Blazing Trails Together
How beautiful would it be if everyone had dozens of guides to act as mentors to assist in charting our course through life, realizing that if everybody had that as a personal priority, then all of us would all end up being beneficiaries at some point in some way along the path.
Today National Trails Day. I certainly wouldn’t blame anybody for not remembering that, but it’s a somewhat significant day for us in the outdoor recreation world like I am with the U.S. Forest Service. The day was established back in 1993 to recognize the important role trails play in providing access to great outdoor experiences at the city, state, and federal level. And it’s also a great day to participate in trail work days as volunteers as keeping up with trail maintenance is a never ending challenge.
It’s gotten me thinking a lot about the concept of trailblazing and trail maintenance this week. To cut new trails with my agency, it sometimes takes years of planning, surveying, scientific surveys, and hundreds of human hours of really hard effort. I think that alone definitely deserves a day of recognition. But my appreciation for established trails is enhanced because I’ve tried to navigate through areas without trails. And the different is overwhelming.
Early on in my experience working with the Forest Service, I had the chance to tag along with several specialists so as to get a better understanding of how these vital roles fit into the overarching goals of the Agency. Specifically, I had a chance to work with a team of wildlife biologists for two weeks while they conducted field surveys. They used just a couple of tools to do their work: binoculars, a notepad and pencil and a long measuring tape commonly known as a chain.
The process we went through to conduct the surveys was deceptively easy: the biologists had already identified regions within the forest they needed to conduct surveys in so we first randomized our choice of area, then we navigated to the center of the area and we’d choose another random selection in direction around the compass rose. That way we could get a good objective measure of the kinds of wildlife we saw or heard in that random area. And then, using a compass and the chain measuring tape, I was in charge of keeping us in a straight line dragging the chain until the chain tape was tight. I don’t know if any of you have taken a good look at how thick the vegetation can be on the westside of the Cascades but suffice to say that I certainly earned my pay during those two weeks. To keep a straight line, I had to push forward without deviating other either side. This means that if the path leads into a thick expanse of blackberry bushes, I pushed through. If the path led through a towering pile of fallen logs, I was charged with finding the straightest path through the whole jumble of root wads and sometimes enormous tree trunks.
I am very grateful for that experience, but it also made me appreciate established trails so much more. Whether they might be city paths, state park trails, or nationally designated trails like the Pacific Crest Trail, trails make it so much easier for us to explore and experience an area. And humans aren’t alone in appreciating them. Animals make their own paths and often human made trails are built based on the trails animals make since animals tend to find some of the best paths through difficult terrain.
But the concept of blazing new trails doesn’t imply just marking new paths for the individual who is cutting the trail initially. The concept also carries the idea of establishing the trail initially in order to make the path easier for future adventurers. Just like how much easier it was for me to navigate an established trail than it was to make the first steps into unmarked paths through thick bushes and over trees, we can help people within our spheres of influence in being willing to use our skills and talents and energy to making the path easier for others, especially for kids who have an ever increasingly complex world to learn how to navigate.
How beautiful would it be if everyone had dozens of guides to act as mentors to assist in charting our course through life, realizing that if everybody had that as a personal priority, then all of us would all end up being beneficiaries at some point in some way along the path.