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, 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 thru- hikers 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’.

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.

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 spend most of the day in one place. While working on the trails in Van Sickle State Park, I would notice how the color of the lake would change ever so slowly as the sun moved overhead. Also, you discover that the sounds of the forest change throughout the day as the thermal winds vary and that animal sounds, the chirping and chattering, differ in low light versus bright sunlight.

One day I could look down on the top of a broken off dead tree. A nest of baby squirrels kept peeking out, curious as to what I was and what I was doing. Recently, a long-eared chipmunk, normally a very shy animal, spent hours chattering and dancing near me as I was working near Watson Lake. I imagine he was fussing because I was intruding on his territory.

Then there are the larger animals. A bear walked by us during a crew leader training session, to plop down into a pond and splash the water with his big paws like a little kid having a grand ole time. Another bear was walking up a trail when I was carrying a load of tools down. I did all the recommended responses; I banged tools together, stood tall, and yelled. The bear looked at me with a ‘yeah, right’ look and kept coming. I let him have the trail and hiked down the hill to our truck. Near Twin Peaks I was sitting by the trail serenely watching the sun come up when a bear, not seeing me, walked up behind me. We became aware of each other about the same time; he took off like a rocket (it’s an amazing sight the first time you see how fast a bear can run!) and I concentrated to slow my heart rate to avoid a heart attack! On my return trip on an early winter hike, I found mountain lion tracks crossing my earlier footprints. Deer usually had the habit of blending into the scenery and then scaring the bejeebers out of me as they’d suddenly leap up as I passed by.

The list goes on and on. Flowers, trees, streams, storm clouds, pogonip, blowing snow, rock formations, etc., etc.. All these experiences I owe to my volunteering with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association and to the Association’s continued stewardship of the Tahoe Rim Trail. So, again, I want to thank the many members and donors who have supported the TRTA and thereby provided me with years of wonderful experiences.