All that you touch - You change
Welcome to this summer’s first installment of Trailside Dispatches. Just as a new chapter begins with a summer of undiscovered fun before us, another one also ends. Last month, PMTB officially completed Red Back South and opened the trail to the public. This is no small feat; building a trail necessitates not only countless hours of manual labor but also time spent navigating governmental bureaucracy. It is important that new trails conform to environmental regulations vital to protecting the ecosystems that we all enjoy and rely on.
The process for building trails in Sterling Forest began twenty years ago in 2006 with scouting the area for the potential creation of a multi-use trail network. In 2018, the Red Back and Hutchinson trails were open, and three years later in 2021, scouting commenced for Red Back South specifically during the construction of the Augusta Mine Trail. After multiple site visits with State Parks and Department of Environmental Conservation officials, the issuing of a permit from the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and a grant awarded by the Hudson River Valley Greenway, construction started on Red Back South on October 30, 2024. All of this hard work culminated in the official ribbon cutting that happened last month on June 12, and PMTB remains indebted to all of the determined, passionate volunteers who made Red Back South happen. Last week, during a hike on the newly-built trail, I marveled at its smooth grade reversals and wide turns. I also found myself captivated by its idyllic setting: rocky hillsides, elegant ravines, and massive boulders left by glacial movements showcase a landscape characteristic of the region. This may or may not be the subject of a later blog post.
In the meantime, I would like to reflect on what it means to be in a time of transition. In her novel Parable of the Sower, acclaimed science-fiction author Octavia Butler writes, “All that you touch / You Change. All that you Change / Changes you. The only lasting truth / Is Change.” For some context, these are tenets of Earthseed, a new religion created by the protagonist of the book amidst her apocalyptic surroundings. I take this quote as a reminder that few things in life are dependable and that the one thing we can always expect to happen is change. As PMTB leaves behind the initial creation of Red Back South and takes on new projects, let us be reminded that this change is as natural as the sloping hills and babbling brooks that we work beside.
