This past weekend, the Jolly Rovers Trail Crew assisted the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference by donating a crew of 25 to begin work on the Undercliff Trail at Hudson Highlands State Park. As a recipient of the Rover Service Award, the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference met a full crew of trained Jolly Rover volunteers in the Breakneck Ridge parking lot. With a forecast of rain looming and a 2-mile hike to the worksite, the Jolly Rovers Trail Crew recognized the difficult task ahead, but you wouldn’t know it if you passed them on the trail. Boisterous laughter and conversations echoed through the trees as the crew hiked the first portion sans tools (the staff at Hudson Highlands State P
During the weekend of May 14-15, a splinter crew of 6 Rovers joined forces with volunteers from the Westchester Parks Foundation (WPF) to continue work on a new entrance to the Lenoir Preserve in Yonkers, NY. Picking up from where we left off last Fall, local volunteers from the WPF were trained in timber step construction through the project which consists of 21 steps and stone paving. This new entrance will serve to link the preserve to the very popular Old Croton Aquaduct State Historic Park. Funded by a grant from REI through the Westchester Parks Foundation, the goal of this project is threefold in providing training to local volunteers, creating sustainable trail access and increasing
Last year marked a big leap for the Jolly Rovers. From our humble launch in 2011 to the achievement of our tax exempt status in 2015, our tribe of volunteers had grown from 12 to 36. Volunteer service hours sky rocketed as well, with each crew member donating anywhere from 80 to 600 hours in a single season. These 100 days of trail work culminated in over 7,500 hours of volunteer service to parks and forests throughout the country; a value of close to $175,000 of charitable service in 2015 alone and over $450,000 since 2011. We travelled further than ever as well, completing projects in 7 states and 14 parks. Roving from our home base in the Hudson Valley of New York, we trekked as far north
