Since this is your platform, I love the opportunity to help you tell your stories. You’re all up to fantastic work all over the world. It’s not only a lot of fun to feature and showcase you, but it continues to help foster community as you connect.

I’ve been sitting on this interview since last May. We had such a tremendous outpouring of responses about this interview series. There’s enough content to do one of these at least once a week. However, I decided to spread it out as we grow other online content. The following interview features Mark McClure of Trail Tools. Enjoy!

Tell me if this sounds familiar; your local trails have seen a huge increase in traffic since COVID and some associations have been able to secure more funding for trail projects. Sounds like some new trails are coming!

Maybe, maybe not. And not building new trails is, believe it or not, the best way to move forward to ensure the existing trails get some well-deserved love for a few reasons:

Data is important. Every day, we make data-driven decisions. We also use it more than we realize in trail building. Collecting and analyzing data has been critically important here at Trail Builder Magazine. I believe that is one characteristic that separates us from other mountain biking magazines. Yes, we love and want to share stories about bikes and trails. At the same time, trail building is a maturing industry. It’s time for more data collection. This time, it’s about perceptions and attitudes about being a woman in trail building.

In a world where technology often pulls us away from nature, there are individuals who are dedicated to reconnecting us with the great outdoors. One such remarkable individual is Tracy Paradise, the CEO of the One Track Mind Foundation (OTM). With an unwavering commitment to expanding trail access, Tracy Paradise has been spearheading a movement that not only redefines outdoor experiences but also empowers communities and youth while fostering a sense of unity among mountain bikers.

In Spain, trail building is just starting to grow and is still far from getting the recognition it has in other countries. There are some successful stories and interesting things happening. But what about industry involvement? If you search the news, you would say there is barely any investment or involvement with trail builders. Weird, you would say that those selling bikes and components would like to have more trails, so more people bought more bikes.

But fear not; there are indeed brands involved with trail-building initiatives.

I’m excited to release another interview in our Professional Builder Profile Interview series. I’ve heard from many of you who are enjoying this series. Sometimes, it is easy for all of us to have tunnel vision as we’re focused on our projects and in our corner of the world. This interview series is fun because you can see and hear from professional trail builders from around the world who are making it happen and building their businesses and careers in trail building. Our next interview features Zech McCarthy of Far North Trail Co, located on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Without any delay, let’s jump into this!

In the shadows of a thick summer canopy, Dave Stackhouse wraps webbing around a shopping cart-sized boulder on the slopes of Round Top. The crew is clearing vegetation beside the large rock in order to set up a corridor to connect a 3-ton winch to a large tree that will be used to leverage and roll the feature. Excitement is buzzing with the group from CAMBC (Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club) as they prepare for the final phase of the newest trail at Heyward Community Forest.

“It’s Big Wednesday, and we are here to roll BIG rocks,” Dave announces.

2023 was a breakout year for our trail-building community. We published our first two print magazines and continued to grow our online content. The Winter 2024 issue is already well on its way to being completed. There’s a lot to celebrate. Here’s what you can expect in 2024 …

“How do you go about flagging a trail?” we were asked over delicious PRBs at Kulshan.

“You figure out where you want the trail to start and where you want it to end, and then you must figure out how to connect the dots in between. So, you hike a line, you hike it again, you drop some flags, you move some flags, you have discussions to voice different points of view, you talk about purpose, you visualize, you ride the line in your mind’s eye, you…” Those are all the concrete ways you flag a trail. But what about the unspoken, unwritten, instinctual, innate, intangible, unexplainable sense that is the true essence of the trail?

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.