American Hiking Society’s “Volunteer Vacations”
Engage Trail Enthusiasts

Program Summary Name: American Hiking Society’s “Volunteer Vacations” Locations: 9 BLM Offices Contact:Andrea Ketchmark, AHS Volunteer Vacations Programs Manager; email: aketchmark@americanhiking.org Phone: (301) 565-6704, ext/206 For more information about the American Hiking Society’s “Volunteer Vacations,” select this link.   For more information visit: BLM’s Gulkana Wild and Scenic River. John Hervey, second from right, standing with the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River AHS Volunteer Vacations Crew and BLM Glennallen Staffers.  John Hervey, a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) retiree, happily spent a week in August 2006 on a working vacation in Alaska.  Sponsored by the American Hiking Society (AHS) and hosted by BLM, John and several other energetic individuals as a participant in a “Volunteer Vacation” helped to repair a trail that leads portaging rafters from one section of the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River to another.  John’s passion for the work, his delight in the Gulkana’s rugged scenery, and his dedication to the value of volunteering for the public lands truly made it a vacation he’ll always remember. The American Hiking Society, a 30-year-old conservation and education group, is the only national non-profit organization committed to cultivating a nation of hikers to establish, protect, and maintain America’s foot trails.  Every year, AHS sends more than a hundred teams of volunteers to locations on public lands across the United States as part of its Volunteer Vacations program.  Each team is comprised of 6 to 15 volunteers accompanied by a crew leader.  AHS volunteers come from all walks of life, hail from every U.S. state, and range in age from 18 to 80.  Trips usually require backpacking or day hiking—often in remote locales—and accommodations vary from primitive campsites to bunkhouses and cabins. Volunteer Vacation-ers pay their own travel and personal expenses—plus a nominal AHS fee—for the privilege of working on America’s public lands.  And most of them do consider it a privilege; as one Volunteer Vacations participant stated:  “It’s as good for the soul as it is for the trail.” BLM encourages interested hikers to get involved in caring for trails in some of our nation’s most stunning wild places.  In 2007, nine BLM offices will host week-long AHS Volunteer Vacations; project locations and contact information are available at the AHS website hot linked at the right in the program summary box.  As a Volunteer Vacation-er, you might be surprised to find that a working vacation was just the “rest” you needed.  Happy trails!