During the Covid lock-down phase of the pandemic (February 2021), a member of our church's hiking group found out that Sam Limerick was on the board of TPT, and asked him to give a Zoom presentation to them on the trail. The group, Reno First United Methodist, has a connection to the Truckee River and the trail by being across the street from it (on First St just E of Arlington). Several times during floods such as in 1997 and 2005, church members had to sandbag the doors & window wells to fend off the rising river waters.
During his presentation, Sam mentioned that organizations & groups of people and businesses had adopted 1-mile sections of the trail for periodic maintenance. A few days later, one of the hiking group members called to say that the church hiking group wanted to adopt a TPT section!
Sam called TPT maintenance lead Bill von Phul, who offered Section #10, the mile of trail immediately downstream of the Farad parking lot trailhead to "Swim Rock". The previous adopters had just relocated out of Reno so it was available. It is a gorgeous trail section that includes the Farad Boulder Field with rocks in “gabion wire cages”, lots of shade, and a low area that needs monthly mowing in the summer for the fast-growing grasses & thistles. This section is in a narrow strip of land between I-80 and the river, so it gets extra trash from drivers on I-80. A small portion of the trash makes it all the way down to the trail. A few of our younger & fitter team members scramble up the steep slope to gather trash closer to Hwy 80.
This section suffered a few washouts after the epic winter and spring of 2022-2023, which will be repaired soon by a professional contractor. The maintenance team installed warning signs, flagged them with bright tape, and partially filled them in for trail user safety.
The co-coordinators for the maintenance team are Linda Brown, who rounds up volunteers, schedules maintenance days, coordinates communication and leads a carpool; and Sam Limerick, who rounds up the tools, runs the mower, and submits maintenance reports online. Key supporters of the idea who helped get this going were Patti Bengston & Art Gafke. Our regular volunteers include:
Jay Stuart, Ann Mildrum, Betsy Morse, Jeremy Duke,
Katherine Jefferts, John Helmrich, Barbara McMeen,
Sarah Warmbrodt, Janet Carnes, Chris Fuchs, Ron Applegate,
Cherie Balik, Bernie Saunders, Sandra Limerick,
Sharon Boersma, Jane Griffen, Gennie Alderson
