This year's National Trails Symposium will be held in Austin from Thursday, October 21st through Sunday, October 24th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Town Lake.

See www.AmericanTrails.com for details.

There are a lot of free events, including some Pre-conference events on Wednesday. These include field trips to San Antonio's River Walk, various locations in the Hill Country, and to various trail venues around Austin, like the Veloway.

These folks are coming in from all over the world, and they include a like of day hiker (Volkswalkers), Equestrian trail riders, and even ADA trail advocates. The National Parks and Texas Wildlife Department are participating.


There is a need for some local volunteers to help with registration, coordination, and securing some Audio/Visual equipment, computers in particular (they need PC's to operate a cyber cafe, video projectors for meetins, and laptops for sharing information or running PowerPoint slides).

Send me an email if you can help out and please pass the word on to interested folks. It will be on local cable channels, local radio, and local news stations next week.

They will be incorporating portions of the SW Greenbelt Trails Workshop that we held at the Wildflower Center on Saturday, October 2nd.

Check out their web site, too. You will want to bookmark it. It has all kinds of resources, contacts, and facinating details about how many cities are capitalizing on trails as an Amenity for the whole family, tourist, and a way to round out or tie together parks and other destinations.

I had forgotten about the Volks Walks - they are day hikes designed for people of all ages and abilities. It's a German tradition that has spread all over Europe, where many of the towns or forests have connecting trails. Some of the walks are only 2 hours, others can go all day and include a picnic. It's way to enjoy nature, away from the noise and stress of city streets.

Volunteer signup starts tonight

We still need 3 more volunteers for a couple of hours at the Austin Convention Center on Saturday and Sunday. The work is simply to stay in one of the rooms where sessions are going on, to facilitate and introduce the first speaker, if needed.

Training and orientation is tonight at the Hyatt (6:30) and then again on Wednesday at the Convention Center.

Contact me if you are interested in helping out. You will receive a Teeshirt and an invitation to the Thank You party on Sunday night.


Events start on Wed and end on Monday, but all the Official stuff is TH-Sun,
although most ofthe Week-end events are out of town field trips.


Anyone who enjoys the out doors would feel at home. If you are out doing the Town Lake trails this week, stop in at the Hyatt Hotel and check ou the exhibits. You have to pay to get into the Convention Center events.