On Saturday morning I went out to Sope Creek to volunteer for National Trails day and I was blown away to see nearly 200 volunteers ready to work! For those who don’t know, Sope Creek is just a few miles outside Atlanta, GA and is part of the National Park Service Chattahoochee River Recreation Area. Thousands of trail users run, walk, hike, and bike the trails every week but unfortunately the trails weren’t designed for that kind of abuse. In fact, many of the park’s trails are old roads used more than 100 years ago to access various mills that operated on the river and have seen serious erosion over time.

Early stages of adding sticks and logs to a closed trail.

Where’d the trail go? Trail closure complete.

The local mountain bike club (SORBA Atlanta) organized groups of volunteers, many of whom registered through REI, to help complete trail re-routes and close down old trails. My group was picked for trail destruction and it’s pretty incredible what we were able to accomplish in just a few hours. The new trails were cut using a machine several weeks before and volunteers worked hard to put the finishing touches before the trails were officially opened Saturday.

New trail opened just in time for National Trails Day!

Volunteering at the local trails always feels good and it’s a great chance to meet and interact with other trail users. Contact your local hiking or biking club to get involved!

The LA Times published a good article about the non-profit group Wilderness Volunteers that organizes inexpensive outdoor vacation adventures for travelers who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Wilderness Volunteers has been organizing work trips to US public lands (National Parks, National Forests, etc.) since 1997 and past projects have included trail maintenance, painting, and building fences.

The cost of the 5-7 day trips is $259 per person which includes food and commissary equipment. Volunteers need to provide their own camping equipment and transportation to and from the trailhead but other than that everything is taken care of! Opportunities are available from Hawaii to Oregon to Utah - check the Wilderness Volunteers website for more details.

This kind of vacation is really right up my alley. I’m not a big fan of beach-type vacations where the main activity is sitting in a chair - I need to be more active than that which is why I love hiking and backpacking I suppose. I also get a real sense of pride from accomplishing something like an epic hike or even finishing a big home improvement project - an outdoor volunteer vacation could kill two birds with one stone! Plus it’s inexpensive… not a bad thing in this economy.