When Barry Jeffries drove up to the Pack pavilion in Boyce Park earlier this month for his first day as a trail steward, he hoped about 35 volunteers would arrive to help improve one of its multi-use trails.

He was delighted when 51 men, women and teenagers from the Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group (PTAG) showed up from all over Allegheny County. The work plans were daunting:

• Build a 24-foot bridge.

• Install and build a trail over a 12-foot culvert.

• Clear a cluttered stream.

• Build a levee of logs to prevent the stream from eroding a trail during periods of high water.

• Cut and fill several sections of a trail to make it more user-friendly for mountain bikers and pick-your-speed pedestrians.

• Close off two poorly designed trails so they can return to nature.

Jeffries welcomed everyone. He asked them to sign in, complete a liability waiver form required by the county and pick up raffle tickets for some bike-related giveaways afterwards.

Jeffries, who lives in Penn Township, owns and operates Dirty Harry's, a popular full-service bike shop in Verona. He's been riding a bike for 40 of his 47 years and has been a member of PTAG since 2001 when it was spun off from Pittsburgh Off-Road Cyclists.

As a trail steward, he was responsible for organizing the day's activities that included equal amounts of trail work, mountain biking and picnicking.

PTAG, whose motto is "Better trails through stewardship," works hard and plays hard.

Dave Biber of Bellevue, a co-founder of PTAG, quickly got the attention of everyone, especially newcomers, when he talked about the "circle of death." That's the area that surrounds volunteers when they use large tools, especially a McLeod or a Pulaski.

A McLeod is long-handled tool. It has four large teeth on one end for raking and a sharp edge on the opposite end to chop roots, brush and dirt. It also can be used to tamp dirt.

A Pulaski can be used as an ax and a small hoe. It cuts through underbrush and dirt with ease. The county, which approves all PTAG trail projects, lends tools to the group to make those tasks easier. If a project requires power tools, county employees do that work.

Biber, 46, a self-described "mouse jockey" at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is a designer and illustrator, reminded the volunteers to wear gloves, pace themselves, take breaks and keep themselves hydrated. Although the early morning temperature was 60 degrees, the forecast called for sunny weather with a high of 81.

The group leaders led the volunteers from the pavilion to work sites about a mile into the woods. They walked a

short distance down a road, passed the archery range and continued single- and double-file along the trail.

The trail was muddy and covered with surface coal in spots, and it curved past a tower supporting electric wires.

They got right to work.

Joshua Carson, 34, of Lower Burrell, and Scott Root, 53, of Fox Chapel, went to work on the log levee with several others.

Eric Steadle, 40, of Penn Hills, and his wife, Nancy, 37, entered the stream to clear it of tree limbs that had come down in storms.

Jim Snyder, 43, of Penn Hills, and his wife, Janet, 41, were joined by Caryn Csuy, 46, of Churchill in widening and leveling a section of the trail.

John O'Toole, Brian Miller and others installed the black plastic culvert, covered it with dirt, tamped it down with McLeods and bordered it with logs to hold the trail in place. They used short logs to erect a strainer to prevent debris from clogging the culvert during storms.

Scott Gray, 41, of North Huntingdon, and a crew that included Jeffries, Darren McInnis, Jack Gruendel, Chris Beech, Brian Miller and Cory Shugats worked on the bridge site.

"Anybody who rides here knows this was the biggest mud hole, probably from forever," said Bob Bannon of Plum as he looked at the mud under the bridge.

Completing the bridge was a challenge.

The four rails for the bridge and several dozen pieces of decking, all cut to size, had been delivered earlier that week. Two of the rails and 15 pieces of decking had disappeared a few days later.

Jeffries thought he was going to have to replace it. But PTAG volunteer Julie Gaul spotted it in a nearby section of woods while running on a trail.

It was quickly recovered and carried a quarter-mile to the work site.

However, Jeffries did have to drive to a home improvement store to buy more concrete block to support the bridge. Wheelbarrows, which earlier had been used to transport hundreds of pounds of flat rocks to stabilize the approaches to and from the bridge and cover soft spots, carried the block to the bridge.

After completing their tasks in less than three hours, the volunteers returned to the pavilion. Some got on their bikes and followed trail leaders into the park. They returned several hours later for a picnic.

PTAG, a project of Bike Pittsburgh, was founded in 2001 by Biber, Nancy Trun, Danielle Conway and Don Olson "to protect and encourage shared use trail access in Western Pennsylvania."

It works with public and private landowners to make sure trail projects meet standards set by the International Mountain Bicycling Association "with minimal impact on the environment."

"I'm really proud of PTAG," said county Parks Director Andrew Baechle, who also is a mountain biker. "They do work no one else wants to do, and they do it with a smile."

Years ago, relations were strained among trail users -- mountain bikers, equestrians and those who used the trails for walking or running.

"We got everyone together in the same room and talked about what we wanted to do," Baechle said. "Each group was told they would have a voice in how things were done. I said mountain biking is a perfectly proper leisure activity, and that today's mountain bikers are yesterday's horsemen."

Baechle praised Don Schmitt, a regional recreation supervisor based in North Park, for his efforts "in making this all work. I can't say enough good things about him. He was on vacation when the Boyce Park trail work was to be done. He drove in to make sure the PTAG volunteers had the tools they needed."

For more information, go to ptagtrails.com.