Fort Stanton, New Mexico, has been the home of seven AERC rides in that many years. The first event was on ordinary back country roads and some mountain bike trails that were some times challenging but generally uninteresting. Then came the metamorphosis of creating trails that were challenging, interesting, sustainable -- and made you wonder what was around the next bend.
For the last six years I have worked with AERC volunteers and AERC Southwest Director Roger Taylor. One of the most interesting and wonderful trail volunteers is Jim Barnett, who likes the challenge of designing and developing trails. Jim, already a Trail Master, encouraged me to take the AERC Trail Masters course. He says that after you take the course Òyou will never look at a trail the same again.Ó He says participants learn to look at trails with a critical eye, and can learn to design trails to better flow with the land so it becomes permanent fixture.
Learning to correctly build a trail
Twenty-one of us took the challenge of back-to-back courses -- the Trail Master and Mechanized Trail Master classes -- and completed with flying colors. For most of us who have worked with or used trails for the past 30 years the course was an adventure of new ideas and techniques of using standard fire-fighting tools to carve -- not hack -- a trail into existence.
The mornings were spent in the classroom of a Bureau of Land Management bunk house learning the basics of trail design and layout, trail construction, trail maintenance and learning to be a crew leader.
A device known as a clinometer is the main tool for trail design and layout. This instrument is held up to your eye and sighted at an object or person at your eye height to determine the degree of slope to the trail or the degree of slope of the area where you wish to place a trail. Too much slope and your nice new trail erodes into a ditch that will get deeper, more hazardous, and ultimately fail.
Instructor Mike Riter of Trail Design Specialists has the patience of a saint when it comes to teaching new techniques to both old trail hounds and new trail hands. Because of Mike's vast experience, both in the U.S. and abroad, he is able to adapt to all soil types, erosion conditions, and circumstances to fit trails into the local surroundings. If you have a question about trail building Mike has probably run into a similar situation some where along his 20-year trail designing career.
Brute strength vs. finesse
The last day of the two sessions involved a machine developed by Ditch Witch. Students wondered why we didn't start with this mega machine, and learned the reasoning behind starting out with hand tools is to show the student how to build a sustainable trail by making subtle changes to the landscape without a lot of disturbance. After you learn to build a sustainable trail correctly you will use these same techniques with machinery and have a lighter touch to the land. Land managers will appreciate the lighter touch on the land with less disturbance, and the land will benefit for a long time.
AERC, agency partners benefit
AERC is on the right trail with this course: not only are they training AERC members but they are inviting federal agency people to take the course. At my course there were participants from the National Park Service, National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. These three sister agencies host many of the rides AERC puts on across the country.
In the future other agencies may be involved and will be brought into the Trail Masters course in other areas. Local training helps the agencies defray the costs of travel for its trail workers. If the course was 1,000 miles away from their duty stations the agency people would probably not have been able to attend.
Once these agency people rub shoulders, share tools and sweat equity with AERC participants they have a whole different view and attitude towards AERC. They know that AERC partners who have taken the same course will never look at a trail the same again, and will build sustainable trails on their agency lands. This course had four participants from Eco-Servants, a local not-for-profit group that builds and maintains trails for the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. These four students -- now Trail Masters -- are the trail crew bosses for this organization and are working on endurance riding trails.
Was this Trail Masters course a success? Yes! Whether or not you have preconceived notions of trail design, construction and maintenance, when you finish the course you will have a new arsenal of knowledge to build a trail correctly -- knowing that the trail you construct will last for a lifetime.
Paul Happel is a freelance photographer and works for the Bureau of Land Management.
