Past Projects

In a productive and first-time partnership between the Timber Framers Guild and the Appalachian Trail Conference, a dozen Guild members led more than twenty members of the Mountain Club of Maryland (MCM) through the layout and cutting of a 16-foot square timber framed trail shelter. Below are some photos of the activities.

The MCM maintains a section of Trail in southern Pennsylvania between Harrisburg and the Maryland border. The frame timbers were from a recycled barn that the Club had dismantled years ago with the help of Guild members Donna Williams, Bob Smith and Bruce Cowie. The layout proved quite challenging as most of the timbers radically varied in dimension and none were straight.

The layout and cutting took place at the Scott Farm Trail Work Center near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the weekends of May 6-8 and May 13-15. The Farm provided ample work space as well as a bunkhouse, kitchen and dining room for the continuous and ever-changing flow of volunteers who came to help on the project. On the final two days, the frame pieces were moved up to the site, assembled and raised on a mountain outside of Harrisburg.

Special thanks to Scott Northcott (of Northcott Wood Turning) for donating the pegs for the project and to Paul Freeman (of Freeman Consulting) for donating his skills and time to the design and drafting work.

The MCM will finish the building with vertical board siding and a metal roof. The shelter includes clerestory windows and bunk beds, and is modeled after a number of other conventionally built ones on the Trail. With the success of this workshop, we can look forward to more collaborations of this sort as word of the event spreads up and down the trails of the country. Will Beemer, Executive Director