Olivia Sohn: A Day in the Life of the Trail Conference

January 21, 2018
Staff
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference

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Olivia Sohn: A Day in the Life of the Trail Conference

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Trail Conference Role: Crew Leader

Olivia Sohn came to the Trail Conference as an Invasives Strike Force volunteer in 2015. Now her days involve moving rocks you’d imagine are impossible to transport with the help of her trail crew (and some rock bars). For the 2017 season, Olivia served as crew leader for the Trail Conference Conservation CorpsRockalaka and Sterling Forest crews. Her season was split between the Catskills and Sterling Forest State Park.

Olivia, who lives in Ringwood, N.J., loved building trail in the Catskills’ Sloan Gorge Preserve, a former bluestone quarry that has many glacial features and interesting geology, with rocks perfectly shaped for creating stone steps—a big part of her trail-building efforts this year. “We test every step by dancing on it to make sure it’s stable and comfortable,” Olivia says. Seeing a completed staircase on a trail she helped build for future generations of hikers, she adds, is one of the best parts of the job.