BTA

Jul 18

Valerie Gardner

Finley State Park, OH

April 2026

Biology class helped Valerie find the Buckeye Trail. She needed service hours and a friend suggested reaching out to see if the BTA had anything going. In 2020, they sent her down to a property in southern Ohio for a few nights where she camped, helped build a privy, and pulled multiflora rose for three days. She had so much fun she kept coming back. Last year she logged 60 hours of volunteer time, 2,400 service hours in total for the year.

Valerie is aggressive, when she sees something needing done, she tackles it head on regardless of it being in her wheelhouse or not. That's how she started the marketing and social media group when the BTA had no marketing infrastructure, which became the Trail Promotions Committee. That's how she ended up on the board of trustees, chairing membership, co-founding the Lake Plains chapter, and sitting on the scholarship committee. She didn't set out to do all of it, but she continued to rise to the occasion.

Her work isn't trail maintenance in the physical sense, she's not swamping logs or painting blazes. What she does is keep the people connected to the trail and to each other. Checking in on volunteers, welcoming new members, making sure no one feels like they're doing trail work alone. Her argument is that the trail doesn't disappear if the infrastructure work stops, but it starts to feel unreliable.

She grew up coming to Finley State Park, camping with her family, catching catfish out of the lake with a net. She says that early time outside got her interested in biology to begin with, led her to the degree, and eventually led her back here. As much as she can, she kayaks the same lake, taking it all in.

Valerie called Finley a secret state park, then caught herself and said it's sort of like the Buckeye Trail that way… Once people find it, they're hooked, but most people don't know it exists, which is where she comes in.

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POA Subjects

Meg Dailey was eleven when she talked her dad into hiking the Appalachian Trail. At thirteen, she maintains a section of the Buckeye Trail, swamping logs and painting blazes.

Kim Love-Ottobre took over as BTA Trail Town Coordinator on a cold call six years ago. Her work is building relationships between the Buckeye Trail and the towns it runs through.

Valerie Gardner found the Buckeye Trail through a college service project in 2020 and never stopped showing up. She now chairs membership and co-founded the BTA’s Lake Plains chapter.

Christina Bergman found hiking while waiting on surgeries, deciding she might as well be in pain somewhere worth it. She now supervises the Buckeye Trail’s St. Mary’s section.

Matthew Edmonds hiked his first 12.5 miles on the Buckeye Trail in old Army parade boots. Sixteen years later, he’s logging trail data and pushing for 10,000 volunteers.

Richard Morgan didn’t start hiking seriously until his fifties. Curiosity carried him seven thousand miles across Ohio, and he still clears his section of the Buckeye Trail by hand.

Vicki Proctor knows her Buckeye Trail section well enough to picture what happens if nobody shows up for a few weeks. She keeps at the slow, patient work without needing recognition for it.

Cindy Sommers chairs the Central Ohio chapter of the Buckeye Trail Association, handling the emails, registrations, and details that keep hikes running. Her new project, Scioto Saturdays, breaks a long section into six shorter hikes so beginners can ease into the trail.It All Begins Here

It All Begins Here

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CHAPTER BLOG

What’s next

Each chapter is handled with care, honesty and respect. Here is what is takes to be considered for the next one

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Kite surfers, mountain bikers, skaters, people met in passing rather than by appointment.

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Portraits of Akron students building a life around the outdoors, met through a campus climate symposium and the people who followed.

Valerie Gardner

Josh Reuck

Valerie Gardner

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josh@joshreuck.com

Josh Reuck Photography