- Locations and Trails: Activities cover popular trails like La Jolla Valley, Old Boney, Serrano Canyon, Phantom Trail, and Prisoners Harbor.
- Event Types: Events include trail maintenance, field trips, scouting, record-keeping, and scheduling meetings.
- Organizations: State Parks is the most frequent organizer, with significant contributions from CINP, NPS, and COSCA.
- Participation and Effort:
- Group sizes range from small (1–6 participants) to large (up to 43 participants).
- Total hours worked per event vary widely, from 5 to 258 hours.
- Participants often contribute multiple hours, averaging substantial team efforts.
- Recurring Projects: Some trails and projects like La Jolla Valley Trails, Old Boney Trail, and Trail Signs Project appear frequently, indicating ongoing or recurring maintenance.
This summary reflects the scope, scale, and focus on trail preservation and collaboration across various parks and organizations.
Dave Edwards, Ruth Feldon and Jon Sheldon worked a combined 1,576 hours. Ruth seemed to be everywhere - she volunteered at an astonishing 81 events. Dave's efforts in the Channel Islands and Jon's Signs Project in Point Mugu State Park were factors leading to this years record breaking amounts of individual volunteer hours.
Dave is our crew master but his truck makes our volunteer events possible in areas far from where the pavement ends. His truck probably has tens of thousands of miles from being driven to and from the trailhead and back. Dave brings the tools, maintains the tools and returns them to their home after each event. Jerry is our other Crew Leader whose truck has allowed us to work on trails deep into State Parks properties. These images show Jerry, Jon, Ruth, Carlyn and John transporting signs to their designated locations.
Ruth Feldon has averaged over 442 hours volunteered per year since joining our crew in 2022! As a crew leader she is thorough - her planning is evident in the detailed notes she brings and the survey flags placed prior to the event. Ruth has mastered lopping, brush clearing, digging out stumps and has taken to cleaning and creating drains. George, John Reynolds and Greg are regulars who seem to gravitate towards the task of brush removal. Carlyn is our 2024 Volunteer of the year. Denise has been on the disabled list much of 2024 and is our social media coordinator.
Trail Days is our signature trail work event. This year was the largest event for volunteers we have held. Over a mile and a half of The Blue Canyon Trail was restored! Barb Thomas has been the primary organizer for the past decade. Barb coordinates with California State Parks, National Park Service, Sierra Club Task Force, CORBA and a host of other smaller organizations to transport, feed, provide tools and to keep informed nearly 200 hundred volunteers. She has done an excellent job overseeing an event that continues to grow and evolve.
We continue to reach out to a variety of groups that love and utilize our trails. Several events featured large groups of runners working to prepare trails for future races. Are you an active trail user who belongs to a group that might be interested in working with us? Email or call us. We can all benefit from this shared labor!
During the year we provide Crew Leaders for events held by NPS, State Parks and COSCA. Our crew leaders will work with you to make the best use of your skills and time.
Dave Edwards leads groups of volunteer trail workers to the Channel Islands throughout the year. His crew does some fine work in making trails available to the public.
Trail work is a collaborative effort. We work and solve trail problems together, we eat together but mostly we have a great time working on trails.
