Mountain biking celebrates the elite. Trail building celebrates everyone else. You show up early. Haul tools. Shape berms. Drain puddles. And most days, nobody notices. I started Trail Builder Magazine because I wanted to change that.

Earlier in the week, I posted this question on our social media, “For those of you who are volunteers, why do you give up weekends (or weekdays) to work on trails?” The responses were overwhelming as there was an outpouring of support for why we work on trails. I’ll share a few of those responses in a moment. But that question and those responses got me thinking about what it is about trail building that is so captivating. Let’s dive into this …