To many people, the favored portal to the natural world in New Hampshire is the extensive network of trails and footpaths found in the state. Trails allow us to move at a pace that encourages close up views of the natural world while hiking, snowshoeing, or cross-country skiing. Unlike bushwhacking through the woods, using a developed trail allows us to concentrate on where we are, rather than on how we are getting to our destination.

Trails offer the added benefit of having features such as a summit viewpoint or a lake or pond as their destination. When designed properly, trails also lead hikers past the most significant and most interesting parts of the landscape they travel through. We expect all of these things from our trails, but few of us have an appreciation for the effort behind creating and maintaining them.

In 1819, Abel and Ethan Crawford used axes to create the oldest continuous-use footpath in New Hampshire, the Crawford Path, designed to carry tourists on horseback from their inns to the summit of Mount Washington. As increasing numbers of summer tourists came north from Massachusetts and other parts of southern New England, innkeepers began to cut trails to other mountain summits.

The boom in trail construction in New Hampshire really took off after the Appalachian Mountain Club was founded in 1876, and the following fifty years were filled with exploration, mapping, and trail building in New Hampshire’s White Mountains Region. Trail building was so successful that the crews who built the Appalachian Trail had to cut only one eighteen-mile link to join existing segments and complete the Trail in New Hampshire.

Other trail and outing clubs, such as the Dartmouth Outdoor Club, Randolph Mountain Club, and smaller local clubs, also built and maintained trails throughout the state during the same period. While the original trail-building boom has passed, those organizations remain integral to the work of protecting and maintaining the trails in use today.

The White Mountains Region alone contains more than a thousand miles of hiking trails; the U.S. Forest Service maintains 670 miles of those trails, with volunteers adopting sections of trail and performing much of the routine maintenance work. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) also maintains more than 260 miles of trails there, using professional crews, volunteer trail adopters, and weeklong volunteer trail crews led by AMC staff.

Terry Robinson, the AMC North Country Volunteer Coordinator, guides the work of nearly 150 Adopt-A-Trail volunteers who donate their time with three or more work trips each year to perform basic maintenance on trails. The volunteers, each responsible for a section of trail one to three miles in length, clear and repair water-bars and dips that keep the trail’s tread-way from eroding. They also brush the trail by trimming back vegetation and maintain the blazes that mark the route. Interestingly, Terry said that, while 45 percent of AMC’s trail adopters come from New Hampshire, one-third are Massachusetts residents who continue the long tradition of trail work in our state.

While volunteer adopters perform basic maintenance, AMC paid professional crews and volunteer trail crews spend their time performing heavier maintenance, such as building rock water-bars and rock steps or bog bridges. The rock steps are placed in particularly steep sections of trail where erosion is a serious concern. The steps are placed with such care and skill that most hikers aren’t even aware that they are hiking on an improved surface. The twenty- member pro crews also cruise every section of AMC-maintained trails in late spring, removing the blow-downs caused by winter storms and winds.

Even with the donated time of volunteers, the cost of maintaining trails is high. Andrew Norkin, AMC White Mountains Trails Manager, says he budgets approximately $320,000 for AMC trail maintenance programs each year. About $80,000 comes from Forest Service cost sharing and other grants, leaving the remainder to be raised from AMC members and donors. He also said that dedicated volunteer crews based at Camp Dodge pay participation fees of about $20,000 to help fund their own volunteer work.

New Hampshire’s temperate climate and ample rainfall are great for growing trees, and it takes only a few seasons’ neglect for a trail to be lost to the closing forest. Hikers and other users should be grateful to all the clubs and organizations that maintain our trails.

One way to express that gratitude would be to join volunteers at AMC or any of the local trail maintenance organizations. National Trails Day and New Hampshire Trails Day also provide a perfect opportunity each summer for people to get involved and learn about trail maintenance. Contact your local hiking club or visit the AMC Web page for more information about how you can help.

Larry E. Ely, UNH Cooperative Extension Wildlife Coverts Cooperator