Hilary Warner has been building nature trails since she was a child.
The East Montpelier, Vt., native grew up on more than 100 acres of land, where the trails she groomed would be used for fun and to reach her elementary school located across the woods. She took pride in her work, to the point where she would become frustrated when someone would walk their dog through and ruin the pristine snow.
Now, Warner, who lives in Bow, watches over a new set of trails. As the Bow Open Spaces trail director, she’s been integral in making the network of recreational trails in Knox and school forests accessible to the public. She helped the organization secure a $10,000 grant from the state’s Department of Resources and Economic Development last summer, which paid for everything from a revamped parking lot at the Robinson Road trail head to kiosks and sign posts throughout the trails.
Some would argue the trails are better left for those in the know: Warner said when she first moved to Bow in 1996, the trails were a secret known to a select few.
“I had heard of all these trails in town, but I couldn’t find them. I thought that if I couldn’t find them, then no one else probably could either,” Warner said. “It was like a private club, and I didn’t think that was very fair.”
While Warner said there are differing philosophies on how land should be used, she believes in sharing and collaboration; indeed, that is what has made the Bow Open Spaces project so successful. She said Bow’s Heritage Commission helped name the trails after historic figures, and the town donated labor to redo the Robinson Road parking lot.
And those who enjoy the trails are generally the ones who maintain it, Warner said.
“The trails are relatively self-maintaining,” she said. “It’s something we rarely have to take care of – people are good about picking up sticks, and if there is something that has to be taken care of, there’s a few people who carry small handsaws that can take care of a decent-sized tree that’s fallen across the path. They’re like trail fairies.”
Warner isn’t shy about her desire to help people enjoy Knox Forest: She greets everyone she meets on the trail and was more than happy to provide Jason Adams of Hooksett and his family with a trail map when they mentioned it was their first time exploring the woods from the Robinson Road trail head.
Warner would like to see more people connected to the land and each other. She’s succeeded in one aspect, saying several Bow residents have reached out to her about how the trails are more accessible now that they’re properly marked. But she’d like to take the expansion a little further, maybe someday joining Bow’s trails to Concord’s, noting that “trails don’t stop at borders.”
It’s all about wanting people to be outside, Warner said. She has a background in nutrition, exercise and public health, and works as a dietician in Concord, and loves to be outdoors herself.
“The idea of getting people out and moving and being outside having fun is rewarding to me,” she said. “Being out in nature and seeing people enjoy it is moving and inspiring. Those people we saw in the parking lot, having fun and being happy and grateful – that’s what it’s about.”
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)