Trails for Today and Tomorrow: Building Sustainable Single Track Trails

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Many of Conserve School’s trails are old logging roads that are now used for hiking, mountain biking, and skiing in the winter.  Conserve School also has a series of single track trails that wind across the landscape bringing hikers and mountain bikers to some of the most scenic parts of campus.  This week History Teacher Michael Salat gave SC5 students the opportunity to contribute to the single track trail system on campus.

Trails have been essential to travelers throughout history.  Unfortunately trails increase erosion and can, when built incorrectly, create scars on the landscape that take many years to heal.  Conserve School’s sustainable single track trials meet the needs of trail users while protecting the environment.  Sustainable trails bend around natural features (such as boulders and large trees) rather than plowing through them.  Erosion is reduced by following the contour of the land and by undulating the trail’s surface so that the trail will shed water rather than channeling it.  The weather was hot and the work was hard, but Conserve School students demonstrated their commitment to protecting the environment as they took time to carefully shape and finish the trails so that they would meet these guidelines for sustainability.

~ Graduate Fellow Heather Lumpkin

History teacher Michael Salat shows Saige a Pulaski tool.

Genna pauses in her work to pose with a McLeod tool.

Brooke working with a McLoed.

Gwen working with a Pulaski.

Katie works with a Pulaski.

Megan showing the big stump she just finished chopping out of the trial. What’s Chase doing in the background?

Collin working with the McLoed tool.

Ellie chopping a stump out of the trail.

Saige and Kate working on the trail.

Students working on the trail.

Molly, Ana, and Teahelahn working with McLoed tools.

Reilly working on the trail.

Students working on the trial.

Megan L. chopping a stump out of the trail.

Chris pausing to evaluate his work on the trail.

Ian and George working on the trail.

Tessa working on the trail.

Olivia using an axe.

Kai and Ella working on the trail.

The class looking tough after their work on the trail.

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