VOLUNTEERING
Reflections on a Decade of Volunteering with TRTA
by Dave Schnake TRTA Board President
Over the last eleven years while building improvements to or maintaining the Tahoe Rim Trail numerous hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians have thanked me for my work. One PCT thru hiker even took a moment to leave me a note on the back of my truck after chatting with me while I was clearing downed trees off the trail. As much as my ego has appreciated the sentiment, their thanks were misplaced. Thanks should go to all the members and donors that make the non-profit Tahoe Rim Trail Association possible.
Without their continuing support over the years, the Association would not have been able to develop partnerships with the various land agencies around the Lake. The Association provides the framework for training and gaining experience that result in its volunteers conducting trail work that meets the highest standards and is done safely. And finally, the Association has, over the years, built up a team of volunteers dedicated and committed to providing a world class trail experience for all those that travel on the Tahoe Rim Trail. Their many cumulative years of experience is priceless; their cumulative pay over those years, $0. But personally, as a TRTA volunteer, money truly isn’t everything. I have been paid in many, many other ways. These are just a few of the experiences I would have missed out on if members and donors did not support the existence of the Tahoe Rim Trail Association. I’ll start with all the people I’ve met, some just in brief chats as we passed on the trail, others which have developed into friendships that will endure for many years to come. I initially thought I’d be exaggerating to say the number of people I’ve met through my time with the TRTA was in the thousands. Thinking back, though, I have no doubt this is true; the various volunteers that came to work on the trail for just a day or two, the people I met on the trail, 6
The fall is when you meet lots of the hikers from Europe who have traveled half-way around the world just to experience the TRT. I have talked about this with other trail workers and tried to put together a list of the countries from which visitors had traveled. It quickly became obvious that a list of countries from which we haven’t met hikers would be very short.
my fellow crew leaders, agency folks, and those poor audiences I tortured with some of my Trail Talks. One thing they all had in common is that they all cherished their trail experiences. We would relive our experiences on trails we both traveled and, my favorite, they would share stories of trails I would love to travel in the future. In addition to trails in this country I talked with people who hiked trails in the Alps, Spain, Croatia, South America, Africa, New Zealand, Norway, and others. Starting in midsummer I would start to meet the PCT thruhikers on their way from the Mexican border to Canada. Having already spent months in the wilderness, hiking over 1,100 miles, some of them are starved to talk to another human being, while others are starting to develop a strange animal like stare as they have started to go ‘wild’.
TRAIL BLAZER | Winter 2021 | Tahoe Rim Trail Association
Trail work has taken me to all parts of the trail at one time or another. Some years ago, I completed my third complete loop of the trail while assessing trail conditions near Watson Lake. It dawned on me that day that I was on a section of trail my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop had volunteered to brush years earlier, long before I ever volunteered for trail work. Always, there is an immense personal satisfaction when you look back at a section of trail you just helped build or repair. Then there was the constant camaraderie of working as a team and the ever-entertaining bull sessions during lunch breaks. Crews would always seek the best viewpoint for their lunch break, even if it were a half mile from the work area! I could wax philosophic about trail work, but my suggestion is, give it a try and experience it for yourself! Working on the trail provided me so many unique trail experiences. Working on a technical repair or new trail construction, means you
