BYOC Volunteer Day with Keller Williams on May 13!

This week marked the first BYOC (Bring Your Own Crew) volunteer event of the season with Keller Williams—and it was exactly the kind of collaboration that makes trail work so rewarding.

Earlier in the week, our professional trail crew was out on the ground building a series of check steps along the Harper’s Trail. These structures are a key part of trail sustainability, helping manage grade, reduce erosion, and create a more durable tread in steeper sections. The crew handled the technical side of the work: determining placement, setting the structure, and getting the framework in place using rock and soil.

Then came the BYOC crew.

On volunteer day, the Keller Williams team joined us to help bring it all together by filling in behind the check steps with crush and dirt, shaping and packing the tread so everything tied in cleanly and functionally. It’s the kind of work that might look simple (just crushing rocks??), but it’s critical, hard, and essential work!

What made this day especially meaningful was seeing the full cycle of trail building in action.

Our professional trail staff set the foundation. They make decisions about alignment, grade, drainage, and structure—work that requires training, experience, and a deep understanding of trail design. Volunteers then step in to help finish, refine, and infuse the project with community pride and entheusiam!

That balance is exactly what keeps our trail network functioning. Some work is technical and precise. Some work is hands-on and communal. And all of it matters.

We’re incredibly grateful to the Keller Williams team for being part of this first BYOC event and for showing up ready to work, learn, and get a little dirty in the process. You helped transform a construction site into a finished section of trail—and that impact will be felt every time someone steps through this section.

Here’s to more BYOC days ahead, and to the partnerships that keep our trails strong from the ground up.