Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Here to help: These volunteers build and maintain hiking trails in North Carolina When you hike or ride a bike in Charlotte, N.C., it's likely you're on a path built and maintained by volunteers. We'll meet them in our series Here to Help. National Here to help: These volunteers build and maintain hiking trails in North Carolina March 31, 20265:37 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered From By Eric Teel Here to help: These volunteers build and maintain hiking trails in North Carolina Listen · 2:45 2:45 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5727857/nx-s1-9711280" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript When you hike or ride a bike in Charlotte, N.C., it's likely you're on a path built and maintained by volunteers. We'll meet them in our series Here to Help. Sponsor Message
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Mountain bikers love the rush of a great trail, but before the first tire ever hits the dirt, someone had to carve that path through the woods and keep it from deteriorating. As a part of our series Here to Help, Eric Teel from member station WFAE brings us this story of one Charlotte, North Carolina, man working to construct and care for those ribbons of dirt.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOOL CHOPPING)
ERIC TEEL, BYLINE: On a Saturday morning in Charlotte's Park Road Park, Jack Crouch is bent over chopping away at exposed tree roots along a popular mountain biking trail.
JACK CROUCH: If you can get your front wheel over a root, you probably won't crash. But if your front tire hits a root that's a 45 degree angle, it forces you, you know, just to go with the direction, which sometimes is off the trail (laughter).
TEEL: For more than 30 years, Crouch has spent countless volunteer hours at Park Road Park and trail systems across Charlotte. He built and maintains trails for mountain bikers, runners and hikers. An avid rider himself, he says he's logged tens of thousands of hours blowing leaves, clearing rocks and branches, and diverting water to keep trails safe and sustainable.
CROUCH: We all need this kind of outlet in life. I love the woods. I can make a work of art with a trail, which is what trails are to me, and it is so fun just to be outside. I'd rather be outside than anything.
TEEL: Crouch is one of the founding members of the Tarheel Trailblazers, a volunteer club formed in 1990 that works to maintain and protect trail access throughout the Charlotte region. Much of their work is done on county land, where Chris Matthews is in charge of nature preserves and natural resources. He says the hours the volunteers put in are invaluable.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think the number that you could potentially come up with is pretty impressive. You know, we certainly wouldn't be able to have the facilities that we have without them.
TEEL: Matthews says they now have over 300 miles of total trails in their park system. Crouch says he's guided by his Christian faith and appreciation for the natural world to keep doing this work.
CROUCH: Well, the payoff is a job well done, for sure. And making something that everybody can enjoy in addition, to me, is just something I take pride in.
TEEL: Crouch is now 68 years old with retirement on the horizon from his family-owned business. He says he has no intention to take a break from trail work.
CROUCH: Ha ha. I can never quit.
(SOUNDBITE OF LEAF BLOWER STARTING)
TEEL: And with that, he fires up his leaf blower and gets back to work. For NPR News, I'm Eric Teel in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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