The majority of the Buckeye Trail's (BT) hiking audience and probably volunteer corps is probably local. They're mostly short range (8 miles per day or less). So, Buckeye "makes it money" on entry level hikers. The Buckeye Trail Association has been in continuous operation since 1959. At least one of it's founders hoped that it would become a side trail to the Appalachian Trail (AT).
But continuous contact wasn't maintained between the BT and Appalachian Trail Conference. Over time, those two distance trail agencies evolved in isolation and probably for the most part. Using a night school program known as "English as a Second Language (ESOL)" as a basis for comparison, when hiker who's "first language" is the AT intents to hike the BT, they are sometimes not prepared for things to be different.
On the other hand, in my opinion, the Buckeye Trail Association (BTA) doesn't know how to reach them in order to groom those hikers ahead of time. There are no AWOL Guides for the Upper Midwest distance trails. There's probably around 350 volunteers on the BT. At least half of that are trail adopters that don't often cross over into general volunteerism. Take the functions and programs that it's already running and pit that against the demands of a volunteer's life and you may start to see that there isn't much left over.
In volunteer logistics, there is the matter of can one do something. But it's entirely another matter of whether they can keep it going indefinitely? In order to combine all necessary materials for hikers into one convenient source (something new to the BT), a volunteer would have to commit indefinitely to the project. The logistical problem is that they could easily become diverted by other volunteer functions in the BTA.
- On the American Discovery Trail, a more complete guide would not only have to be researched and compiled, but it would have to be "test driven," or thru hiked for accuracy to double check it. At the moment, that would cost that volunteer about $12,000. It's out of their pocket, but it would take an exceptionally long time for the ADTS to break even with that as it is.
I could probably write a webpage right now and have it indexed with the search engines in about 9 months. And it could address these first language AT'ers. The problem is the keywords which the search engines pick up on. They're embedded into webpages behind the scenes. If don't get those right, then my webpage won't be listed on the hits as relevant to them. They might search a little differently than the listed keywords. The point is that I don't know their experiences and expectations enough to do this correctly.
This is why I think that a volunteer "BT Ambassador to the AT" is necessary. It needs somebody who is an enthusiast to both. And this person has to know both trails and their subcultures in order to bridge them. I'm just not qualified because I hardly know the AT side.
On somewhat of another note, by the BTA bi-laws, the chapter that may result from the Adventurer's Project needs to have a hiking program. Since no BT/ AT club is probably going to form in Ohio, and since the new chapter has a particular interest in the AT, it can organize a van to carpool hikers from the Marietta, OH/ Parkersburg, WV area.
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