OK for a Rookie

Last week I spent a day with one of our maintenance crews mowing a section of the W&OD Trail. It was a great experience, and one that I look forward to doing again. Everyone on that crew was a hard worker who took pride in their work. Often throughout the day the public would come up to a member of the crew and ask questions about the trail. I was impressed with how kind, helpful and knowledgeable everyone was in dealing with the public.

According to Larry Hunter, Maintenance Supervisor for the W&OD Trail, I did “OK for a rookie.” I only got the mower stuck once, and only ran into a transmission tower that jumped out in front of me once. (Good news: the two ton block of concrete that formed the base of the transmission tower was not damaged by my mower.)

With several million visitors per year, the W&OD Trail is almost always in use by thousands of people biking, walking, jogging and in-line skating. In many of the more urban areas the 100 foot wide trail property is a significant part of the community’s public green space, and is used in areas for picnicking, memorials, gardening, and many other uses not directly related to the 45 mile long trail that is the heart of the Washington and Old Dominion Regional Railroad Park (AKA W&OD Trail).