Hannah Puttcamp is a 14-year-old, Waverly, Lackawanna County resident, who has a passion for the outdoors and mountain biking.
She is a member of the Keystone Composite Mountain Bike Team, races in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League, and goes to GRiT camp (Girls Riding Together).
She also is a Girl Scout who has achieved her Silver award through leadership, service, and trail work.
Hannah decided, that to achieve her Silver Award, she would support her favorite hobby by building a mountain bike trail. She felt comfortable undertaking the task, having done trail work with her mountain bike team in the past.
The project culminated in the completion of a 150-yard section of the tunnel trail at Lackawanna State Park. Fifty hours of work went into the project, Hannah herself completing 24 of those hours.
The rest was done by volunteers under Hannah’s leadership, a component of the Silver Award requirements. The project was a learning process, from trail building techniques to leadership.
One of the difficult tasks she encountered was creating “rock roll-overs,” where bikers need to travel over larger rocks, and stability is a safety factor.
Maybe even harder was the task of leading a group of volunteers. Hannah says she learned that, “it is good to listen to other’s ideas, and that leading people is hard.”
Hannah also is a Teen Trail Corps Captain, meaning she has completed requirements in four areas: Speak; Serve; Respect; and Ride.
This included lots of mountain bike riding, as well as the organization and leadership of some of those rides.
She has done a presentation on her Tunnel Trail project during a meeting of the Anthracite Mountain Pedalers; and spoke about trail riding preparedness and trail etiquette to her mountain bike team.
Hannah says that, other than her Keystone Composite riding team, she does not see a lot of other younger people doing trail work. She thinks if you have any interest and the ability to do so, you should volunteer.
“It is peaceful and refreshing to be out in the woods riding or hiking,” says Hannah. “It takes people and work to build a trail system so people can get outside in the park. It is important to volunteer to build the trails for people to use.”
Know of a good natured Pennsylvanian who is passionate about outdoor recreation and/or conservation that we should feature? Contact DCNR by sending email to: ra-resource@pa.gov to nominate someone.
Visit DCNR’s Sustainable Practices On DCNR Lands for more on sustainability initiatives. Also visit DCNR’s Green And Sustainable Community Parks webpage for more on how to incorporate sustainability practices into local recreation projects.
(Reprinted from the April 3 DCNR Resource newsletter. Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)
Related Stories:
No comments :
Post a Comment