On August 1st the Jolly Rover Trail Crew headquarters caught fire. When three engines from three different towns arrived on scene, the fire had already engulfed the right side of the building and was spreading across the roof. The greater portion of the crew's trail tools and equipment were damaged by the blaze. Replacing the tools will undoubtedly affect the efficiency and timeline of future projects. The crew, who dedicates their time to constructing stone staircases in order to improve access to hiking trails, had committed to a project every weekend this year. Parks throughout the region face delayed improvements as a result of the loss. The Rovers are raising funds to replace tools and equipment through a GiveGab campaign. Please give what you can to help a crew that gives so much to trail lovers. https://www.givegab.com/nonprofits/the-jolly-rovers-trail-crew/campaigns/help-the-jolly-rovers-rebuild
Jolly Rovers Trail Crew
Single track, double track, carriage trail, technical, jeep trail. Trails are an integral part of outdoor recreation and most of them are built by volunteers. The Jolly Rovers Trail Crew has built trails in Yonkers, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, but their home territory is the Hudson Valley where they have built trails at Bear Mountain, the Mohonk Preserve, Minnewaska State Park, and in The Catskill Forest Preserve.
Stone masonry is the Rovers’ specialty. They’re currently working on rebuilding trails in the Sam’s Point section of Minnewaska State Park Preserve, including stone staircases at the Ice Caves. This spring 2,000 acres in the southern most section of the Park was burned in a wildfire. Read more about Life Returning to Sam’s Point here.
Stone masonry is the Rovers’ specialty. They’re currently working on rebuilding trails in the Sam’s Point section of Minnewaska State Park Preserve, including stone staircases at the Ice Caves. This spring 2,000 acres in the southern most section of the Park was burned in a wildfire. Read more about Life Returning to Sam’s Point here.
The new campground connector path on the Mohonk Preserve in New Paltz, is an example of the more accessible areas the Rovers work in; part of their mission is to make nature accessible to more people.
The Campground Connector Trail is one of the free, publicly-accessible trails on the Preserve. It connects visitors between the Samuel F. Pryor III Shawangunk Gateway Campground, The Gunks Campground, on Route 299 to the Preserve Visitor Center. This short but important trail sees several hundred users per day at peak, and traverses slopes in excess of 15 percent. Over two weekends the Rovers installed a total of 30 steps as part of the first phase of work. With these improvements, not only will this trail accommodate heavy use and weathering, but it will serve as a teaching tool for quality trail construction.
"The Jolly Rovers created an elegant and durable solution to a challenging slope on a very heavily used trail. Their showcase work helped us set the tone for truly sustainable trail stewardship in one of the most highly accessible areas of the Preserve." Emily Hague, Director of Land Protection & Stewardship, Mohonk Preserve, said.
This fifty-person crew puts in about 8,000 volunteer hours per year, according to Chris Ingui, Jolly Rovers Executive Director. That comes out to something like 160 hours per person. Two, eight hour days a weekend and we’re talking 20 days, 10 weekends, a year doing hard physical labor. “It’s a small organization with a big reach,” Ingui said. “We’re a two-person staff with a 50-person crew.”
And a good portion of the crew are not avid hikers.
The Campground Connector Trail is one of the free, publicly-accessible trails on the Preserve. It connects visitors between the Samuel F. Pryor III Shawangunk Gateway Campground, The Gunks Campground, on Route 299 to the Preserve Visitor Center. This short but important trail sees several hundred users per day at peak, and traverses slopes in excess of 15 percent. Over two weekends the Rovers installed a total of 30 steps as part of the first phase of work. With these improvements, not only will this trail accommodate heavy use and weathering, but it will serve as a teaching tool for quality trail construction.
"The Jolly Rovers created an elegant and durable solution to a challenging slope on a very heavily used trail. Their showcase work helped us set the tone for truly sustainable trail stewardship in one of the most highly accessible areas of the Preserve." Emily Hague, Director of Land Protection & Stewardship, Mohonk Preserve, said.
This fifty-person crew puts in about 8,000 volunteer hours per year, according to Chris Ingui, Jolly Rovers Executive Director. That comes out to something like 160 hours per person. Two, eight hour days a weekend and we’re talking 20 days, 10 weekends, a year doing hard physical labor. “It’s a small organization with a big reach,” Ingui said. “We’re a two-person staff with a 50-person crew.”
And a good portion of the crew are not avid hikers.
It may seem surprising that anyone would spend that much time and effort on something they don’t really use. But Ingui says “It’s not really.”
“The work attracts people,” Ingui said. “When they hear they are going to split stones and fly them hundreds of feet through the air using pulleys; it’s exciting. We’re building these structures that will last for centuries. And it taps into a desire to create something that doesn’t get deleted. There is a legacy component. The work is creative as well as mentally and physically challenging. It’s something you can show your grand kids.”
The Rainbow Falls Trail at Minnewaska and The Major Welch Trail at Bear Mountain State Park are popular trails with Rovers’ stone work in them.
But there has to be more to it than that; and according to Ingui there is.
“The thing that keeps everyone coming back is the comradery. Every crew member is part of a tight knit tribe. It goes way beyond the trial. That genuine connection is hard to find,” Ingui said.
Fostering an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual respect is specific part of the Rovers’ mission statement.
“We’ve kept it very small and grown it very slowly,” Ingui explained. “It’s the thing that got me connected. It was the quality of the individuals that kept me coming back.”
Rovers Co-Founder Artie Hidalgo explained that by the end of this season the crew will probably be at 48 volunteers. They've had many people who are interested in joining them and have been asked to form branches in other areas but are deliberately keeping the crew small and the growth slow.
“We don’t want to dilute what we have; it’s a concern for the crew. And what the crew says we listen to. We want to continue to nurture the sense of community. We wouldn’t have what we have without it.”
That sentiment is echoed time and time again.
“It's a crew, friends and a family,” Alicia Madelkow, Trail Crew member, said. “They have been there for me on the trail and off. After only knowing them for a few months, they were there for me when I went through an extremely difficult period in my life [back injury]. It’s a completely disparate group of people I never would have met outside of the Rovers, but they are all quirky, amazing and awesome people linked by a love of hard work and stone creation.”
The crew is made up of Fortune 500 business executives, landscapers, accountants, carpenters... they run the gamut of religious and political backgrounds.
All those kind of boundaries disappear on the trail.
“The work attracts people,” Ingui said. “When they hear they are going to split stones and fly them hundreds of feet through the air using pulleys; it’s exciting. We’re building these structures that will last for centuries. And it taps into a desire to create something that doesn’t get deleted. There is a legacy component. The work is creative as well as mentally and physically challenging. It’s something you can show your grand kids.”
The Rainbow Falls Trail at Minnewaska and The Major Welch Trail at Bear Mountain State Park are popular trails with Rovers’ stone work in them.
But there has to be more to it than that; and according to Ingui there is.
“The thing that keeps everyone coming back is the comradery. Every crew member is part of a tight knit tribe. It goes way beyond the trial. That genuine connection is hard to find,” Ingui said.
Fostering an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual respect is specific part of the Rovers’ mission statement.
“We’ve kept it very small and grown it very slowly,” Ingui explained. “It’s the thing that got me connected. It was the quality of the individuals that kept me coming back.”
Rovers Co-Founder Artie Hidalgo explained that by the end of this season the crew will probably be at 48 volunteers. They've had many people who are interested in joining them and have been asked to form branches in other areas but are deliberately keeping the crew small and the growth slow.
“We don’t want to dilute what we have; it’s a concern for the crew. And what the crew says we listen to. We want to continue to nurture the sense of community. We wouldn’t have what we have without it.”
That sentiment is echoed time and time again.
“It's a crew, friends and a family,” Alicia Madelkow, Trail Crew member, said. “They have been there for me on the trail and off. After only knowing them for a few months, they were there for me when I went through an extremely difficult period in my life [back injury]. It’s a completely disparate group of people I never would have met outside of the Rovers, but they are all quirky, amazing and awesome people linked by a love of hard work and stone creation.”
The crew is made up of Fortune 500 business executives, landscapers, accountants, carpenters... they run the gamut of religious and political backgrounds.
All those kind of boundaries disappear on the trail.
“By raising the bar very high we are getting people who don’t leave. We don’t lose volunteers. Only from moving. Once they become a Rover they stay.”
It can be very difficult to become a Jolly Rover, according to Ingui. Every volunteer goes through four days of training and ten additional days of apprenticeship. Then they are reviewed by crew leaders for their safety and skills, and proficiency.
The Rovers spend two weeks training before they can volunteer.
“By raising the bar very high we are getting people who don’t leave. We don’t lose volunteers. Only from moving. Once they become a Rover they stay,”Ingui said.
Madelkow, in her fourth year as a Rover, commented that “working with friends, overcoming adversity in weather and conditions, and producing a beautiful, technical stone construction that will last for a century or more” are what make all the training worth it.
The Rovers do a couple of different types of projects. About once a month they do larger projects with 20 to 25 crew members, according to Hidalgo, like the ongoing project at Sam’s Point.
There are some smaller projects for fee which utilize a splinter crew. These involve lesser scale projects that typically revolve around minor problem areas on a trail.
The Stewards of Stonework program is designed to restore historic pathways and improve access to historic sites. Publically accessible locations that hold National Historic Landmark status, as well as historic sites on state, county and federal land, are prime candidates for this program.
The Rovers also offer training and workshops to other organizations teaching them the skills integral to their work -stone splintering and shaping, levers and leverage, rigging essentials, and stone setting.
Recent Projects have been a staircase in Yonkers Lenmore Preserve, the Mohonk Preserve and Hudson Highlands State Park-
“We want to help push the effort of rehabilitation there,” Ingui said about Hudson Highlands State Park.
The Rovers spend two weeks training before they can volunteer.
“By raising the bar very high we are getting people who don’t leave. We don’t lose volunteers. Only from moving. Once they become a Rover they stay,”Ingui said.
Madelkow, in her fourth year as a Rover, commented that “working with friends, overcoming adversity in weather and conditions, and producing a beautiful, technical stone construction that will last for a century or more” are what make all the training worth it.
The Rovers do a couple of different types of projects. About once a month they do larger projects with 20 to 25 crew members, according to Hidalgo, like the ongoing project at Sam’s Point.
There are some smaller projects for fee which utilize a splinter crew. These involve lesser scale projects that typically revolve around minor problem areas on a trail.
The Stewards of Stonework program is designed to restore historic pathways and improve access to historic sites. Publically accessible locations that hold National Historic Landmark status, as well as historic sites on state, county and federal land, are prime candidates for this program.
The Rovers also offer training and workshops to other organizations teaching them the skills integral to their work -stone splintering and shaping, levers and leverage, rigging essentials, and stone setting.
Recent Projects have been a staircase in Yonkers Lenmore Preserve, the Mohonk Preserve and Hudson Highlands State Park-
“We want to help push the effort of rehabilitation there,” Ingui said about Hudson Highlands State Park.
The Rovers' ongoing Project is at Sam’s Point at the southwestern end of Minnewaska State Park. That section of the park is known for its ice caves. There have been wooden stairs into the caves but the Rovers are building stone staircases.
Robert Brunner, third founding member of the Jolly Rovers, commonly known as Ironbob, is looking forward to the uniqueness and challenge of this project.
It will be a very technical build. The Rovers will have to fly rocks, on a steel cable, down into the cavern. They have scheduled three weekends- June 11 and 12, 24, 25, 26 and the final work on July 22, 23, 24.
Because of the recent fire at Sam’s Point the Park is concerned with the introduction of invasive species into, what is now even more, ecologically sensitive areas.
“They had us hose off shoes before going to the site,” Brunner said.
The work itself is more sensitive in the park.
“They asked us to minimize the scratching and scarring of the cave walls. We will be cutting and dropping stone into the slot from above,” Brunner explained. “We will position the stone over the chasm from overhead and lower it down. The walls are not parallel so it’s virtually impossible to drop a stone from above and not hit a wall. We take great care not hit the walls; these are all things we’ve never had to deal with before. We always operate within the Leave No Trace Ethic but this the most challenging site we’ve had to work with that way.”
There is an upside, down in the ice caves in late July and early August and it’s going to be 20 degrees cooler. The Rovers are working in a fissure forty-feet deep and there is still ice in deeper sections.
Upcoming projects are trails and staircases on Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, the most hiked mountain in the country, and second in the world after Mount Fuji. The Rovers have been invited by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests to do a project there. And the Rovers will play large role in the creation of trail at Stony Kill Falls on the western end of Lake Minnewaska State Park.
“We are not a backcountry trail trail-crew. Front country, those are the trails that we are focusing on. Where you can go for a family stroll,” Ingui said.
The Rovers’ mission state says that clearly- To improve recreational access to trails in public parks. To provide and apply education of the stonework craft. And to build artfully crafted, stone staircases that endure the footsteps of generations, inspire communities to get outdoors.
This spring the Rovers became an official not-for-profit 501 C-3 organization. From their inception in 2011, as a crew of 12, they have been self-funded. (You can donate to the Jolly Rovers HERE.)
“This year is the first year that we are functioning as a fully independent non-for profit,” Ingui said.
The original three Rovers Ingui, Hidalgo, and Brunner worked together with the NY-NJ Trail Conference on the Staircase at Bear Mountain State Park.
“As the project was winding down we were talking about how disappointed we’d be. Chris said 'there is plenty of opportunity to build trails'. He’s a real visionary,” Hidalgo said.
Madelkow got involved because the company she worked for at the time offered a quarterly volunteer day off, and she wanted to find something a bit more hard-core than picking up trash and planting trees.
“I came across Bear Mountain U online, and thought- 'trail building and stonework, that sounds interesting and exciting!' Took the workshops, met Artie and Chris, and was hooked!,” she said.
For both Madelkow and Brunner the Fitzgerald Falls at Greenwood Lake on the Appalachian Trail stands out.
“It was my very first project (outside of the workshops) and holds a special place in my heart,” Madelkow said. “A very technically challenging job, beautiful worksite, camping only about 100 yards from where we worked. Lots of fond memories from that project!”
“It’s near Greenwood Lake, it’s a 50 step staircase through a small rock gorge near a waterfall. It was a difficult scramble before we got there. Now an eight-year-old can do it,” Brunner said proudly.
He acknowledged that not everyone appreciates this type of trail build but considering the volume of people and the attractiveness of the site Brunner feels it should be open to as many people as possible.
“I feel myself fortunate to have found this avenue of volunteer work. There are no words to express how great it’s been. Hope I can keep doing it at least for another decade. They’ve become family. There is an incredible sense of pride when we walk into a project and there are 20 or 30 people working. It’s incredible sense of accomplishment in what your children have accomplished; and that’s what they are.”
The Rovers are receiving recognition from across the country like the National Park Service and giving workshops to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
As Ingui was coming up with a name he looked at personalities the crew was attracting- independent and outcasts- Rovers. He took the pirate flag the Jolly Roger and changed the skull and crossbones to the stone busters and skull.
“Now-a-days it’s a symbol for independent spirit,” Ingui said about the Jolly Roger. “That ethos fit with the crew.”
If all of this has intrigued you Ingui suggests:
“Reach out to us, visit us. Do a day and see the crew in action. Email us. You’ll see stone flying, people all over the place, all very friendly and will answer questions. Reach out if you’re looking for something special.”
“It was my very first project (outside of the workshops) and holds a special place in my heart,” Madelkow said. “A very technically challenging job, beautiful worksite, camping only about 100 yards from where we worked. Lots of fond memories from that project!”
“It’s near Greenwood Lake, it’s a 50 step staircase through a small rock gorge near a waterfall. It was a difficult scramble before we got there. Now an eight-year-old can do it,” Brunner said proudly.
He acknowledged that not everyone appreciates this type of trail build but considering the volume of people and the attractiveness of the site Brunner feels it should be open to as many people as possible.
“I feel myself fortunate to have found this avenue of volunteer work. There are no words to express how great it’s been. Hope I can keep doing it at least for another decade. They’ve become family. There is an incredible sense of pride when we walk into a project and there are 20 or 30 people working. It’s incredible sense of accomplishment in what your children have accomplished; and that’s what they are.”
The Rovers are receiving recognition from across the country like the National Park Service and giving workshops to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
As Ingui was coming up with a name he looked at personalities the crew was attracting- independent and outcasts- Rovers. He took the pirate flag the Jolly Roger and changed the skull and crossbones to the stone busters and skull.
“Now-a-days it’s a symbol for independent spirit,” Ingui said about the Jolly Roger. “That ethos fit with the crew.”
If all of this has intrigued you Ingui suggests:
“Reach out to us, visit us. Do a day and see the crew in action. Email us. You’ll see stone flying, people all over the place, all very friendly and will answer questions. Reach out if you’re looking for something special.”
The Jolly Rovers Trail Crew
Stone work brought them together, but the community keeps them together.
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