With 185 miles of trails to maintain year-round, Basin Recreation is inviting the community to lend a hand in celebration of National Trails Day on Saturday with hands-on trail work, fresh air, and local impact.
Volunteers will tackle projects on high-traffic trails in the Run-A-Muk and RTS trail system from 8 a.m. to noon. Volunteers need to register to secure one of 30 spots on the team. Limiting volunteer participation is necessary to ensure everyone has the space to learn and ask questions under the guidance of Basin Recreation’s small trail crew, said Community Outreach Supervisor Travis Engvall.
“We have a team of six to seven full-time crew members. They’re a dedicated bunch, and probably lift more weight than six to seven people could. They’re all very passionate about trail work and love being outside,” he said. “And we want to have a good ratio of staff to volunteers so they can get that well-rounded training and are able to ask questions.”
Basin Recreation has celebrated the nationwide day of service and recognition for the country’s trail systems since they’ve had trails, said Engvall.
“It began as a way to bring awareness to our trail networks across the U.S., and get people outside more and involved in stewardship,” he said. “Basin Rec has quite a big trail network, and every year we determine a section of trail that needs extra love and come up with a work plan to see what we can do.”
Much of the district’s trail work relates to irrigation and improving water flow on and off the trails to prevent erosion, and cutting back overgrowth on trails.
On Saturday, volunteers can expect to work with tools including the McLeod, a multi-purpose shovel/rake, and loppers, a large vegetation clipper.
“It’s a great way for the community to get involved with the trails they use and give them a sense of ownership of the trails,” said Engvall.
The day will begin with an education session to familiarize volunteers with the tools and what work they will do. The Basin Recreation team will equip folks with strategies to help with water mitigation, cutting back growth or grading and smoothing the trails.
The Run-A-Muk trailhead sees year-round traffic, leaving it one of the more impacted areas that Basin Recreation services.
“Run-A-Muk sees more users than any other trail network in our jurisdiction, and it may be one of the most beloved resources in Park City because everyone has dogs and loves to get outside with their pets,” said Engvall. “It is probably going to be the most impacted this year.”
With the group focused on the Run-A-Muk hiking trails Saturday, Engvall expects a “huge” positive impact on the area.
“When you get a group of 30 people that are dedicated to a certain section of trail, you can really improve an area. Our trails team is relatively small, and we’ll generally have one or two people working on those sections at a time,” said Engvall. “When you go from two to even 15, the impact is huge.”
The day’s concentrated focus and effort will allow Basin Recreation to tackle long-standing maintenance challenges that might otherwise remain on the back burner due to limited staffing and resources, said Engvall.
“It really helps us, especially if we have lingering projects that we can’t get to because we don’t have the resources or the manpower to get to them, we will choose those harder hurdles to climb over and knock them out with everyone there,” he said.
Basin Recreation offers monthly opportunities for volunteerism on the first Tuesday of each month following National Trails Day to get community members out on the trails beyond the annual holiday.
“Recreating responsibly looks like being a good trail steward. Basin Recreation has a ton of resources for learning how to protect our open spaces here. One of the biggest things we can do is just stay on the trails and not widen our impact,” said Engvall.
See more details about National Trails Day at Basin Recreation and register here: https://basinrecreation.org/events/national-trails-day-volunteer-event/