Volunteers - the Best Trail Magic - THANK YOU!

[Snicklefritz]

Hey all! Pretty new to the site, but not new to the trail. Thanks for all the informative and interesting threads…you’ve been a great help to me!
Today I almost posted to the other trail magic thread that’s going on…but instead I thought I would take the time to personally thank each and every one of you that volunteers your time (and money) to helping maintain the trail that I love to walk so frequently.

IMHO, those volunteers provide some of the best “trail magic” out there – rarely getting recognition for it. For instance, I’m sure the thru-hikers of the past two years were very appreciative of the hard work that ATC’s Konnarock Crew put in down here in Georgia...building beautiful stone steps around Indian Grave Gap…to help make the trek safer for us all. Not sure if the majority of them stopped to consider that as “magic”, but I know I sure do! My club, the GATC, has some very generous volunteers that spend their weekends cleaning the trail of trash & blow downs, putting in water bars, cleaning shelters & privies,etc. I volunteer for maintenance as often as my schedule allows, but we have members who donate hundreds of hours of time each year to the trail…as I’m sure every other maintainer club does.

Being a new poster, I’m sure there have probably been previous threads to thank you maintainers and volunteers (a search couldn’t find much, though), but I know I would like to thank those of you here on WB that give of your time. You seem to rarely “toot your own horn” so to speak. So please feel free to post and let me (and others) know about your club and your work, so we can thank you again! It would be great to give you the recognition you deserve! Thank you again, WB!

[MDSection12]

I'll second that! :sun

As I get older I find I want to give back to those that have given to me. Recently I got involved with my local mountain biking club to start doing trail work with them... I think I will make the PATC (my area's AT club) next on my list. Thanks for the reminder! :D

[Snicklefritz]

MD - thank you for your volunteer work for the bike club!!

[MDSection12]

MD - thank you for your volunteer work for the bike club!!

I consider it a debt to be paid; I've been lucky enough to ride some really great trails for almost ten years now... If anything I should be ashamed that I'm just now starting to help out, but I can claim youthful ignorance I suppose. :p

You've definitely made me realize that I owe the same debt to those maintaining the trails I have been hiking for an even longer time. Coincidentally the PATC also maintains one of the major mountain bike trails in my area (they call it their 'back up' for the AT) which I've done some work on recently through the bike club... I think there is a lot of overlap between the groups, it should be easy to do both. :D

Thank you for your post and for the work that you've done... And welcome to WB. Sorry if we get grumpy sometimes, we're all just mad we're not out hiking. :welcome

[Rasty]

I agree with the trail volunteers being the true heros of the AT.

One nitpick - there is a paint run on the whiteblaze at mile marker 154.3 northbound. :D

[Snicklefritz]

I agree with the trail volunteers being the true heros of the AT.

One nitpick - there is a paint run on the whiteblaze at mile marker 154.3 northbound. :D

Sorry dude - out of my jurisdiction!:p

[HikerMom58]

I love this too!! Kudos to those who volunteer to do maintenance work on the trail. I would like to get involved in this myself. I haven't done much yet but it's def. on my mind to get involved. I was hoping to get contacted on helping build a new bridge but I didn't ever hear any more about it. I'll have to get on that one. :)

[LIhikers]

Thanks for the recognition! My wife and I are what's called boundary monitors and we volunteer through the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference. Our work isn't on the actual trail, but instead we look after the acres of land, and their surveyed boundary lines, that most hikers will never see. We do it for a couple of reasons, 1st as a way to give back to the trail for all the enjoyment we've gotten from hiking the AT. We want to make sure it's there for others who come after us. The second reason is purely selfish, we enjoy it :)

[Snicklefritz]

Thanks for the recognition! My wife and I are what's called boundary monitors and we volunteer through the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference. Our work isn't on the actual trail, but instead we look after the acres of land, and their surveyed boundary lines, that most hikers will never see. We do it for a couple of reasons, 1st as a way to give back to the trail for all the enjoyment we've gotten from hiking the AT. We want to make sure it's there for others who come after us. The second reason is purely selfish, we enjoy it :)

Thanks for all your work! I enjoy being out there too!!

[shelb]

Without volunteers, many of our natural areas would be much different. THANK YOU to EVERYONE who contributes to any of these areas!

[Lauriep]

Snicklefritz, thanks for starting this great thread.

Because volunteers are so often unseen, they are often overlooked. Trail maintainers usually try to do most of their work before the main wave of hikers reaches their section. Trail crews often work out of site on a new relocation until the old trail is closed and they are done. Corridor boundary monitors are almost never seen because they are typically 500 feet from the footpath. The ones who work behind the scenes, often at a computer, to do things like newsletter editing, volunteer recruitment, membership mailings, serving as treasurer, filling out applications for grants or getting approvals for new relocations, developing policy to protect the Trail from a new threat are heroes too.

[rocketsocks]

Thanks for the recognition! My wife and I are what's called boundary monitors and we volunteer through the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference. Our work isn't on the actual trail, but instead we look after the acres of land, and their surveyed boundary lines, that most hikers will never see. We do it for a couple of reasons, 1st as a way to give back to the trail for all the enjoyment we've gotten from hiking the AT. We want to make sure it's there for others who come after us. The second reason is purely selfish, we enjoy it :)Thanks for all you do.:)

"One generation plants the tree, the next gets the shade"