A Chatty Trails Assistant on The Old Bridle Path
I know I have felt happiness before. Even writing this log now, something that I thought would end when I finally finished school1, I know that I am sitting in a happy little glow; a dog at my feet and sunlight streaming through the windows. I never thought I would bask in true happiness on the top of the Old Bridle Path surrounded by people.
Despite the 7.8 billion people in the world, I have always believed that solitude is where I could shamelessly be myself. Yet the busiest location on the 60+ miles of trails that the Squam Lakes Association (SLA) manages has become my happy place. With 30,000 annual visitors, some weekends feel like the entire world is visiting the summit of West Rattlesnake2. Because of the damage that hundreds of pairs of feet do to the trail every day, the SLA encourages many volunteer trails days (which I happen to participate in because of my title as a trails and access assistant) to take place on Old Bridle as well as the Trail Hosting program to teach the public about safe hiking practices, Leave No Trace, and surrounding hikes available when the parking lot fills up. Contrary to my belief that I would be hiding in the woods all day by myself doing trail maintenance, I have a lot of face time with the public. But the best interactions happen when I am out in the field working on a trail assessment3.
Typical trail tools are mattocks, rakes, McCleod, loppers, saws, etc. What people do not expect to see is a young woman with a level, a clinometer, and a tape measure stopping every 10 feet to take pictures and measuring some unseen dimension. The mystery4 of my presence provides the perfect “in” for a conversation, usually resulting in my chatting some poor hiker’s ear off for a half hour. The topic always starts off professionally, “I’m an AmeriCorps member working on a trail assessment” and “are you hiking anywhere else today?” but slowly devolves into “look at this cool bird that I found!” and “you totally need to try [blank] hike soon!” Who knew that the key to my continued happiness was chatting to random strangers about my favorite things while standing on the summit of a mountain overlooking a gorgeous lake?
1 Being the brain instead of the brawn is suprisingly exhausting.
2 Antisocial middle-school Em would shaking her head in disbelief.
3 A trail assessment is a way to decrease barriers to trail access by providing accurate information about the trail’s features to people with various skills and abilities.
4 My housemates would laugh to hear me described as “mysterious” as I am one of the chattiest people you will ever meet.
Em is a Trails and Access Assistant at the Squam Lakes Association. In her free time you might find her enjoying a good book. Learn more about Em here.