by Ed Lawrence, KTA Trail Care Chair
Trail Care Weekends begin late afternoon on Friday, when volunteers start arriving to set up their camp sites and general conviviality prevails. Sometimes, however, significant work gets accomplished Friday during the day by available people who enjoy lighting the fuse early. This work may involve simple reconnaissance of trail conditions—a walk-through to prepare for Saturday’s crew roster. It may also consist of jump-starting one or another known work project: blaze painting, lopping, side hill digging, and so on. This value-added time moves the needle on the work while boosting the overall volunteer hour impact on a trail that might get only this once-a-year focus. So the upshot is that if you plan to attend a particular Trail Care Weekend and have the entire Friday free, contact the scheduled leader to see whether it will be a working Friday and whether your participation would be helpful. Trail Care Fridays can sometimes be great weekend kickoffs.