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The Paradoxes of Trail Work "Ten years ago… the job of the Trail Crew was to make passage through the mountains easier for the people who hiked. Now the main concern of the Trail Crew is to lessen the impact on the environment that great numbers of people make." — 1971 trail crew leader quote in Forest and Crag by Guy and Laura Waterman. Trail work can be quite a paradoxical undertaking. We pour labor and, sometimes, man-made materials into modifying a path - with the goal of protecting a natural experience. But waterbars, rock staircases, and bog bridges by their very nature remove one’s attention from the natural setting, and remind the tramper of a prior human intrusion. It is, in some senses, a bargain. History has shown us it will be a net gain for the natural world. Thin mountain soils will be protected and plants kept firmly rooted in place for decades to come. The sight of heavily eroded trails reminds us that the trade off is well worth it. In exchange, though, we trade a more wild experience for an incrementally more manicured one.
Trail work can be damaging to the immediate area. Quarrying boulders for steps and then rolling them across the ground injures vegetation. Cutting "sidehill" can be unsightly until the scar heals. Here, too, there are opportunities to mitigate the impact. For example, this past season, RMC’s crews used their “skylining” skills to move large boulders through the air on rugged wire cables, thereby avoiding damage to underlying vegetation. (Or, to use the creative jargon of the trail crew, “We make rocks fly”). There is a final paradox. A lot of trail work, such as building rock steps or creating a stable treadway on steep-sloped sidehill, has the unintended consequence of making the trail less challenging. Many hikers think this outcome is the actual intent, believing that the goal of trail work is to make a trail easier to travel. Nothing could be further from the truth. The erosion control work practiced by all modern trail crews is all about protecting the underlying natural resource with as minimal human intrusion as possible. Such are our tradeoffs as we contemplate trail work projects. RMC's 2003 season was no exception. This past year, our senior trail crew wrapped up a two-year project on the Kelton Trail. As part of their efforts, long sections of level path were cut into the steep sidehill between the Upper Inlook and Brookside. As a result, sections of the trail that were literally washing away are now stable. But, the trail is less challenging and, for the coming year or two, a fresh scar exists. In short time, the scars will heal and trail workers will curse the newly sprouting hobblebush. But this section of the Kelton Trail will remain easier to travel. For those on the path, a small part of the wildness will have gone missing. Some will thank the crews for eliminating what was most certainly an ankle-contorting experience. Others will miss the adventure of clinging from one fir to the next. Not all of RMC's paths require
such work. Indeed, moss still roots firmly to the footing along
little-traveled routes like Cliffway and Cabin-Cascades. But
on our more popular trails, these are the trade-offs we must
make if we are to protect the paths we all hold so dear.
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Nonetheless,
in performing trail work, we can constantly work to minimize
the impacts of our intrusions. This is why the best trail work
is that which preserves the underlying resource while also minimizing
aesthetic impacts. Trail crews can easily forget this objective
as they muscle their way through constructing a staircase that
will impress. The RMC Trail Crew’s goal, when repairing
a trail, however, is to build rock staircases that blend seamlessly
into the trail and drainages that take advantage of natural twists
and turns in the topography.