Portraits of Adventure / BTA / Matthew Edmonds
Matthew Edmonds
Cambridge, OH
March 2026
No appointments, Matthew just walks in. At least that’s how he was approaching his outreach today. We met up in the town of Cambridge Ohio so I could learn his story and capture his portrait. I got into town about an hour early to find a good location, something that could represent the other small trail towns the Buckeye Trail runs through. I was fortunate that Matthew’s schedule dictated we start early, before store fronts and offices opened for the day where he could get his canvasing done.
It’s interesting how a past experience can shape an activity and your feelings towards it for the rest of your life - that is until you challenge yourself to try again. On his first day on the Buckeye trail out of Cincinnati, Matthew wore an old pair of Army boots for 12.5 miles. Twelve and a half miles of hiking in parade boots. Hiking for him in his past life meant ruck marches in Dress blues for parades, and funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. Astonishingly, he wanted to keep hiking after a first experience that left his feet looking unrecognizable.
Matthew is driven to accomplish, and hiking would help him lose the weight he’d put on since his military days. That is 60 miles a week at his peak, all with the Buckeye Trail under each step. 16 years of volunteering in, he’s been compiling complete logistics data on the trail, mapping areas available for primitive camping, surface types, and how many volunteers are needed to sustain. He has a 10,000 member goal on a poster he’s created to help explain the gap.
His section is the Wilderness loop, and it’s remote with a register of sometimes only 8 entries. He doesn't read that as a problem, he knows the importance of maintaining a great trail whether it’s for 8 or 800. Carved into hillsides with mattocks and pulaskis, pruned, and a blue blaze consistently marking the trail..
He buys his maintenance gear from Goodwill so he doesn't risk the real stuff. He also knows to leave his nice gear at home for these trips.
He is not a hiker who stops for flowers. He said something about John Muir and sauntering and then said: “I am out to conquer.” He described his volunteer work as being Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, the magician orchestrating everything into something larger. He knows this sounds egotistical, it’s just how he thinks about it.
What he wants for the BTA is specific, nothing short of aspirational. Land acquisition without waiting on grant cycles. Ten thousand members, which he knows will make people faint. An officer corps for the wilderness chapter. Add, fix, tweak, multiply, or amplify what's already working.
Matthew will tell you he's out there because it just needs to be done, he’s one very driven person. He's on indefinite standby, waiting to be activated.
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