The difference between miles of trail and number of folks that work on them is pretty large, so we have to pick and choose projects for organized work days, and then hope the 2 or 3 real dedicated folks can make time for things like mowing, weedwhacking and clearing debris or trees off of other various trails just to keep them open.

When folks do come out in numbers things get done at a swift pace and then some. About 20 folks showed up to do trail work on the Sunday morning following the Canaan Mountain Bike Festival this year to work on part of the high profile Heart of the Highlands Trail system. We managed to construct a bridge across devils run and additionally complete a nice section of trail that followed it with a few rock bridges, bench cutting and raking. The show of force was great and Ken Dzaack, land manager at Canaan Valley Institute where the work site was for this day was very pleased with the progress. "I would have been ecstatic just to get the bridge in place today, so all the extra work is a real bonus" Dzaack said.

So it goes to show that bodies to help is the biggest issue with maintaining all the trails in Tucker County. "We have money for tools and equipment, it's the bodies to put them to use that is usually the hurdle" said Roger Lilly, president of TCT. Well on this day, there were no hurdles. Let's hope that can continue!