I was reading Rob's thread concerning a trail closure/reroute on Trail 14 in Craftsbury and it started me thinking about how lucky we are to have the VAST trail system but also how fragile it really is. Last winter I decided to start attending the monthly meetings of my local club, the Mad River Ridge Runners. At these meetings I got to know some very nice and hardworking folks that allow our 80 miles of trails to be as great as great as they really are. I also found that out of a club membership of 400+ members only maybe 15 are active members that attend the monthly meetings and help out with various projects that need to be completed durning the year. During this past fall I spent several weekends volunteering my services here in the Mad River Valley brush cutting, putting up signs and helping out with the construction of a couple of bridges that were made neccesary by land owner closures and trail reroutes. As Vermont becomes more populated and houses are built in more isolated areas this is going to become more and more of a problem. Everyone who is lucky enough to be able to share the VAST network should be concerned. I highly recommend that everyone attend one or more of your local clubs meetings and volunteer to help out this summer.

I was thinking of this myself.

I think there should be a check mark on your TMA stating eithier willing or not willing to volunteer.

If someone checks willing have them fill out a club form that will ask for phone numbers, how many days they want to volunteer, type of volunteer work something in that nature.

Man I wish we had more help, we could do so much more. We have like 4 people on a weekend in the fall cutting trails. It's tough work with that little amount of people