The 18-mile-long Mount Vernon Trail in Virginia has been getting a little work done over the past year, and the people doing it aren’t charging a penny.
According to the newsletter of the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail, volunteers have logged 3,304 hours trimming low-hanging branches, filling potholes, applying fresh paint to mark the trail and smoothing out 288 trail bumps caused by tree routes.
The group will kick off 2024 with a New Year’s Day cleanup along the trail at Jones Point Park in Alexandria.
Cameron Taylor, who coordinates the volunteers of the Friends of Mount Vernon Trail, explained to WTOP why she joined the group.
“You can make a difference in only two hours,” she said.
Rather than grumble about the conditions that can make biking or walking segments of the trail a bit tricky, the group’s members enjoy being able to transform trail segments for all users.
The National Park Service maintains the Mount Vernon Trail and has partnered with the volunteers in the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail to handle a number of maintenance issues. In September, the NPS announced a new plan for updates to the trail along some of the most heavily-traveled stretches. The trail is traveled by one million users a year, including cyclists, runners and walkers.
Taylor said she’s also invested in the condition of the trail as she uses it for transportation.
“But also, I just like to take it just to clear my head. It’s one of the best views of the Potomac River,” she said, adding that she often runs into friends while out on the trail. “That also just makes it feel like a community on the trail.”
Not only does the vegetation removal clear up blind spots along some segments of the trail, but “a lot of that vegetation is invasive, so we’re able to clear out invasive species at the same time” that sight lines are being cleaned up, said Taylor.
The work of the Friends of Mount Vernon Trail hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Taylor said the group has been complimented on its work by users out on the trail. And the Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling wrote on its blog in July 2022, that the volunteers have done “a fantastic job clearing the trail of overgrowth and doing other significant bridge and asphalt maintenance and repairs.”
Check out more about the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail New Year’s Day event.
