Trail Crew Stories

Like many professional trail workers, I stumbled into my career inadvertently. After graduating college with a degree in foreign affairs, working a brief stint as a mountain guide, and changing my career goals a dozen times, I found myself driving cross-country to California for a service year with the federal AmeriCorps program.

We spent most of the year rambling around Northern California, doing trail construction and maintenance. It was brutal, exhausting work. We lived in tents, moldy RVs, and cramped cabins. Our paltry food budget had us eating mostly beans, rice, and a carb-centric dish we called “pasta tacos.” I cried from stress, physical pain, loneliness, and joy. But I was hooked. A year later, I wound up in a desk job, but trails called me back. I’m now in my eighth season of trail work.

Trail work is hard. The labor is physically demanding, the schedules irregular, the settings austere, the weather merciless and inescapable. Isolation means romantic relationships are by default long-distance