Rosie Koskovich got her start doing trail maintenance with the Ozark Trail Association in Missouri. She was a long time hiker and this was her way to give back to the trails.
In 2013, Rosie and a group of OTA members volunteered with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Konnarock Trail Crew for a week. After that experience, she knew this was something she wanted to do with her daughter, Ronnie.
“It was something I wanted to share with her because I just loved it so much,” she said. “The trail has kind of been our thing. It’s been our time together, it clears our head, and we have wonderful adventures.”
This summer, the mother and daughter were finally able to make it out to the A.T. together.
Konnarock Trail Crew rehab project near Sams Gap, Tennessee.
“She would always come back just ranting and raving about it,” Ronnie said. “For the last two years now, I told her that I would find a way to get out here and I wasn’t able to. So, this year we decided we were just going to make it work one way or another. Having a group of really strong women around me who taught me how to build and maintain trails in Missouri really inspired me to keep learning and see what else there was out there to do.”
After years spent hiking and enjoying the trails, the Koskovichs now find themselves spending more time on maintaining the trails.
“The A.T. is really like a highway,” Rosie said. “It is so well-loved and used. That’s why it is necessary to come in and do these rehab projects so it’s still there for the next generation to know and love.”
At the end of the week together, the mother and daughter returned to Missouri knowing they had put in the work.
“I remember walking away from it, and I kept turning around to look at it,” Ronnie said. “I didn’t want to forget what we had done. I snapped a couple of pictures, but they don’t even do it justice. I think that my memory of actually being out there on the trail, that one on one time with Mom in particular, that’s not something I can get anywhere else.”
