The Buckeye Trail Crew is the Buckeye Trail Association’s highly skilled volunteer trail building crew that travels around the 1,444 miles of the Buckeye Trail throughout the year. The Buckeye Trail Crew's main purpose is to build new sustainable BT to replace existing on-road routes of the BT. Buckeye Trail Work Parties try to emphasize both words—Work and Party. Volunteers spend up to five continuous days at work, building and improving sections of trail, while the evenings are spent gathered together in camp, enjoying lively conversation.
The Buckeye Trail Crew has been organized since 1990, and over the past ten years has donated 37,651 hours of volunteer service towards moving the BT off road. The Crew enjoys traditional trail building relying mainly on the use of hand tools and good old fashioned hard work to create the level tread and primitive trail structures necessary for a positive hiking experience.
How do you become a member of the Buckeye Trail Crew? It’s simple! Just show up at any of the scheduled work parties posted below and in detail on the Buckeye Trail Events web page. No prior trail building experience is required, the Buckeye Trail Crew is an excellent way to learn the skill from those with years of experience. You do NOT need any tools; the crew comes equipped with all the tools necessary for the project. Motivation is the only requirement. People of all ages have been a part of a work party, doing as much as they feel they can. Working with the Crew is a unique way to discover hidden gems of Ohio, meet like-minded volunteers, and give back to Ohio's outdoor community.
The Buckeye Trail Crew generally works from March or April until late October or early November. Each year's schedule is set in the previous fall. The Crew is sometimes served by the Buckeye Chuckwagon, a full service camp kitchen that fuels the volunteers. Check the events page to see if the work party is a “Chuckwagon Event”.
Each year the trail crew plans a variety of both new trail construction and trail maintenance. The construction work parties will last usually 5 days. The maintenance work parties will be for just the weekend and may take place in several locations around the state on the same weekend.
For more information, please contact the BTA’s Trail Management Team at
Get the Patch! The BTA provides a (one-time) BTA Volunteer Patch for anyone giving five hours of service on any BTA sanctioned volunteer project. Get yours in one day with the Buckeye Trail Crew!
For 2024, the work party dates are identified, but the detailed information will be posted on the Buckeye Trail Events web page as it becomes available. If you plan to attend a 2024 work party, you will need to register for each event. Registration will open in the spring of 2024. Note: there is no charge.
Details for each work party will be available on the BTA Events page.
We do recommend that all adopters record their time spent improving the Buckeye Trail and turn in their report every year. Awards are given at the annual meeting for different levels of hours given in maintaining trail.
Download a copy of the annual Adopter's Time Sheet here. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read and print the file.
Report your volunteer hours online! Online Volunteer Hours Reporting
If report your hours online, please do not send us a paper copy too.