Fat Boy Deluxe

I’ve taken on a new position within the M.O.R.E. organization. I am now the new Trail Boss. What is a Trail Boss you may ask? I’m in charge of the 25 or so trail liaisons that keep the communication lines open with our local parks. Some of my duties include setting up the trail maintenance schedule, helping to coordinate large trail building projects, and keeping all the liaisons aprised of anything having to do with their park. While it may not sound like very much, it’s a lot more hours than I had initially thought. After all, I’m still a trail liaison and that takes probably less than 20 hours a year. In my first month on the job I have well surpassed that mark and I’m still going. Getting this many people to agree on something or meet at the same time is pretty tricky, as I’ve found out. Communication is key!

Once we get a finalized trail maintenance schedule, I’ll post it up here. If your local to the DC metro area and want to give some sweet sweet loving back to the trails that have given you so much, come on out one weekend or take a day off work for one of the big trail building days. A lot of people in 40 hour a week jobs might not realize some of their benefits. Not everyone has this, but my company does it, so who knows, worth a shot…take Civic time. It’s essentially 40 hours you can take off work at any time over the course of a year specifically for volunteer and community events. I’ve used this in the past to help out on the trail building sessions with Rich Edwards of IMBA that take place on weekdays. I’ve also used the days to help run the IMBA Trail Care Crew (TCC) visit.

What I’m really looking forward to this year is learning to build trail with mechanized tools. Rich Edwards is a master at the ditchwitch and in the right area, can make building miles of trail fast and efficient!  I’m also looking forward to taking a more active role in planning, designing, and building of new trail.  This will give me a chance to combine my work in computers, my passion for biking, and my interest in GIS.  I’m hoping that as Trail Boss I can help add value for the rest of M.O.R.E.’s members.  It’s time to take it up a notch!

DT