Volunteering –

Awesome Trail Building

June 3, 2024June 19, 2024 paschmann

After working on Rocky Branch since 2018 to renovate the park, it became very clear to me that the Trail Building community could really use a Framework or Templated approach for building trails. Like a niche business segment or company, all trail building projects are very similar in nature, structure, challenges and solutions. While I have not quite filled the gap of “open source trails”, I decided to take one small step in the right direction by compiling a list in the “Awesome” format, many software or online projects use these “awesome lists” to help folks get started in the right direction.

Step 2 of this project would be to build reusable templates, emails, websites, assets, way finding signage, presentations and maintenance schedules. The ultimate goal: Make it as simple as possible for volunteers, cities, towns and land owners to build trails. read more

2023 SAP Mobile Summit

January 25, 2024 paschmann

After giving my presentation on how we implemented and used LLM (Large Language Models) in our internal mobile apps at SAP, the team sent a small token of their appreciation. Sometimes thoughtful gifts, handwritten letters or just calls to say thanks go further than a financial gesture.

Daniel Stowe Mapping project

January 15, 2024December 25, 2025 paschmann

A friend of Rocky Branch Park (read: Legend) who has been a big advocate for trails in our area and helped fund and support the RBP expansion asked for some help while he was working on the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. They had recently expanded their trail system but didnt have any maps for the park. He reached out asking for assistance and I cam up with the maps below.

Its always great to visit these parks and places and see the small ways my volunteering has contributed and hopefully helped encourage more people to get outdoors 🙂

These maps ultimately start with a GIS terrain shaded map, and after doing some running/cycling, using the GPS tracks to align the tracks with the parks boundaries. Then meticulously going through each GPS track and plotting the vector graphics on top, and subsequently adding various features, callouts, legends or notes. read more

Signage Project – Rocky Branch Park

February 10, 2022November 1, 2023 paschmann

There is something quite refreshing about volunteer work. Generally it’s a position or job which you have picked because you have expertise, passion or interest in learning more about. It is unpaid, and the external pressure and expectations you get from a paid position are generally non-existent.

While I have had, and do, multiple volunteer jobs for one of the parks in the Tarheel Trailblazers organization, taking on new responsibilities is rewarding from a knowledge building perspective. This role was centered around designing, installing and maintaining a mountain bike/hiking parks signage. The project included the main entrance information boards, way finding, and safety signs. read more

T-Shirt & Sticker Project – Rocky Branch Park

March 18, 2018October 19, 2023 paschmann

This was a fun project volunteering for a local Non-profit organization called the Tarheel Trailblazers and some MTB/hiking trails in Belmont, NC called Rocky Branch Park.