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Trail building in Alaska: Summer of 2021

Alaska Public Media | By Eric Bork
Published May 4, 2021 at 9:07 PM AKDT
A tool
A tool at work. Photo from MatSu Trail Parks Foundation.

Trails are one of the primary infrastructures in the outdoors. They lead us to destinations or are and end unto themselves. Trails get us through the bushes and into the high country. They provide opportunities for observing nature, exercise, and relaxation. A good trail is well designed and built to avoid erosion and lasts a long time. Trail building in Alaska has come a long way since people went straight up the fall line. Alaska Trails and other organizations and trail building businesses spend the winter months funding and planning for the summer trail building season. This show talks with the people who will be working on trails around the state, discussing what trail-building projects are happening this summer.

HOST:  Paul Twardock

GUESTS:

  • Steve Cleary: Alaska Trails
  • Kathy Sarns-Irwin: Friends of Kachemak Bay State Parks
  • Christine Byl: Interior Trails
  • Wes Hoskins: Mat-Su Trails and Parks Foundation
  • Nelson Crone: Valley Mountain Biker and Hikers

LINKS:

BROADCAST: Thursday, May 6th, 2021. 10:00 am – 11:00 a.m. AKT

REPEAT BROADCAST:  Thursday, May 6th, 2021. 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. AKT

SUBSCRIBE: Receive  Outdoor Explorer automatically every week via:
Outdoor Explorer
Eric Bork
Eric Bork, or you can just call him “Bork” because everybody else does, is the FM Operations Manager for KSKA-FM. He oversees the day-to-day operations of the FM broadcast. He produces and edits episodes of Outdoor Explorer, the Alaska-focused outdoors program. He also maintains the web posts for that show. You may have heard him filling in for Morning Edition or hosting All Things Considered and can still find him operating the soundboard for any of the live broadcast programs. After escaping the Detroit area when he was 18, Bork made it up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where he earned a degree in Communications/Radio Broadcasting from Northern Michigan University. He spent time managing the college radio station, working for the local NPR affiliate, and then in top 40 radio in Michigan before coming to Alaska to work his first few summers. After then moving to Chicago, it only took five years to convince him to move back to Alaska in 2010. When not involved in great radio programming he’s probably riding a bicycle, thinking about riding bicycles, dreaming about bikes, reading a book, or planning the next place he’ll travel to. Only two continents left to conquer!
See stories by Eric Bork