Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Mike "Shutter" Buschmeier talks with a group of teachers participating in A Trail to Every Classroom workshop. They gathered at an opening on the trail along Sugar Run Gap in Giles County in May.

Randy Roe, an environmental science teacher at Giles County High School, tells his students about his experience during A Trail to Every Classroom workshop. Roe says at least one of his students is seriously considering hiking the trail when he gets out of high school.

Solitary with only the sound of his own breath and footsteps, Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Mike Buschmeier -- whose trail name is "Shutter" -- emerged from the forest on a Saturday last month.

"Whoa ... people!" he exclaimed as he was unexpectedly surrounded by a crowd of fifteen educators eager to hear his story about hiking the trail.

Scared and curious when he first started his long-distance hiking trip from Springer Mountain in Georgia, Buschmeier, originally from Richmond, told the group that the 617 miles he had walked so far to Sugar Run Gap in Giles County had been profound and life-changing.

"I know more about myself and my abilities," he said. "It's only your brain that's going to tell you you cannot to do something."

The insight of an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker -- the term for someone who hikes a long distance from end to end -- was well received by a group of teachers attending A Trail to Every Classroom workshop.

"The Appalachian Trail is not just a through-way and it's not just for thru-hikers" said Rita Hennessy of the National Park Service and A Trail to Every Classroom coordinator, based in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. "The goal of the program is to engage kids in service-learning and volunteerism and to make the trail relevant to local communities."

Teachers gain ideas for educational opportunities they can use in a multidiscipline and multigrade curriculum. "It's not like an I-81 passing through their community," Hennessy said of the Appalachian Trail. "The portion of trail right here in Giles County has its own relevance and beauty."

Begun in 2006 by the National Park Service and Appalachian Trail Conservancy, A Trail to Every Classroom program has reached more than 15,000 K-12 schoolchildren, through 275 teachers who have participated in the program from Maine to Georgia.

Designated in 1968 as a national scenic footpath, the Appalachian Trail is a unit of the National Park System and is managed cooperatively by The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, its maintaining clubs and various federal, state and local agencies. The path is 2,181 miles long and extends from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Mount Katahdin, Maine. The trail runs through fourteen states, and more than 550 miles of the trail is in Virginia -- more miles than any other state. Each year thousands of "thru-hikers" attempt to hike the entire length of the trail.

Teachers from Southwest Virginia spent a weekend in early May learning about the trail in Giles County. The same teachers will also attend a weeklong workshop in July with more than 50 fellow teachers from Georgia to Maine. A two-day fall workshop is also planned with a focus on partnerships and trail clubs.

"I love hiking, and I was amazed at the number of my students that didn't even know where the trails were around our school." said John Kidd, a seventh-grade reading teacher at Scott Memorial Middle School in Wytheville. Kidd is also a 2004 graduate of Narrows High School.

He was impressed that the material was cross-curriculum. "It's not just one lesson for reading, one lesson for math. They kind of bridge it to every subject, and so we can cover a wide variety of topics with the trail."

Randy Roe, an environmental science teacher at Giles County High School also attended the workshop. He is trying to involve students through service-based education, getting them outside when he can, and introducing them to the people they are going to meet when they get out of school. Roe has taken his students out for the annual community service cleanup day, for example.

"I think the kids are aware that Pearisburg is a trail town and they need to know more about what goes on with the hikers," he said. "I've learned a few stories I can tell them, and the school is just two miles from where the trail crosses the [New River] bridge at the Celanese."

At least one of Roe's students is seriously considering hiking the trail when he gets out of high school, he said.

For one former thru-hiker and workshop participant, the trail in Giles County is a very special place.

Regina, "Mssng-Lnk" Reiter used the town of Pearisburg as a central hub of her thru-hike. She finished her lifelong dream of hiking the entire trail on Pearis Mountain above Pearisburg the day after Thanksgiving in 2007. Celebrating by carrying a pumpkin pie up the mountain, and crying as she realized she had completed the trail, Reiter is now a life coach for others and she uses hiking as a transformational experience.

She is a teacher.

Roanoke Times reporter and photographer Matt Gentry is a member of The Appalachian Trail Conservancy and Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club.