NEWS:

On many Saturday evenings, our family gathers for dinner. Nothing fills my heart with greater pride or lifts my spirit higher than seeing my four sons, now men, greeting one another with bear hugs, and sharing soul-deep laughter. They have always had their own semi-clandestine language and, tap-tap toss it back, insider rituals. Their brotherly bond, which in many ways defines our family culture, has been cultivated over 25 years of shared experiences, co-surviving the rough patches and in celebrating one another’s hard-won victories.

It’s probably an occupational consequence that I think of trail experiences as sharing qualities similar to family dinners – but on a societal level. Trails are where we arrive as who we really are. Where pretense and nonsense disintegrate before the mother of them all, Mother Nature. Where we find “our people” and feel at ease among them, as different from us as they may be. Trails are the place where, regardless of generation or native tongue, we understand a common language and embrace certain mannerisms. Where everyone has something to contribute. In short, trails are the place many of us call home. A place we are as one. . . the trail lovers of the world. 

See you out there,

Lora Anthony, Executive Director