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In 1987 Roger Bell was way ahead of the trail building curve with a handful of other trail contractors when he started Bellfree Contractors with two of his brothers and some nephews. That was 10 years after the Western Trail Builders Association was founded in 76, which became the PTBA in 2004. Roger’s brother Harvey

I hate to just be a jumping off point for a re post, but wanted to share: https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/400209/national-parks-trump-government-layoffs-visit-data Volunteer and/or donate if you can, wherever you are. Let’s hope we come out of this better than it was.

What follows is a trailism status update for those interested since I stopped posting on Instagram in January of 2025. I occasionally lurk on Instagram, but have effectively left and plan to remove the app 2/28. I still post some photos on Flickr occasionally. Keep the emails coming. I have a poor track record of

Updated 2025 First, I’ll say I think that e-bikes have a place, and open up “biking” (e-motor biking) for a number of people that could not do it or enjoy it as much (or at all) on an bicycle or non-motorized adaptive bike. And of course to some their ebike is more fun than their

I’m not sure how many people in the trail industry or volunteer front visit Trailism, nor how many know about the Trail Eaffect podcast, but if it’s new to you I suggest you give it a listen. It’s been a neat and fun learning resource that has been listed on the resource materials page for

The recommended Depth of Discharge (DoD) of lithium batteries is 80%, meaning the State of Charge (SoC) should not drop below 20%… if you want to maximize battery life try to start recharging BEFORE or AT 20%, not less than 20%. That’s all. more: https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries

Black Canyon Trail Trip Planning The Agua Fria river can be problematic. It is crossed just before the Black Canyon City trailhead, and twice after leaving BC City. My main concern in fall, winter, and spring…not having to pack a life jacket or backtrack a long distance to get around the river. USGS Agua Fria

Autonomy, no me? Autonomous cars seem like a difficult technical problem to solve, and scare me more than autonomous excavators. Regardless, I’m excited to be alive to witness both. I’m looking forward to see what unfolds. This excavator builds walls algorithmically: https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-autonomous-excavator-meter-high-dry-stone-wall.html

Number Place or Sudoku has nothing to do with trails, but I don’t have another website to post this on and I assume someone might find this useful, so… Sudoku became more broadly popular in the US and made its way into being printed in newspapers next to crossword puzzles around 2005. That’s how I

I have laid out and/or built and experienced my share of circular turns, but also spiral and logarithmic. Recently I built a spiral 180 based on the Golden Ratio or Fibonacci sequence. More on turns here. First, I’ll say that I am a skeptic, but thought it would be fun to experience the Golden Ratio