Book Project January 30, 2015 Hard Work in High Places The story of the people who build the trails up Colorado’s highest peaks There are a small subset of americans who sacrifice every form of comfort and security to leave a legacy in the mountains and live a life of adventure, risk, and beauty. These are the people who build and maintain our wilderness trail systems. Each year for the five or six months of summer, there are perhaps a thousand trail workers employed by federal agencies and their non-profit partners. Trail workers are outdoor professionals, but they are not guides or business people. They are perhaps most similar to the cowboys of the old west. They eschew urban life for wild places, sore muscles, and close friendships. The work that they create is on a grand scale, near impossible for most, and completely anonymous. Many will walk over the work they have made, but few will recognize the intense creativity and effort poured into it. Each structure built, be it a retaining wall or a staircase, bears the signature style of the man or woman who created it, and probably a little blood as well. To be a trail worker is to be in tune with your environment and constantly humbled by rain, snow, sun, and fatigue.