ERL Trail Work

Just to let you all know. I have made contact with the Glenwood office of the FS and Janet
and I will now be doing trail work on the ERL. For those that are new here we have been
doing this type of thing in the Caney Creek Wilderness trails for the past three years. They
will be sending me a work release and when it is all figured out, if they approve, I want to offer
the opportunity to all that want to help out to help maintain the ERL trails.

This is great news OH. There may be others here like me that have never officially volunteered for trail maintenance. Is information available to clarify what "trail maintenance" includes or does not include? For instance, does it require participating in organized/ scheduled work days?

Cliff,

Well trail maintenance, at least the way it was defined to me, can be anything from brush encroaching on the
trail to small trees across the trail, either moving or cutting them. Also dragging limbs of the trail. Also trash,
which it depends on if I have a way of removing it if I remove it or not. I had the two Walmart bags Sun.
and they came in handy. I don't do trail tread work. I feel like that is highly specialized and the FS can deal
with that unless a specific crew can be formed to deal with it.

As far as participating in organized work outings I feel like the ERL is just to big for any one or two people. But
that question would have to be answered by the FS themselves. The main thing is to coordinate our efforts. No
need in two large groups working in the same area so to speak. When I get some word from the FS I will post it here on
the forums. If you want to go ahead and get started I would call Elizabeth (Liz) Groves at 870-867-2101. she is the volunteer
Coordinator for that area.

I would like to add that the FS does like to get work reports when the job is done. Also you
are to report the total time involved on the trail and getting to the trail. If you do this I
can send you the work report to fill out.

I think something like this would be a great thing to take my oldest son with me on. I think the pace would be just right for him too. The bad thing is I don't think I can get back out until May , but you may see us soon.

To all that are interested I have gotten the volunteer agreement from the Caddo Dist. of the FS.
when I get the time to check it out and send it in I will ask if it is ok to FWD to any one else
that might be interested. Shouldn't be a problem.

Ok if you are interested in working on any part of the ERL shoot me a email at
triggtom1@yahoo.com and I will send you the volunteer agreement. The Caddo-
Womble Ranger would like your assistance!

I just want to say kuddos to Tom for getting some interest going on in maintaining this trail. I know a lot of folks on this forum have hiked this trail and appreciate what a great hiking experience it is, myself included.
I do think Eddie has a good point though, it needs to be broken up into manageable sections, similar to the way FoOT does the Ouachita Trail. We know the FS doesn't have the resources to keep it maintained, so it's pretty much up to the hiking community to step up and do the work. I'll take a couple of miles.

I'll take the ones nearest the road to yours so you have to hike past me to get to yours. ah ha ha ha

Eddie, We'll be lucky if either one of use can make it over the ABF, hell I'm ten years older than you and neither one of use made it this last time, I didn't even try.

How's your knee? I'm about back to full speed.

If that's the way that we are going to do it then I can do 1 or 2 of the hills too, if I make a commitment, Amanda has to let me go