A Few Good Men and Women
- Candi Pennington
- Aug 20, 2025
- 2 min read
Taking Care of Trails with Just A Few Good Men and Women
As I write this, it’s mid August and the summer has been brutally hot! Not only that, it’s been the wettest summer I can remember in a long time. But somewhere, someone is doing trail work and I’m not talking about the organized kind. They may have grabbed a friend, put out a message on a social media platform like Spaces, or just simply gone alone. It is not unusual for local trail advocacy groups to have those few good men and women out there on a daily basis taking care of your trails. These folks ARE recognized by their local trail chapters, are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to accomplish the tasks required AND most important of all, they check in!
At FORBA, we like the idea of working with a small group and we do have a few volunteers who like working alone. This is not to say our traditional volunteer workdays are going away, but we have found that working with a few folks more often has been effective. This typically happens a few times a week based on an issue (which can be recognized in various ways) at one of our local trails We’d like to claim that we have an organized system where trail leaders are always available to identify those issues, but in reality they are often identified by the community of riders and our volunteers. Taking care of downed trees, trimming back growth, clearing drains and detailed hand work, like trimming roots, shaping and packing new trail are some of the many ongoing tasks that a small group or a single person can do.
While the summer heat and rain have been challenging, a few good men and women are indeed out
there and progress is happening on our newest trail, Tobacco Road. Let’s continue communicating, checking in and recording those volunteer hours!! If you have knowledge/skills related to trails and would like to know more about how to get involved with these small group or individual work sessions, let us know. Our scheduled volunteer workdays will be happening, but more on a quarterly basis with the next one on September 13th at Dragon’s Lair. And don’t forget, our Community Trail Meetings happen the first Wednesday of every month at Acadia Foods! If you want to support our work monetarily, consider becoming a paid member. You can also support by purchasing one of our jerseys or socks!
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