Stone Step by Stone Step: The Five Biggest Battles Trail Crews Fight

AMC Outdoors, May 1998

By Carl Demrow

If you and I hiked together, we would probably give very different descriptions of the trail afterward. Let’s say we took a gently sloping path through some hardwoods, crossed a stream and continued through a low area with beautiful wild irises, then climbed sharply through spruce and fir forest to a bald summit with sweeping views.

If someone asked you how the hike was, you might enthusiastically describe it as I just did. But if someone—especially anothermember of the trail crew—asked me, I might describe it like this: In the hardwoods, the trail needs more drainage and better blazing; need to relocate crossing to avoid stream flowing onto trail at high water; also, reconstruct upper part through spruce-fir; scree wall needed on summit to protect vegetation. Such are the observations of a member of the trail crew.

Even though most hikers know trail basics, many still harbor misconceptions about trail maintenance. For instance, some folks think the trail crews build all those stone steps and bog bridges to keep your feet dry and to make it easier for hikers. Not so. These features are built to stabilize soils and prevent erosion. Sometimes our efforts have a secondary effect of making things easier or more comfortable, but we would never want to change the essential experience or challenge of hiking a particular trail.

Contrary to what you might glean from watching a trail crew, the three most important words in trail work are not "breakfast, lunch, dinner." They are, to paraphrase the realtor’s mantra, "drainage, drainage, drainage."

In our part of the country, these words play a part in each of the dilemmas constantly facing the AMC trail crew, which might also be spelled out in terms of our five greatest challenges: use, erosion, our legacy, Mother Nature, money and labor. Use the links below to learn about each of these areas.

—Carl Demrow is a former AMC Trails Director.

Five Battles: Intro  |  Heavy Use  |  Erosion Risk  |  Our Legacy  |  Mother Nature  |  Money and Labor