Being a Woman in the Trail Building Industry
I am just a sucker for not saying "no" and wanting to better the tiny little rural community that I have watched decline rapidly. I genuinely believe that creating spaces for people to feel safe recreating changes the outlook of the inhabitants in an area and gives them a sense of ownership and respect for the place in which they live.
I do a good bit of traveling myself and have been very fortunate to have traveled all over North America and Europe. I have seen how recreational infrastructure such as rail trails and mountain bike systems have created a sense of community in places with nothing much going for them beforehand. I have that "build it, they will come" and "let's get this done" attitude. I don't take "no's" for answers without a fight or, at the least, a darn good argument of why, and I work tirelessly on projects that I am passionate about.
Our little rural town in middle Georgia hosts some of the best gravel roads in the state. We manage a mountain bike trail system on a private landowner tract that we have placed under SORBA (Athens chapter), a newly constructed rail trail section that completed the corridor in my county at 6.5 miles and countless paved country roads for road biking. However, I have gravitated away from the road since COVID. The post-COVID rush of people to our state has forever changed the landscape here, almost to the point of overpopulation in rural areas that do not have the infrastructure to accommodate the influx of traffic.
So, my focus quickly drifted towards getting our trail system back in shape and more welcoming to different skill levels. They are old-school, hand-cut, single-track trails. The kind you don't see much anymore because so many have gone towards machine-built flow trails. But there is just something about an old hand-cut single track that slows you down just enough to appreciate your surroundings, immersing you in nature and at the same time keeping you on your toes because there might be a tight off-camber hairpin turn just ahead that needs your complete focus. Maintaining any trail system is tough, and getting a group together that will lighten the load in a small area is even more challenging.
When I got us under the SORBA umbrella, I utilized their reach and started having a Trailbuilder/Trainer come in for Trail Sustainability classes several times a year. It's half a day of classroom sessions and a few hours on the trail utilizing what you just learned in the field. I didn't want to see everyone wasting precious time out on the trails fixing the same problems over and over. I wanted them to learn why they were having issues in those places and find ways to correct them and avoid making the same mistakes when building new trails or reroutes. Since we've had these courses for the last few years, we hardly ever see puddles forming on the trails, and when new sections are built, they are very thoughtful in the process. So we've cut down on the time we have to spend out there maintaining the trails, and we spend it riding them instead.
I'm the only female on the governing board. Most of the guys on the board with me have ridden road bikes (where I started my bike ventures) over the last couple of decades with me, so I have earned their respect, and they appreciate my guidance and organizational skills. I've been very lucky that I haven't had to deal with too many gender issues with any of them. I bike with them as well, and they always have my back.
The gender issues in my experiences usually come from the road bike community and, for some reason, especially in bike shops. I have had some really bad encounters with shop employees over the years, which is quite unfortunate. You take a bike in for service, generally knowing what the issue might be. You share that information, hoping to help narrow down the research for them, only to be ridiculed and scoffed and basically told that "you don't really know what you're talking about," which stung and soured me from ever using that shop again.
I started and managed a fairly decent-sized community road group many years ago that lasted well over a decade, and that is where I saw most of the female bashing. New male riders would always underestimate me. They would question and disregard my judgment for the group's safety. They would sometimes even be rude and hateful to me, and there were a couple of cat-call issues. I never let any of it deter me, though. Thankfully, none of those issues have ever crossed over into the world of biking on dirt, trails, or gravel!
I was asked to join the board of directors for the Firefly Trail (rail trail) about 5 or 6 years ago. I accepted, wondering how I could possibly help but with a passion to see it happen sometime over my lifetime. It didn't take long to see how I could impact this project with my connections in my community. I knew all the key players. Commissioners, Chairman, State Representative, and Mayors of the towns it goes through. I have known them all my entire life.
Then Georgia started a project through the Department of Natural Resources to pool taxes from outdoor gear sold in the state to fund outdoor projects with the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Grant. It's very competitive, and when the grant opened its second year, I pushed our board to go after it for my county's section of trail. After countless pleas and meetings with our commissioners to persuade them to make the match in funding, we submitted. With a bit of help from our State Rep, whom I have known since we were children, we got it!
It was about four years from the first small grant that got a model mile to just last month when the last bit of concrete was poured in Greene County. 6.5 miles of concrete in 4 years is a miracle! Except it wasn't a miracle; it was hard work! Politics, fundraising, hard decisions, land acquisitions, changing people's minds ... a lot of work! People are using it daily! It has drawn people from all the surrounding counties into our tiny little town. It's opened up connections for gravel riders to hit dirt roads without having to get out on busy highways. Walkers, runners, skaters, all these people who have never once exercised in our community are now out there every single day. It's created a sense of community, prompting memorial gardens, trash pickup days, and gatherings on the benches to catch up. We've never had those types of outdoor spaces here,
Being part of something that will be a legacy to my community is overwhelming. Proud and very emotional. I've posted a little about it on my Instagram page (@velochick73). The projects I have been lucky to be a part of are epic; however, I am not. Like I said, I'm just a busybody who can't say no when my community needs help.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Baynes
Lisa’s love for her community and all things bicycle-related led her to her current ventures that include the Board of Directors for The Firefly Trail, a non-profit working to develop a multi-purpose regional trail system, she also co-chairs the Firefly Local Action Committee for Greene County. Lisa is a USA Ambassador for Specialized Bicycles and is part of the governing board for Hart Farm Trails in Union Point and is the trail liaison for SORBA Athens. Lisa’s passion is working towards creating sustainable trails that will help foster economic development in her community. In her spare time, Lisa is an avid cyclist and runner and appreciates all the wonderful outdoor opportunities in our local area.
