Alaska Trails hosts Trail Rondy event April 15-17

By Barbara Hunt

For the Frontiersman

MAT-SU — Alaska Trails is hosting its first biennial Trail Rondy April 15-17. The Trail Rondy is a three-day workshop offering training, discussions, hands-on demonstrations and vendors focused on the needs of Alaska’s trail community.

Rondy is a registered trademark of Greater Anchorage Inc. and is being used with permission.

The Rondy is a great opportunity for all trail enthusiasts, planners and builders to learn new skills and techniques, test out the latest equipment, network, find opportunities for future employment and share ideas about how we can all work together to make Alaska’s trails the best they can be.

The Trail Rondy will take place at the Alaska Jobs Corps Center in Palmer. Advance registration is available at alaska-trails.org. Doors open for onsite registration at 8 a.m. on April 15. The Rondy will run to 5 p.m., April 17. Session seating is limited, so advance registration is recommended.

U.S. Rep. Don Young has agreed to give a keynote presentation on trails — their importance to Alaska and their funding sources. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski will also contribute her ideas about trail funding and the advocacy of trails by trails groups in a prepared video.

The planned training sessions include: Sustainable Trails 101; Wilderness Survival Challenge; Grant Writing for Trails; Leadership and Volunteer Management; Principles of OHV Recreational Management; Turns: Design and Layout; and Planning for Sustainable Trails and Trail Maintenance and Rehabilitation.

In addition to the training sessions, a variety of hands-on demonstrations and programs will be presented on Saturday, including (but not limited to): building partnerships between trail users and land managers; trail funding; youth trail projects; winter trail grooming; how to use a GPS; separated and multi-use trails and more.

“Alaska Trails is excited to be able to offer the Trail Rondy to the Alaska trails community,” said Erin McLarnon, executive director of Alaska Trails. “We believe the training and workshop sessions offered during the Rondy will be a benefit to trail users and managers across Alaska and will promote increased partnerships and cooperation throughout the trail community.”

Trail Rondy is planned with a host of trails-related organizations. Included in this list are: Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation; Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition; Anchorage Snowmobile Club; Cooper Landing Trails Committee; Friends of State Parks Mat-Su; Mat-Su Borough; Mountaineering Club of Alaska; National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council; National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program; North America Outdoor Institute; SAGA; Trail Mix; and USKH.

Alaska Job Corps Center is providing the venue and its culinary arts students are sponsoring a free trail construction industry luncheon on April 15. This will allow Job Corp students to network and interact with representatives of local trail-related industries and businesses, as well as Trail Rondy participants.

Students have decreased registration fees and scholarships are available. Information about the Trail Rondy can be found online at alaska-trails.org.

Barbara Hunt is business and community liaison for Alaska Job Corps Center.