
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992                   TAG: 9203090231
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HAGERSTOWN, MD.                                LENGTH: Short

VOLUNTEERS TO POLICE TRAIL

A hiking group plans to begin foot patrols on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia and three other states this month to report vandalism and help deter crime on the 2,144-mile public footpath.

The patrols are being arranged by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club on 263 miles of the path between Boiling Springs, Pa., southwest of Harrisburg, to Rockfish Gap, Va., just south of Shenandoah National Park.

The foot patrols are being started partly in response to the Sept. 13, 1990, double-murder at a trail shelter near Duncannon, northwest of Harrisburg.

"There has been a lot of concern about personal safety on the trail," said Scott Bellefeuille, trail patrol leader of the hiking club and an officer with the Prince William County Police Department in Virginia.

Bellefeuille said 20 volunteers have signed up for patrol duties.

Patrols will be made by two volunteers dressed in white T-shirts emblazoned with "Trail Patrol" on the front and shoulder, he said.

The frequency of the patrols still was being worked out, but Bellefeuille said the volunteers will have no set pattern of patrolling their areas. - Associated Press

by CNB