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Many trail maintaining clubs operate under the routine agenda of getting together once a month for trail maintenance activities. Other groups have chosen to divide their trail into sections, and delegating maintenance duties by region. Still others may do a combination of both, depending on what works for their club.
The Standing Stone Trail Club (SSTC) has taken a different approach. The SSTC aspires to make the Standing Stone Trail (SST) recognized as one of the Commonwealth's premier footpaths, and has implemented a "master plan" for continuous improvement. The 70+ mile trail is currently broken into 26 sections, most of which have an assigned volunteer maintainer. However, because there is no club-defined trail care schedule or policy, the maintenance of the SST rises and falls on the efforts of each section's maintainer.
Maintaining a trail of this length is challenging. The SSTC maintainers and organizers struggled to find more efficient and effective means to overcome the varied and constant challenges they faced. Emerging from the notion that some people prefer to work on the weekdays and leave weekends open for activities, a sub-set of the SSTC maintainers - now nicknamed "The Old Timers" - was created. For over a year, eighteen dedicated "Old Timers" have convened on the second Wednesday of each month, from 9 AM until 3 PM. Adorned in distinctive, matching orange t-shirts, the volunteers meet for breakfast, then enthusiastically attack various sections of the trail with an assortment of trail maintaining tools.
"Good work --not 'make work'-- and fellowship" are the ingredients volunteer trail maintainer Carl Lorence attributes to the successes of the Old Timers. Not all Old Timers are SSTC members, but they are all good workers, many of which are skilled in rock-work and other specialties. Their projects have included the never-ending task of rehabbing the Thousand Steps and Deeter Spring. A recent accomplishment was the construction of the Butler Knob Shelter on Jack's Mountain, complete with fire ring, picnic table, cat-hole area, and metal "bear pole" for hanging grub snacks.
Since there are no officers, the SSTC relies on volunteers to carry out tasks that arise. They have two volunteer coordinators: one that focuses on scheduling the volunteers themselves, and one that maintains and provides tools and equipment for the maintenance activities. Carl Lorence declares this arrangement a success and recommends that other KTA maintaining clubs consider following suit. He remarks, "There is latent talent out there in the trail community; this could be tapped to carry on your trail maintenance, while still leaving weekends open for other pursuits."
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