So is trekking the seven-mile Sand Gap Trail.

That's because about 60 volunteers spent several hours Saturday working to improve the trails as part of National Public Lands Day, an effort that involved about 85,000 people at more than 600 locations across the country.

"The purpose is to get people who use public lands to take a day and go out and take care of them," said Patty Pride, the program's director, from Washington, D.C.

Bill Roggenkamp, from Georgetown, said much the same as he and his two children labored with shovels and picks on Low Gap Trail.

"I just want to get the kids outside and have them do something good for the environment and good for the state park," he said.

Their job: digging holes and installing water bars - pieces of 6-by-6 treated lumber - across the trail to stop erosion.

The trail is only 2 years old, but it is already washing away, and Saturday's climb was slippery.

"We have 22 miles of trails, and when it rains every 10 minutes like it has this summer, erosion is a real problem," said Zeb Weese, park naturalist.

While some worked on the water bars, a smaller group carried posts and post-hole diggers up Sand Gap Trail.

About 5 miles up the trail, they came to a fork. One was the real trail, the other a "false trail" that eventually petered out.

Park officials said hikers regularly take the false trail, then darkness falls before they can find their way out of the woods.

That means park rangers have to go out at 1 or 2 a.m. to find them.

"It happens so often, we've almost built it into our schedule," Weese said.

It will happen less often in the future: The volunteers put posts across the false trail.