the cabin, and overseeing the property, we get to stay in the brand new apartment above the Carriage House. Trail Boss and the PATC volunteers have been working on this project for 10 years, and we are the lucky ones to be the first tenants. We also get a small monthly stipend. The PATC often purchases tracts of land in order to conserve it from development. The volunteers will then take interest in old structures on the land like the Blackburn cabin, which was in disrepair when the PATC purchased it over 30 years ago. Eric and I truly enjoy the Blackburn Trail Center, the hardworking PATC folks we have met, and our dear neighbour friends at the Bear's Den Hiker Center, Redwing and Hopeful.