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It takes a village to build and maintain the Upper Valley's vast network of trails.
Many area residents have chosen to live here because of the plethora of outdoor recreational opportunities available throughout the year. Whether you like to hike, bike, ski, snowshoe, trail run, bird watch, or just wander in the woods, you can usually find an opportunity nearby. While we are lucky to have access to the Appalachian Trail and other longer paths, many smaller trail networks exist in neighborhoods, on private property, or on small publicly owned parcels throughout the region.
Unlike many cities that have extensive trail networks fully integrated into city plans - Billings, Montana; Park City, Utah; Boulder, Colorado; and Anchorage, Alaska, to name a few - expanding and improving the connectivity of the trails and trail networks in our region of small towns is a difficult task. The general nature and history of our area leads to smaller municipalities with much of the land in private ownership. Add to that the lack of large parcels of publicly owned land (state parks, national parks, national forests and the like) and the task becomes even more challenging.
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