Giving Back to the Trails

Grand Canyon Hiking Photo Gallery

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To tell the truth, my first stab at volunteer trail work wasn't exactly voluntary. More years ago than I'd like to admit, I worked as an instructor at an outdoor education center. The job offered inarguable benefits—we got to ride horses, cross-country ski, and hike. But in addition to teaching everything from animal adaptations to navigation, my job description included feeding the horses, cleaning the barn, calling square dances, and mopping floors. The average workday was 14 hours; the pay was $100 a week.

Just before one of our few weekends off, the director came by and asked each one of us to volunteer for a trail crew. The center was sponsoring a volunteer trail work weekend, and he needed as many staff members as he could corral to cheerlead and set a good example. He made it clear that he expected the answer to be an enthusiastic "yes."

So that Sunday, I found myself with another instructor, a professional trail maintainer, and a group of teenage volunteers. We were given heavy-duty work gloves, clippers, saws, and a bunch of tools I didn't even know the names of, and we trekked into the woods to vanquish overgrown branches and blowdowns. I'll admit to feeling a little disgruntled about my lost lazy Sunday. But I also knew that these kids were giving up a weekend to do a good deed. It was my responsibility at least to pretend to have fun.

Soon enough, I wasn't pretending anymore.

We clipped branches and sawed our way through blowdowns. We trimmed back the stinging nettles that overhung the trail. I learned how to hold a chainsaw. We dug drainage ditches and fixed water bars. We made up silly lyrics about trail work to the melodies of popular songs. By the end of the day, we were covered with dirt, pleasantly tired, and ready to enjoy our justly earned reward: a feastlike dinner back at the center.

You may not think that trail work sounds like a lot of fun. All that lifting, heaving, digging—all that WORK. But it's one of those "you've got to try it to understand" sort of things. The rewards include meeting like-minded people, the satisfaction of giving back, and the development of new outdoor skills that might even help you land an outdoor-oriented job.

All I can tell you is that the days I've spent helping out on trails are among my favorite trail memories. In the years since I first held a chainsaw, I've helped various organizations as a newsletter editor, an outdoor skills teacher, a trip leader, a publicist, and a trail worker. I've even helped to install an outhouse!