On Thursday September 8th was our first day out in the field. This was actually my second encounter with the trail. The first was about two years ago around late January. It was cold, the ground was covered in snow, there were no leaves on the trees, and I was beyond exhausted to remember any other major or minor details. However, this time my experience was completely different. The scenery was beautiful, the trees were full of leaves of all different sorts, the sky was clear, and the weather was scorching hot. One thing I noticed about the trail that I’m particularly interested in doing my project on are the signs. There are mile markers every half mile for only 3.5 miles, and the trail is approximately 7.2 miles give or take a quarter of a mile when bridges are in place. Not only that, there are no signage for private properties where cars can or can not park or even no trespassing signs. I’ve been told there may be possible wild life along the trail going further towards Buena Vista, though I have not seen any, I’m sure it would also be helpful to put warning signs to runners who may not be familiar with the Appalachian region. My final thoughts to possibly adding to the trail would be emergency stations. These would act almost like panic buttons which could be used for any emergency situations, and it would immediately notify all nearby authorities. This I believe is most useful since there is talk of combining and linking the trail with others nearby as well it being fully accessible to the public. Not to mention having two Colleges within a five mile radius of it, I’m sure it would be beneficial.