Join the Florida Trail Association's F-Troop Trail Crews

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September 06, 2007

Join the Florida Trail Association's F-Troop Trail Crews

Photo provided by Florida Trail Association

September 6, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Join the Crew! F-Troop draws volunteers to projects all over Florida
A new season of volunteerism on the 1,400 mile long Florida Trail kicks off this month with the maintenance of “one of the 10 toughest hikes in the United States” (according to Backpacker Magazine), in the Bradwell Bay Wilderness of the Apalachicola National Forest. Using traditional hand tools in wet conditions during the September 15-16 event, it'll be a challenge for volunteers who line up to get hot, wet, and dirty on the Florida Trail Association's F-Troop volunteer trail crew program, now in its third season.

This upcoming season offers exciting new projects, including building a 500-foot boardwalk in the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area through a beautiful cypress slough (December 5-9). In the Juniper Wilderness of the Ocala National Forest, canoes will be used to access our primitive base camp for trail work (November 10-17). New boardwalks will be constructed at the Fort Braden Trail System in the Lake Talquin State Forest just west of Tallahassee (October 12-14). The hiking trails of Hillsborough River State Park and Little Manatee State Park, both near Tampa, will also get some much deserved attention this season (November 30-December 2).

Last season, F-Troop constructed two of the longest free-spanning pedestrian bridges ever built entirely by Florida volunteers: the 80-foot Monkey Creek Bridge in the Apalachicola National Forest near Tallahassee, with over 30 volunteers dedicating more then 1200 hours of hard work, and the 60–foot Tick Island Slough Bridge in the Kicco Wildlife Management Area. Both bridges were an experiment in a design style that uses a fiberglass composite material which is more durable, longer lasting, and easier to transport to remote locations.

For the past forty years, the planning, building, and maintenance of the Florida Trail has been led by a network of volunteers working locally to reach a common goal. F-Troop is a way to bring great minds and strong backs together, to learn from each other’s successes and failures, and to do so in a way that everyone takes back a little something more to add to their local chapter. “It’s all about getting outside, having fun and giving back to the trail that I enjoy hiking on; plus, it’s good exercise,“ said Jennifer Robertson, FSU graduate student and Florida Trail volunteer.

For more information about these projects, visit www.f-troop.org, or call 1-877-HIKE-FLA. If you are interested in learning more about the Florida Trail, visit www.floridatrail.org. F-Troop is an ongoing Florida Trail Association program that offers skills training and camaraderie in the outdoors while enabling volunteers to keep hiking trails open on your public resource—the Florida Trail, Florida’s own National Scenic Trail.

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