Eight years ago, I drove down an icy road into the New Hampshire wilderness to begin my first paid position as a trail crew leader with the New Hampshire Conservation Corps. Two major life events took place during that year: I discovered definitively what I wanted to do for a living, and I met my soon-to-be wife.
You could say I owe a lot to trails and the great outdoors.
So far, trails have taken me all over the country — Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina — but I always knew that, in the back of my mind, my journey would come full circle back to New England. Therefore, in a way, it feels like coming home to be working for the Upper Valley Trails Alliance as the trail programs director, replacing the irreplaceable John Taylor.
When ruminating on my experience with trails around the world, there are three universal factors that come to mind. One is the individual benefits trails offer every user. Whether it’s joy, a reprieve from our stressful lives and our uncertain times, or a chance to get in shape after too much time in the office or on the couch, everyone finds something that spurs the allure of getting outside time after time, even if it is a trail we have walked a thousand times before.
Another universal factor is that trails develop our relationship to the natural world.
Since it is through experience (rather than pictures or television), and often in our own communities, it fosters a deeper, longer-lasting connection with the world outside our doors.
When one has a personal connection with a place, it binds us to it and shows us the intrinsic value it has. With untrammeled places rapidly diminishing, when people get outside and are able to immerse themselves in nature, they start to realize how precious these places are and, hopefully, it translates into action to preserve them.
Finally, what I have come to appreciate more and more is how trails connect people to people and communities to communities. Despite the ability to talk to almost anyone instantly and cross the globe in a single day, we seem more disconnected than ever, right? So when working on the Appalachian Trail (pronounced Appa-latch-in or Appa-lay-tion Trail, depending upon your geographic region), and on the Florida Trail, and in Arizona, New Hampshire, Vermont or wherever else, what I have found most universal and inspiring is how trails bring people together. Hiking buddies, riding partners, skiing teams, families, organizations, businesses, towns, counties, and even states, trails are a resource that links together the people and places we love.
One of the first things I noticed when getting to know this area (besides how overwhelmingly welcoming everyone is) was how much people value their natural spaces and how supportive they are of our efforts, and the efforts of countless others, to improve and preserve them.
I feel extremely lucky to be working in this community. I hope to continue to bring the people of the Upper Valley together around our shared natural resources. Perhaps in improving and protecting them, we are improving and protecting ourselves and our communities.
Sean Ogle is the trail programs director at the Upper Valley Trails Alliance and can be reached at sean.ogle@uvtrails.com or 802-649-9075.