BUFFALO TWP — Chris Ziegler, the president of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail council, sent out her usual round of emails asking trail users to volunteer for the effort to clean up and repair the trail after Buffalo Creek flooded last week and damaged the surface.

But what she didn't expect in return was 50 email responses from complete strangers asking if they could volunteer as well.

“With bad things, good things happen,” Ziegler said on Wednesday.

She figures that those she normally emails to ask for help forwarded her plea to friends who also use the trail, and those people responded to her.

“I think we have an awesome trail, and no one wants to see it go away and they're willing to engage in manual labor to keep it,” Ziegler said. “They were even offering their children.”

She said while the entire 21-mile trail is open for walkers, joggers, cyclists and nature lovers, a little more than 10 miles of surface was washed away when the Buffalo and Little Buffalo creeks rose last week and inundated the trail.

“It's still passable, but it's a little bit of a rough ride, and in a couple places you have to get off your bike and push through a washout,” Ziegler said.

She said donations to replace surface material and large retaining rocks along the bank — and to rent heavy equipment for ditch dredging — are also requested.

The trail council spent about $80,000 last year to fix a flooded area of the trail, Ziegler said, and now money is tight.

Depending on weather, a trail workday will be planned in the upcoming week or two, during which volunteers will shovel, rake and prune to bring the trail back up to standards, Ziegler said. That date will be posted on the trail website at www.butlerfreeporttrail.org.

A link to donate to the effort is now on the website, Ziegler said.

She said the council is grateful for every volunteer who makes the effort to help.

“I know how valuable time is, and when you have time off you really want to go and play,” Ziegler said. “I really appreciate the volunteers for offering their time.”

Bob Ingoldsby, the council treasurer, bikes about 60 miles on the trail each week. He said he is not surprised at the number of existing volunteers who help out on workdays and during the council's annual Buffalo Creek Half Marathon.

“I think it's Chris Ziegler herself,” Ingoldsby said. “If she asks you for help with something and gives you that big smile, there's no way you can say no.”

He has no doubt that new volunteers who crop up at the next workday will become dedicated to the trail.

“The reason is she makes it so much fun,” Ingoldsby said. “When you go volunteer on the trail, it's equal parts work and fun.”

Ziegler said the Butler-Freeport Trail is a unique venue in eastern Butler County where friendly people say “hello” to one another as they cycle, jog, walk or enjoy the lush landscape of the trail.

She and her granddaughter started a fairy garden along the trail in the Herman area, and many people have added to it.

“You can go and relax and meet old and new friends,” Ziegler said. “It's unlike anything I have seen anywhere else.”