The BTA has offered some support. And we're certainly going to take them up on it. On the maintenance side, we do have access to a DR String Trimmer, which makes cutting our brushy areas easier than a weed eater. We have the offer of getting a link for Adventurer's Project's Facebook page on the Buckeye Trail's. And we do have an offer for guidance in regards to converting Adventurer's Project into a chapter.
But what I really want to talk about is my own person acquisition of 4 Pulaski axes and 4 sets of hand pruners and folding saws. If I asked for BTA support on these, it could take them weeks to assemble these. Meanwhile, our area is mostly rural, but our Facebook following is mostly urban, suburban and exurban. I like to think that I'm prepared for volunteers of any income level.
If I need volunteers, seeing that I get my car fixed, I'll just go out and get them. And people who don't have tools will get them on loan. That way when people are available and we're ready to go... well then, we're ready to go. I have everything that I need for light and the most volunteer intensive heavy maintenance.
For those of you tuning in from distance trails other than Buckeye, I have maintenance organized into two categories. "Light maintenance" is the pruning and blazing. That's the least that we can expect from trail adopters. But "heavy maintenance" is the muscles and the machines. That encompasses the DR Mowers, string trimmers, weed whackers and benching. It's best that these be done in a group.
Adventurer's Project has a unique way of dividing this up. We're raising two crews. One is the primary maintenance which consists of the trail adopters on mostly light maintenance. Two is the chapterside volunteers who most concentrate on other aspects of running a distance trail. In theroy, the adopters are the "trail promotion reserve." And the chapterside volunteers are the "trail maintenance reserve." My idea is that if we can get the adopters together for heavy maintenance, about two times a year, we'll call up the Maintenance Reserve and add everybody into the mix for these projects.
On the flip side, it takes about 9 volunteers to man the shifts when we do trail promotion at a typical 3 day festivals. The idea is that we'll call the chapterside volunteers first. And if we can't fill the shifts, we'll then go to the Trail Promotion Reserve.
Currently, we have 3 maintainers on the Whipple Section and 2 on the Road Fork. Unfortunately, that 5 is out of 20. But, we picked up one or two? Getting more in the short term is contingent on the condition of my vehicles. On the chapterside of things, I roughly estimate that we have 5 of 9. And utilizing the maintenance reserve is also contingent on my vehicle's conditions, but this is more eminent.
To get those trail adopters, the next step is in developing a "Vacant Segment Showcase" on Adventurer's Project's Facebook page and website. It's a project of mine. But while I'm out there, I'm also going to work on the project's contribution to the BTA's digital map repository. It's a fully geotagged, photo catalog of the off-road trail. It's also a supply of photos for Facebook to get us through the winters. The audience is media hungry and the winters are difficult to furnish content for.
I've started it, but I don't have enough content to keep the audience occupied. But, one good day between the Archer's Fork Loop and Scenic River Trailhead in the Marietta Unit of The Wayne (National Forest) can change that. I have enough battery power for my smartphone to last 25 miles straight of photo cataloging on one charge.
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