I’ve been a hiker and backpacker for 50 years. A year ago I added another title to that resume—trail maintainer.
My trail partner and I care for about 8 miles of the Shenipsit Trail in northeastern Connecticut, part of Connecticut’s more than 800 miles of blue-blazed trails that rely on thousands of volunteer hours annually.
And it’s just a small part of the trail volunteer network nationwide.
The American Hiking Society estimates that there are more than 200,000 miles of trails in the National Trails System, and in 2015 trail volunteers contributed more than 1 million hours working on National Scenic and Historic trails.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy works with 31 trails clubs to maintain the 2,000+ miles of the AT, clearing blowdowns and overgrown trails; maintaining shelters and campsites; and providing guidance to the millions of thru-hikers, section hikers, and days hikers who use the trail annually.
So what does my first year as a train maintainer look like?
Fall 2019: The trees are ablaze with color. It’s typically a dry time in New England, so Joe and I take to the trail with paintbrushes, paint, and a paint scraper. We trim branches from small trees that have grown and obscured blazes. Oak trees along the trail are dying after a gypsy moth infestation in recent years, so we scrape the blazes off trees that will fall soon and find live trees to paint new blazes on. We consider sight lines, and how far apart to paint blazes. We don’t want too many blazes where the trail is obvious. But we tend to overblaze in areas where trail runners and mountain bikers have created their own paths that crisscross the hiking trails.
Winter 2019-20
My favorite season on trail. It’s quiet in the woods, with few hikers out. We walk different sections every week, clearing limbs or blowdowns that have fallen in snow or ice storms.
Early Spring 2020
Mud season. Water fills the trail in low spots and we clean water bars. We repair rock steps we placed in wet areas, trying to keep people on the trail, not creating side paths around the mud and water. We barely begin our spring work when COVID-19 hits Connecticut hard. Although Connecticut does not close state parks and hiking trails, we decide to halt trail work until we have a better handle on COVID. As a result we lose almost two months of spring trail work.
Late Spring 2020
We pick up where we left off, building new stone walkways through wet areas, repairing others. We drive separately to trailheads, and put on masks or step off trail when hikers pass.
Summer 2020
We start our first round of brush clearing; we return later in the summer to find the earliest spots we cleared overgrown again. Tropical Storm Isaias hits Connecticut with a vengeance in early August. Joe and I, carrying hand saws and brush loppers in our packs, enlist our adult children to help clear storm blowdowns along the length of our trail section. We leave one area for last because a hiker told us he had been through it and the damage was slight. When we get to that section it turns out to be one of the worst on the trail.
Total hours: Nearly 100.
I wanted to be a trail maintainer for years, but always found excuses: children, family, work, whatever.
When I retired the excuses ended and the time became now.
Here’s some information on trail-maintenance organizations, put together by the American Hiking Society: