<\/a>Master Trail Builder Ron Webster and his youthful trail crews worked on the Backbone and many other trails in the Santa Monica Mountains.<\/p><\/div>\n
Webster brings solid contractual and people skills to the job, including the ability to do cost-breakdowns and construction estimates for trails, and to manage crews from a diversity of backgrounds. He\u2019s good at working with trail crews composed of at-risk youth, at teaching young men and women to be part of a team, to take pride in their work and to master<\/p>\n
I particularly admire how the master trail builder designs the route for a trail. After spending many, many hours on the slopes to be crossed by a new trail, Webster goes into what he calls \u201cAlignment\u201d in which he envisions the trail upon the mountain. It\u2019s a combination of a Zen state and a construction blueprint.<\/p>\n
Modern Trail Builders<\/h2>\n
Some modern day trail builders have a philosophic approach as they plan and construct the way. \u201cA trail route is not a route from here to there. It is a place to reconnect,\u201d states Robert Searns, founding owner of Urban Edges, Inc., a planning and development firm based in Denver, Colorado.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn building trails, we need to think about the trail experience,\u201d Searns explains. \u201cWhat does the trail look like? What does it smell like, taste and sound like? Does the experience challenge the mind? Does it touch a chord that resonates the soul? A good trail will do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
I love a hand-built trail, one that goes easy on the land, one that seems almost as much a part of the geography as a streambed. A good trail is like a good guide, subtly pointing things out and picking the very best route from place to place.<\/p>\n
Hike On.
\nJohn McKinney
\nThe Trailmaster<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let us now acknowledge trail builders, of this generation, generations past and generations to come. Not all hikers appreciate the trail at their feet\u2014but to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,136],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}