Outdoor Adventure Club serves the community by cleaning up hiking trail

Published: October 04, 2022

About 25 members of the Outdoor Adventure Club participated in a recent workday to clean up the main trail in The Gullies, a wooded area located just north of the Greenville University campus.

The Greenville University Outdoor Adventure Club tackled bushes, briars and boulders during a recent workday. During that session, the group cleared encroaching undergrowth from the main trail in The Gullies area just north of campus.

The focus of the project is a half-mile-long hiking trail that starts just north of Beaumont Avenue (near Hoyles House and Blankenship Apartments) and runs diagonally to the northwest until it terminates near Ill. Route 140. This was the first of a series of monthly three-hour work sessions to reclaim and repair the trail that cuts through the 50-acre plot of land, which is owned by the university.

“Our hope, over the course of several years, is to clean up the existing trail and add additional trails,” said Stephen Groves, coordinator of the Outdoor Adventure Club (pictured). “The next phase is to blaze a perimeter trail around the area, which would be about two miles long. Then we’ll look at adding trails in the interior areas.”

Historically, the trail has been used by students and community residents for walking and enjoying nature, but it has become overgrown during the summer months. By taking on the service project, the club hopes to make it more accessible to walkers.

“We want to do things like this that benefit both the community and the university,” Groves said. “The Gullies area has been a special area that allows people to be immersed in nature without having to travel far from campus. We hope to clean it up and enhance it so more people can experience this unique place.”

The Outdoor Adventure Club meets weekly on Friday mornings. Every other week, members will take a half-day trip in the area; once each semester, they will take an overnight trip; and once each year (when school isn’t in session), they will take a weeklong trip.