New Recruits Take the Black

On April 16-17 and April 23-24 at the Mohonk Preserve, a total of 10 new volunteer recruits began their journey to becoming a Jolly Rover Trail Crew member. As with all Rovers before them, they will begin this journey by attending 4 separate workshops over the course of the next two weekends. Here they will learn basic rock moving, stone splitting and shaping, rigging, and stone setting.

This year’s workshops will be held in conjunction with the Monhonk Preserve of Gardiner, NY on their Campground Connector Trail - a new trail that connects the preserve’s visitor center to the brand new, Shawangunk Gateway Campground.

By the end of these two weekends a 20-step stone staircase will be constructed from scratch all with native stone found onsite; vastly improving sustainable access to both sites.

Upon completion of these workshops, the recruits will then enter an apprenticeship period. The recruits will then have the rest of the year to volunteer an additional 10 days on Rover projects in order to further hone their newly learned skills. Once these 14 days are completed (a minimum of 112 hours for per recruit), those that meet the requirements will be granted their right to proudly wear the Rover colors.

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