Last January, I sat down next to Cam Schryver in the dining hall to talk about the Thacher trails.  We have this amazing, extensive trail network, and as you might imagine, maintaining it is unwieldy–just when one trail is fully cleared, it seems the last one completed needs work again.  The Twin Peaks trail pushed me to action in this case; it was virtually impassable, and it is a beloved trail in our community.  Cam and I began working to rally students to come and help, and from January onward we worked just about every two weeks on Sundays.  By June, we had cleared Twin Peaks almost to the top, and people could certainly hike it.  Beyond the satisfaction of completing something came so many other benefits.  First, the physical satisfaction that comes with hiking, lopping, swinging a machete; the stunning views we took in while sitting on a boulder, eating lunch; the students I came to know that I had never encountered before on our campus.

As this new year has commenced, we are now tackling the Morgan Barnes trail, which serves as the backbone for our trail system on the Eastern side of our campus.  After several communal work days on Sunday, we had climbed the switchbacks at the beginning of the trail.  The winter sports season is now upon us, and for the first time that I can remember, a student has an Independent Project in trail work.  Will Kirkland, who has been a stalwart participant since last January in trail maintenance efforts, is carrying on for the next few months.  I try to get out there with Will at least twice a week.

Last Friday, we had a huge breakthrough with a hedgetrimmer.  After receiving training from Oscar Luna, who works in the Maintenance Department, about how to operate such a machine, Will and I headed out to Morgan Barnes and discovered that we could move twice as fast with with our brushing efforts.  This was thrilling after months of slow, steady progress.  We are working on a section of the trail that hugs the side of a hill and has lots of shale slides to deal with.  So, on Monday, Mike Vaughn, who does a lot of trail work in the Ojai Valley, came out and worked with Will, giving him some strategies to utilize in repairing the actual trail–also known as “tread.”

The collaborative nature of this project inspires me. I am not really the teacher, but a partner in this endeavor with Will, and when I head out there this afternoon, I will be the student, taking my cues on how to improve the tread from him.  And again, there are the intangible payoffs–the view of the sun setting over the Ojai Valley, and the knowledge that we are improving something for the use of many in the Thacher community, hopefully for many years.