In late June, TAMBA hosted its first ever Women’s Trails College event at Heavenly’s Boulder Lodge. The focus of the event was to provide an introduction to trail building in an open, inclusive, and welcoming environment for those who love trails and identify as F(Femme), T(transgender), W(woman), or N-B(Non-Binary).
We were delighted to be joined by a group of 20 avid trail users from Tahoe, Reno, and even as far as Sacramento. Kristine Koran, TAMBA’s Trails Director, kicked off the day with a presentation on trail building techniques and theory, sharing her expert insights on how to build sustainable trails. A tool talk followed, complete with pulaskis, mcleods, and a teeny tiny baby shackle (nawwww), before the group set off on a 3-mile hike to discuss trail features, design, and layout in practice.
Our friends at SheJumps completed the day with a talk about their organization’s mission to increase the participation of women and girls in outdoor activities followed by a helmet tutu workshop. It’s fair to say that PPE never looked so good.
TAMBA is committed to providing equitable access to trail building for all our volunteers and supporters, and we were delighted to see so much energy and enthusiasm for trails at the Women’s Trails College event. We look forward to continuing this momentum on August 18 with a women’s trail work day on Kingsbury Stinger trail. You can sign up to join us here.
We’d like to extend our huge thanks to the community partners who made the Women’s Trails College possible, including Heavenly Resort, SheJumps, Shoreline Tahoe, and Wondery Outdoors for their donations. The future is bright for women in trail building, and we truly value the awesome partners who work with us to make change happen.
