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What’s New with Trail Ambassadors?

May 26, 2022

Welcome back!

To all of our volunteers, whether this is your first season or you’ve been with us for years, welcome to the 2022 Trail Ambassador season! We are very fortunate to have such passionate and dedicated volunteers, and we are so excited to be back on the trails with you.

Haven’t made it out for a shift yet? Not to worry! We have Trail Ambassador opportunities on our events calendar at trails throughout the Columbia River Gorge, Mt. Hood, and on the coast up until Labor Day. Find one that fits for you and come join us!

Materials

If you volunteer with us in the Gorge or on Mt. Hood, you may have had a chance to try out our new tri-awning! This tent is much more packable and takes just a few minutes to set up. Check out our online Trail Ambassador training video #4 to see a demo of the set up!

Our Trail Ambassador binder resources are being updated! You can now find a trailhead parking and permit guide for the Gorge and Mt. Hood, which is available in the volunteer resources file on Google Drive. 

Next up, our trailhead reference guide and alternative trails list has been modified to include up to date and expanded trail information; however, we still need some input! If you would like to use your knowledge of the Gorge and Mt. Hood to fill in some gaps, email loren.payne@trailkeepersoforegon.org. We really appreciate and rely on your input to help this program run smoothly! 

Programs

Are you looking for more ways to support and advocate for Oregon’s trails? TKO has an exciting new Wilderness Ambassador program with the U.S. Forest Service! These volunteers will head out on some of the most loved trails in the Columbia River Gorge and on Mt. Hood to share Leave No Trace Principles, hiking etiquette, and trail stewardship with trail users. Find out more on our website here.

We are all pretty well versed in interacting with our two-legged trail users, but what about our friends with four legs? TKO has launched our Ambassadogs program, aimed at ensuring trail users know how to be safe and respectful while hiking with their pets. There are green Ambassadog bandanas, ink pads, and Ambassadog pledge certificates. Hikers can use the ink pad to have their pups “sign” the pledge, and the certificate is theirs to take home! We would love to see pictures of our Ambassadogs in action, so don’t forget to promote our social media to trail users as a way to share content with us!

Last but not least, TKO has been working with Access Trails to add accessibility information to our most visited trail pages on Oregonhikers.org. Using guidelines and input from Access Trails, we are working to build a training that will instruct volunteers on how to gather this information on the trails. If you would like to join us in this effort, particularly if you would like to help train other volunteers, please reach out to Loren (loren.payne@trailkeepersoforegon.org) and we will get in touch when the details are more concrete!

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