Women Trail Builders Interview Series: Heather de Choudens
We’re excited to announce the beginning of a new interview series featuring women trail builders. One of the movements we’ve been paying attention to here at Trail Builder Mag is the rise of women trail builders and women-only trail building events. There’s a growing movement, and it is exciting to see!
For our first article, we’re interviewing Heather de Choudens who is the Education Project Manager for Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance in Washington. Without any delay, let’s jump into this!
Emily: How did you first start getting into trail building?
Heather: I had been doing MsFits social media, events, and racing for a couple years, then began MTB instructing. I then found myself analyzing how trails are built. Realizing how some erosion can be prevented by proper riding skills. But also how a well-built trail can be confidence-inspiring.
Evergreen had an event; The Whole Shebang. 30 women in the bike industry came together to do maintenance, ride, and socialize. A spark was ignited. I spent many weekends at volunteer digs. I then accepted a position as the event coordinator for Evergreen West Sound, working closely with the builders to organize work parties to complete the brand-new ride park. Rally the people. Facilitate the stoke.
I saw an opportunity; Why can’t I recreate the SheBangs event? It can’t be that hard (it’s actually really hard). But instead of maintenance, Port Gamble is a chance to work on brand NEW trails. This gives women and me the ability to learn from the beginning.
Trail building from the debris down, learn leadership skills, and build confidence. I reached out to the DonutSquad and Alex Showerman to collab. They were more than stoked, and it was a huge success. 35ish women + femme identifying showed up! Successful enough that they gave us the entire trail, rights to the trail name, the deadline for completion, and basically said, “do what you want.” 100% YES. A very fortunate sequence of events. So that’s when I really began getting dirty.
Emily: What is it like being a women trail builder in an industry dominated by men?
Heather: I quickly noticed that there were no female paid trail builders in WA (until recently, Alex!) and a lack of female volunteer leads at the events I had been attending. Fortunately, my experience with the pro builders has been incredible. Shout out to Matt and Kevin with Evergreen West! They have fully supported women taking on leadership and want to see that progression within the industry. They may have been overly trusting with me taking on this project (haha)! The negative experiences I've had over the years were actually the OG volunteers! While they tended to the rad stuff, the women were literally given rakes/brooms and told to clear drains. I would often feel more in the way than purposeful. Feeling like someone was forced to bring their annoying kid sister along. But not anymore! The dynamic is changing, and it is RAD.
Emily: What unique perspective do you bring to trail building?
Heather: I love a trail that is built around progression. Side hits galore! This was the inspo for Dirt & Debauchery. I wanted a trail where I could potentially teach on-trail skills, take skill park knowledge, and apply it to an on-trail environment. Set goals and knock out one feature at a time. Visualizing a trail from a variety of skill-sets. A trail that a group of friends could ride together in various ways. This is where the perspective of ALL women comes into play. D&D has been a playground for probably 80+ women at this point. Every work party has been focused on a section of trail, created and built by myself and the group that day. Giving them a voice. Visualizing what they would want to ride. Experiencing building beyond maintenance, learning advanced skills, and the power behind being confident in their decision. I’ve been told numerous times in this process; there are no mistakes; art is perfectly imperfect.
Emily: What are the biggest obstacles you face being a woman trail builder?
Heather: I think there is a level of pressure we put on ourselves, like we can’t fail. We can’t show weakness. We can’t complain about the cold or wet weather. I am a very petite female. I always feel like I’m not strong enough, but feeling like I have to work extra hard to prove myself. Learning all the tools and what they do. Just give me the tool with the claws on the end, and I will figure it out. But this is my brain. And I know I’m not the only one that feels this intimidation. I also fear opening up a trail that totally sucks. But how else will we learn? So here we are, making mistakes, taking it all in, and doing the best we can. At the end of the day, we grew our community stronger.
Emily: How can we encourage and empower more women trail builders?
Heather: More women + femme-identifying events and more opportunities like Dirt & Debauchery. Real life Trail Building 101. Stepping out of basic maintenance. Getting creative, deciding together where the trail should be flagged, duffed, working on small pieces of trail at a time, riding the trail. Collectively deciding what works and what doesn't. Our goal is to inspire confidence and a sense of leadership to go back home and not be intimidated to lead their own work parties and advocacy. I think we've achieved that. We've been contacted by women's groups all over seeking advice on how to approach their local trail organizations. And that's exactly what we wanted!
Emily: What is your favorite trail that you have ever worked on?
Heather: 1,000% Dirt & Debauchery!!!!! Located in the new ride park in Port Gamble, WA.
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That concludes our interview. Want to be interviewed for this series or want to recommend someone? Click the button below and drop me an email.
Interview by: Emily Williams Photos: Sarah Vaughan and Toby Bromwhich
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Williams
Emily Williams started riding mountain bikes about a decade ago in Central Oregon. The time spent with friends out in the woods was what made her fall in love with mountain biking. Emily’s background is in youth development and sports management. Currently, she is the Director of Operations for a local nonprofit soccer club.
