If you like to daypack, backpack and volunteer for a good cause in the great outdoors, the 2008 American Hiking Society's (AHS) Volunteer Vacations may be for you.

On these trail stewardship programs across America's public lands, you'll join anywhere from 4-16 volunteers to rebuild eroded trails, perform ecological restoration, "log out" fallen trees and perform other general trail maintenance duties. This year, AHS is offering 75 trips across 25 states. Trips cost a mere $275 and include food, but you will have to cover transportation to the starting line. Trips are rated from easy to very strenuous depending on length of backpacking or daypacking required to reach base camp. Accommodations range from cabins, bunkhouses and car camping to primitive camping.

As a past National Sierra Clubs Outing leader (backpacking and canoe trips), I can attest to the calories you'll burn and the muscle you'll build on outdoor work trips. You'll also be surrounded by a fascinating group of people willing to give their time to public lands enjoyed by all. I adore Sierra Club participants, we always had a lot of laughs, terrific campfire conversations and relative age didn't matter. I suspect AHS attracts a similar brood.

I'm closely looking at AHS's Flathead National Forest trail maintenance trip in Montana this July. Here's a complete list of their 2008 trail stewardship projects. The AHS website also has a FAQs section which is quite helpful to answer initial questions.

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