SWITCHBACK
Should locals keep certain trails a secret from the masses?
ONLINE RESULTS
YES
72%
NO
28%
Local trails are the last refuges for those of us who want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. With weekend warriors on the constant lookout for new adventures, leaking the information would simply ruin my only place of peace and quiet. 

—Norm Sun, Vienna, Va.



Knowing the sweet spots is the advantage of being a local. It’s what you get for giving up the economic and social advantages of large metropolitan areas. Secret places are for locals to give away.

—Bryan James, Hoschton, Ga. 



Keeping trails a secret is definitely a slippery slope. In some areas of the country, trails could use a bit more attention to help promote their upkeep and to stoke the flames of advocacy for areas forgotten about. But in other areas, trail systems suffer from a high volume of visitors and not enough volunteers to maintain their conditions through typical trail workdays. In these highly impacted areas, locals can be starved for a more secluded, well-maintained trail network to keep as their own and to get away from the crowds. If the locals are volunteering their time and efforts to support these trail systems without neglecting the high impact areas that need to be maintained, then it seems reasonable that these trails’ seclusion should be enjoyed by those locals.

—Rich Moore, Waynesboro, Va. 



I am of the very strong held opinion that local trails should indeed be kept a secret, or at the very least not widely promoted amongst the masses. Most of our beautiful local area trails are cared for and maintained using funds from the local government budget, which calculates these recurrent costs by recording past trends in local bicycle and foot traffic on the aforementioned trails. If many people from outside the area begin to use these trails, they will adversely affect them, because they will use them without contributing any taxes to the local government for their maintenance, and will most likely not respect them as much as someone whose community they are a significant part of.

—Kenric Perzanowski, Washington, D.C.
This type of elitism really bugs me. I often find that the people who complain about trails being too crowded are the same people that love to jump on a soapbox and rant about the epidemic of inactivity in America. If you want Americans to get outside and exercise, you have to share some space for them to do it. I say the more the merrier. I’m more than willing to share all of my favorite recreation spots. We should be happy when we see people enjoying the outdoors, not complaining about their presence when they actually get out and explore.

—Ann Silver, Atlanta, Ga. 



While locals would like to keep pristine trails free from the masses, we were all once the “masses” in some way in our lives. Anybody that rides, hikes, trail runs or spends time outdoors always seems to find the great trails. I think the ride, run, or hike is always appreciated much more when you have earned it. So go earn it and really discover the pristine trail you want to find.

—Steve Lancaster, Rural Retreat, Va. 



As a person who often runs trails for many hours alone, and really enjoys the solitude and excitement of finding a great new trail to run, I must say there is part of me that wants to keep my favorite trails top secret. However, and much more importantly, there is a larger part of me that understands that only through awareness and use of these trails can we hope to create a culture of conservation. Therefore, I often introduce runners and walkers visiting Charlottesville from all over the United States to my favorite trails. This not only leads to more people running and walking on these trails, but I’ve found that local officials now seem much more committed to trail development around the area. John Muir once said, “New beauty meets us at every step in all our wanderings.” I receive a great deal of personal joy introducing others to new places to wander. So how could I ever keep them a secret?

—Russell Gill, Charlottesville, Va. 



Trails on public lands are for everyone. I think it’s selfish if people who live in a particular place don’t want to expose out-of-towners to the beautiful spots that they have in their region. If they want trails all to themselves, they should buy some land and build their own on private property. Why should a person be able to keep something that doesn’t belong to him or her in the first place? 

—Jen Andrews, Baltimore, Md. 

