This past weekend, Arnold Rim Trail Association, partnered with the US Forest Service, Calaveras Ranger District to host and fund a three-day Trail Care Workshop on the Stanislaus National Forest, bringing in two professional instructors from IMBA Trail Solutions to train 12 volunteers from the Ebbetts Pass corridor alongside 4 Forest Service staff. This benefits ALL user groups since the Arnold Rim Trail is multi-use: hiking, running, biking, and equestrian. The workshop paired IMBA’s technical curriculum — sustainable trail design, erosion control, and crew leadership — with ARTA’s own administrative training on safety, Forest Service compliance, and workday planning, satisfying a core requirement toward full Volunteer Trail Crew Leader certification. Beyond the skills, the weekend was about relationships: volunteers and Forest Service staff spent three days working, problem-solving, and building trail side by side, strengthening the partnership between ARTA and the Calaveras Ranger District as much as it developed new crew leaders.

Crews put their training to work immediately, improving drainage, long-term durability, and rider/user experience on the ART between posts 31 and 35 by installing grade reversals — a small stretch with a big payoff, since better water management now means less erosion, less maintenance, and a smoother trail for years to come. The trail work did not change the existing trails but maintained and improved the trails.  Thank you to everyone who gave up a weekend to invest in ART, in the Forest Service partnership, and in the trail: this cohort of newly trained leaders, working hand in hand with the Calaveras Ranger District, is exactly the capacity ARTA needs to keep running self-sufficient, ARTA-led workdays across the corridor for years to come.
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The Arnold Rim Trail Association is an all-volunteer association without paid staff. Donations are utilized for training team members, providing trail enhancements, and improvement projects throughout the ART System. 
PHOTOS FROM THE 3 DAY IMBA TRAINING EVENT

The Arnold Rim Trail Association  –  in partnership with the US Forest Service