News

Eight Trail Tamers worked on the Bear Canyon Trail at Guadalupe Mountains National Park November of 2019. They cleared water bars, built steps and rehabilitated tread over a long section of trail about 1.5 miles from the Pine Canyon campground. During a rest day they explored a big hole in the ground just a few miles up the road. I think they call it Carlsbad Caverns. See pictures from the camp and trail here. 

Kevin Deiters led a crew of hearty Trail Tamers on October 12^th and 13^th that included Charlie Grant , Joel Barks, Robert Gross, and Jennifer Hamman. They were joined by Bob Binney, Mark Richardson, and Vivian Gradin of the YMCA working on a trail at the YMCA Robert’s Ranch just outside of Comfort, Texas. At this facility, there is an informal trail leading from the pavilion to the ridge above. This trail, known as the Ridge Trail, is important, as it traverses key ecological sites: riparian, grassland, slope (Steep Rocky) and uplands (low stony hill). The trail is short and easily accessible from the Pavilion. But, it has been in need of improvements to prevent erosion and to enhance the visitor experience. The trail crew had a productive day flagging a quarter mile of trail and then building 750 feet of it from a creek crossing through a grassy meadow up into a shallow ridge.

This will be an ongoing project between the Trail Tamers and the YMCA. The nest workdays will include finishing the flagged section and Phase three will be the most challenging as we try to figure out how to get to the ridge up the steeper portions of the path. Kevin and the Trail Tamers will be returning throughout the winter and spring to see this project to completion.

Craig Childs of the YMCA writes: Kevin and his wife graciously donated 2 rouge hoes and two McLeod hoes to YMCA Roberts Ranch, critical tools for building a proper trail! They arrived yesterday and I can't wait to get them dirty! Everyone, please thank Kevin and his team  for their generosity and support of Roberts Ranch. Texas Trail Tamers build professional trails all over the United States. We are blessed to have them involved with Roberts Ranch. This was followed by no fewer than eight very kind Thank You notes from YMCA members who were very impressed with the training and the work completed on the trail.

I’m sure we will be having new work days on this project soon, so keep an eye out for new signups on our website at www.TrailTamers.org and don’t forget to join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/288723014414/

A Message from the President:

October 16, 2019

Howdy Folks,

A few weeks ago, I was elected President of the Central Texas Trail Tamers Board of Directors. Following some of the greats in CTTT history makes me proud to take on this task. I am enthusiastic about leading an organization for which I have such high esteem. I was elected during a time when the Trail Tamers are needed more than ever by our host organizations, but also during a time when recruiting volunteer trail workers seems increasingly difficult. Our membership is smaller and our bank accounts are lower than in years past. I am determined to make this a low point in our history rather than an end point.

We have been a proudly independent organization. We are self-supporting and have never charged a dime for the services we provide. Every penny we charge in trip fees goes to supporting our organization and the projects we undertake. We are probably completely unique in that respect compared to other organizations who do the kind of work we do. I wouldn’t change the essential character of the CTTT for the world. I believe we do need to do some things differently as an organization though. We build sustainable trails, but the organization has never been comfortably sustainable, even in the best of times. I believe we can make the changes we need because I believe we have the strengths necessary to do so.  What strengths do we have you ask? Well, I have a few thoughts on that. Please read the little essay below. You will be glad you did.   

The Value of an All- Volunteer, Self-Supporting Trail Tamer Crew

When a Trail Tamer crew shows up for a project, land managers see a group of volunteers who help them complete tasks that they simply don’t have the resources to do on their own. Trail Tamers are avid trail users ourselves. We enjoy and value nature. We usually have an interest in the specific region in which we work. We enjoy the sense of community and often develop a sense of responsibility to the natural areas we visit. We want to leave the world a better place than we found it. As individuals, we want to give back to the parks, forests preserves and refuges we love. We often believe in the mission of the host organization and the lands they manage. We have skills that are uncommon in today’s modern world. Completing a project or work day is inherently rewarding for us. We love to get dirty, build trails and have fun. That is just who we are, and land managers tend to understand that. We are perfect volunteers for them.

As we head home from a project, we often hear from our hosts that our work is invaluable. We bask in the appreciation and honestly, as individuals, we do this because like many volunteers, we love what we do. We don’t think much about the “real world” value of what we provide for the organizations and land managers we volunteer for. Truthfully, we shouldn’t be thinking about those things when we are out on projects. We get outside to get away from those concerns.

When we get back home and face the reality of keeping an all-volunteer, self-supporting organization running, not to mention growing and thriving, understanding the value of what we do becomes more important. If we are to continue to do what we love, It is critical for us to understand our value and it is just as important for us to be able to communicate to others the value of what we do. Most of the organizations we volunteer for need to be able to accurately assess and report the value of the volunteer work we provide and I suspect that many of them under-report the in-kind amount for what we do.

So, lets take a look at what we provide from a purely economic standpoint.

The Trail Tamers own and bring all of our own tools and personal safety gear to every project. We maintain them and replace them as needed. Here is a list of things we bring to projects in amounts sufficient to support a crew of about 10 trail workers:

Safety Items and Personal Protection Gear: Hard Hats, Safety Glasses, Work Gloves, Closed toe and heel work boots, Dedicated First Aid Kit, Safety Vests, Sun Screen and bug spray. Ice chests and water barrels.   

Surveying: Range Finder, Clinometer, 100 yard measuring tape, Surveying flags, Surveying tape, Trail condition and planning forms

Clearing and Brush Removal: Loppers, Hand Pruners Fire rake/McCloud, Hand Saws Pole Saw, Axe, Adz, Machete

Grubbing and Excavation: Pick Mattock, Short Handled Pick Mattock, Rogue Hoe/Hazel Hoe, Shovels – round point and square point, Diamond Point San Angelo Bar, Post Hole Tamper Bar, Pinch Point Pry Bar, Pulaski

Materials Transport: Canvas Buckets, Boulder Slings and Nets, 5-gallon buckets, Wheelbarrow, Boulder Cart/Log Dolly, GripHoist  with cables, Amsteel come-along.

Compacting and Finishing: McLeod, Tamper,  Rake, Shovels, Flat Hoe

Woodworking tools and Cement Mixing and setting tools as needed.

You can easily see that we bring well over $10,000 worth of tools to every project we work. If every organization had t buy their own, provide their own maintenance, storage and replacement costs, the sum would be quite substantial. We know one organization that makes their tools available to fire crews, and there is no better way to lose or destroy trail building tools than send them to a fire line. Having a private organization provide the tools necessary also saves administrative costs associated with inventory and acquisition, as well as labor for tool upkeep. Most of the organizations we work for don’t have trained trail workers who know what tools to buy either, so there is an expertise issue involved in providing adequate tools for the specified jobs. And… tools are far from the greatest value we bring.

Trained experienced, knowledgeable Trail Crews/Labor: Our trail crews have both didactic and field training and many of us have years of experience in trail building as well as associated trades or hobbies. Hiring crew leaders and trail hands with this level of experience or hiring a professional trail crew easily runs into 1,000s to 10,000s of dollars per week. Are we working on a weekend? Guess what? We just saved our hosts overtime pay as well.

Professional Services – Trail Tamers consult on the design, layout, surveying, planning the build (including identifying onsite materials), and flagging for new trails. We help with assessment of existing trails for maintenance, rehabilitation, re-routing, improvement and closure of existing trails. Depending on the length of the trail, these kinds of services could run from 100s to many 1000s of dollars.

Onsite Transportation: A 4-wheel drive, high clearance vehicle in good shape, capable of transporting tools and people to back country work sites. One place we work frequently can’t even afford new tires for the decades old vehicles they use to transport crews and tools. How much are they saving by not having to buy a new truck?  

Education and Training: Throughout the history of the Trail Tamers, we have trained our own crews and many 1000s of volunteer crew members from organizations we volunteer for. Training individuals and groups who can then become trusted Trail Stewards for our host organizations extends our reach exponentially and that includes expanding our value that much.

Trail Tamers are experienced in the use local materials instead of bringing purchased, quarried materials. Professionals crews bring in expensive uniform rocks and crushed granite (are you not sick of seeing trails constructed with this stuff) where Trail Tamers use mineral soil we dig from the worksite itself. We search the property for rocks that can be used to build walls, steps, water bars, creek crossings, culverts and armored sections of trail and we transport those materials back to the work site ourselves. During one notable project a few years ago, we built a creek crossing about 200 yards downstream from a virtually identical crossing built by a professional crew working for the National Wildlife Refuge. Their paid crew used large machinery to bring in huge rocks from off site and place them at a low water crossing. They couldn’t get their machines to the crossing downstream without destroying a huge swath of vegetation and the approach trails to the crossing. They called in the Trail Tamers and we used boulders of a similar size we found ourselves and moved by hand. We placed the boulders across the creek at a reasonable distance from each other that allowed adequate flow and oriented them with the flow of the water so they wouldn’t wash away easily. We armored the approach to each side so that the bank would not be eroded by hikers stepping to the boulders to cross. I’ll just add here that crossing is still is use today and we didn’t need to drill holes and insert rebar to keep them in place! How much is that worth? How many 1000s of dollars does that save for every project we work?

Food and Hydration: Trail Tamers plan our own menus and cook our own meals. This saves the cost of a cook or caterer and about $800.00 - $1000 worth of food and drinks needed to feed and hydrate a crew of 10 for a week. For locations without a kitchen to use, we have a full camp kitchen and mess tent. We also take the time to buy and transport this to the property ourselves so our hosts don’t have to.

Travel expenses to and from a work site can amount to a significant expense and the more remote a location, the higher that expense is. Gasoline for a Truck out to West Texas and back to Austin is in the 100s of dollars now. Travel expenses for a crew originating from all over Texas runs in the 1000s. We are donating those expenses to the host organization every time we do a project.

The Trail Tamers are a very frugal organization. We minimize expenses whenever we can. We still have administrative, legal, storage, website, promotional and insurance expenses. We could not do what we do and provide the services we provide otherwise. In essence, we donate those expenses to our host organizations every time we show up on a site.

Can you add all of that up? I’m sure an accountant could place an actual monetary amount on every item and even do magic like account for depreciation and amortization (whatever that means). After reading this summary of what the Trail Tamers provide every time we show up on a project it should be clear that the value of a Trail Tamer crew could easily be placed in the 10s of thousands of dollars for every week we work on a project. How much more is it worth when we return to the same location year after year, sometimes multiple times per year? Now ask yourself what is the value of a trail that doesn’t wash out because it was constructed correctly the first time? How much is a trail worth that can be used to show off the property to potential benefactors? The value of a sustainable trail continues to provide our hosts with dividends long after we are gone. What we do ensures access to nature for future generations as well as for the current needs of those we serve. Knowing that makes us proud.

I hope that knowing the worth of our contributions will help guide us toward building a sustainable Trail Tamer organization. There are some things you can do right now to help us start to grow and thrive again.

If you aren’t signed up for a trip check the website and sign up for one soon. We have several local and regional projects that will be posted soon, but the Guadalupe Mountains Trip and the Love Creek Trip will be awesome projects.

Make a list of friends who you think will like to help on a project and invite them to come out and work with us. Actually ask them to give it a try and join us.

Consider upping your own membership to a supporting membership. Its only $100.00 per year and that could really help us improve our finances.

If you read this far – I thank you. I’ll try to be a little less verbose in the future. I’m looking forward to seeing you all out on the trails. Please let me know what I can do to support you as a Trail Tamer. Until then,

Happy Trails,

Scott Newsom

President

Central Texas Trail Tamers

This last weekend, the Trail Tamers enjoyed a fun and relaxing trip to the Nature Conservancy’s Davis Mountains Preserve. Several members showed up with their families to enjoy the open weekend hiking and attending other activities in the area. Scott, Vic and Loren took turns working the Trail Tamers outreach table and enjoyed the company of Greg Crow and Tara Polosky. Greg is the onsite land manager and outside of our members, he has been one of our longest lasting and most steadfast supporters. Tara is the West Texas Education and Outreach director for TNC. For those who have an interest in trail tools, Tara notes that when her family immigrated to the U.S. from Poland, her family name was neglectfully changed from Pulaski when they were recorded by a less than literate customs worker. In addition to being an enthusiastic and gracious host, Tara presented on the Owls of the Trans-Pecos (Did you know the smallest owl in the Americas lives in the Davis Mountains?) and she presented a Star Party just outside the McIvor Center.

Some of the other activities we enjoyed at the preserve included hikes to the top of the 5^th tallest mountain in Texas. Mt. Livermore is 8378 feet elevation at the top of Baldy Peak (the name of the summit of this mountain) and the hike itself includes 1800 feet of vertical climbing.  Other’s took the Livermore Vista Trail and the ever popular Tobe Springs hike where you can see the Texas Champion Ponderosa Pine tree. Much of this area was burned during the 2011 fires in the Davis Mountains and by now, much to our delight, huge numbers of Texas Madrone trees are growing and heathy in the areas that burned. Where much of the forest floor was once shaded by huge pines, now oaks Madrones and other hardwood species are filling in. The more open forest is actually more typical of the area before it was managed to suppress fires for over 100 years. The Nature Conservancy partners with the Texas A&M Forestry program to manage the post fire recovery.

One group was lucky enough to see a covey of about 30 Montezuma Quail – a bird that for many birders can be a bit of a nemesis. Another very unusual and exciting finding is at least two different sightings in different areas of the park of Texas Horned Lizards. These lizards were not thought to populate the Davis Mountains though other species, the round tails and mountain horned lizards are well-known residents of the preserve. On Saturday evening, graduate students from the Borderland Research Institute at Sul Ross University presented on Mountain Lions in the Davis Mountains and on Pronghorns in the Trans-Pecos. These long-running research efforts help us understand, protect and support populations of these iconic native species.

Side trips included tours at the Fort Davis National Historical Site, the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute and the McDonald Observatory. Continued improvements at Fort Davis have made visiting there a far more enriching historical and cultural experience. More of the buildings have been preserved and the interpretive presentations have been updated. The science of astronomy continues to amaze so visits to the observatory offer a first-hand opportunity to see and hear about genuine cutting edge science.  The Chihuahuan desert is a living desert with a complex and fascinating natural eco-system. The CDRI brings it alive. The Davis Mountains State Park also offers access to natural and recreational opportunities found few other places. I honestly don’t know of any other area that is so rich in natural, cultural, historic, educational and scientific opportunities than the Davis Mountains of West Texas.  The Trail Tamers will continue to work on trails for many different organizations in the area. In addition to the Nature Conservancy, we have worked on trails for all of the other organizations mentioned except the observatory. We will continue to have these fun gatherings in addition to our trail work, so I hope you will join us for both in the near future.

The Central Texas Trail Tamers have a Facebook page. We are trying to grow that page, so please join us there! https://www.facebook.com/groups/288723014414/

At the regularly scheduled Central Texas Trail Tamers Board of Director’s Meeting, on August 10^th, 2019 Kevin Deiters completed his term as president of the organization. Kevin is one of the original founders of the Trail Tamers and his contributions to the organization can’t be overstated. The Board is grateful for his long tenure as president  and all of his contributions to the organization over the years. Kevin will continue to teach trail building and maintenance classes, lead trail crews serve on the Board. We couldn’t ask for a better mentor and feel fortunate to have his continued support. At that same meeting, Scott Newsom agreed to accept the presidency, Angie Hardy will continue as treasurer and Charlie Bray will continue as secretary. Jerry Levinson, and Vick Hines round out the current Board membership. Look for a message from the president soon about the future of the Trail Tamers.

At the regularly scheduled Central Texas Trail Tamers Board of Director’s Meeting, on September 7th, 2019, The Board did some planning for upcoming events. Scott, Angie, Charlie, Kevin and Jerry were in attendance. We have some exciting and interesting trips coming up. We already posted an open day campout at The Nature Conservancy Davis Mountains Preserve and a December project at Love Creek. Kevin is working on a weekend at the YMCA property in Comfort as well as looking into another trip to the Guadalupe Mountains. Expertise in multiple trail building technologies is one of the characteristics that sets us apart from other groups who do trail work. We will be having some skill building clinics coming up to enhance our advanced trail building skills as an organization. Be on the lookout for more info on that. Our next Board meeting will be in Tuesday, December 10^th, 2019 at the Central market on North Lamar.  All members of the Trail Tamers are welcome to attend to give us your input and support! Please make plans to join us there.

Be sure to contact the Trail Tamers if your organization is interested in learning about building or maintaining hiking trails.  We offer an introductory sampler class, developed by the Pacific Crest Trail Association and U.S. Forest Service Trails Specialist John Schubert) is for people new to trail work who want an overview.

One quarter of the class covers “how trails work,” i.e. basic trail design concepts; one quarter covers trail work safety protocols; one quarter covers hands-on brushing and hand-saw clearing; and one quarter covers hands-on drainage cleaning.

Sixteen students attended the Introduction to Trail Maintenance class on February 11th that was hosted by St. Edwards University and taught by Trail Tamers Kevin Deiters and Vick Hines. 

Using the blog gadget, you can add a blog to your Wild Apricot site to provide timely updates and information to your membership.

By using Recent blog posts, you can display a list of the most recent blog posts, with links to the full posts. The list will include the date of each post and the name of the poster – with the name linking to their profile if available.

For instructions on inserting, moving, and deleting gadgets, see Gadgets.

You can create as many different blogs as you wish. You can limit access to a blog by placing it on a restricted page. If you make the page public, you can still use the blog gadget settings to control functionality for visitors and members.

You can read more about setting up blogs on our Blog help page.

If you are looking on more information on how to use blog, you can find it here.