Guidebook Mapping:
An Intern Effort

When taking on a project that is literally the size of New England, sometimes you have to reach out beyond your doors for assistance. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's (RTC) Northeast Regional Office Director Tom Sexton knew his staff of four, even with the help of seven volunteers from the national office, wouldn't have the resources to research, ride and produce RTC's newest New England guidebook—the most robust yet with 60 trails from six states. So Sexton turned to Craigslist as well as his alma mater, the University of Massachusetts (known for its regional planning department), in search of willing and enthusiastic interns.

A year later, with Rail Trails: New England released in June by Wilderness Press, it's appropriate to take stock of the effort and its pay-off. For RTC staff, personally biking or hiking these New England rail-trails was an ideal way to gauge the progress of trail building in the six states of the northeast region, and to gather the needed GIS mapping data. But was it also, as Sexton hoped, a win-win situation for the interns?

"It was a great experience," says Stella Lensing, one of five guidebook interns. "I got to see most of Massachusetts, and it was nice to know I was working for this cause—getting the word out about rail-trails and helping to connect people with nature." The project fit well with Lensing's studies. As part of her master's degree program in landscape architecture and regional planning at U Mass, Lensing had been updating the 1999 Greenway Vision Plan for New England. Mapping the trails, she says, "really helped me 'connect the dots' in my master's project."

Kevin Hartzell, now a second-year graduate student in landscape architecture at U Mass, is interested in regionalism and planning. "The trail-mapping tied in," he says, "because I'm interested in re-use of structures and railroad corridors to create trails and get people in touch with nature." Shannon Simms, having just graduated from college, was leaning toward studying landscape architecture as well. She wanted some time to think about it, and, being an avid cyclist, "riding my bike over the summer and learning to use the GPS device appealed to me." 

GPS receiver on board, Lensing and other interns got plenty of trail experience. Divided into teams of two or three, guidebook researchers cycled or hiked every mile of the 60 rail-trails mapped in the guidebook. Each team was responsible for collecting GIS data on trail features such as bridges, trailheads, restrooms and drinking fountains, as well as detailing the trail's railroading and development history, amenities, vistas and unique attributes.

Danny Cohen, a teacher whose summers off gave him the freedom to volunteer as a guidebook intern, liked the idea of being outdoors and learning to use the technology. But while work was appealing, it wasn't always easy. Cohen and fellow intern Annalise Erkkinen, a GIS analyst for a nonprofit organization handling urban information such as housing and transportation, recall a two-day hike in the White Mountains when thunder and lightning delayed their start until late afternoon. Even then, they walked and camped in pouring rain. Nor could they start a fire to make dinner. "I was so hungry!" Cohen laments. After a meager fire the next day, topped off with lukewarm soup, hard noodles and more rainy hiking, Erkkinen says, "We had no food left—just a Snickers bar between us."

But despite these less-than-ideal, and even downright disheartening treks, Erkkinen found the upside of these adventures in researching the history of the trails in the White Mountains. She liked "imagining the past of those logging railroads," she says, "meeting with people in the towns who had stories to tell, and going to some railroad museums."

Braving the elements was something all guidebook teams had to take in stride. On one trip in central Massachusetts, Kevin Hartzell says, "We'd had three days of rain. … We were covered head-to-toe in mud, and we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes." And though in the rainy, muddy moment he was debating the merits of why he volunteered for the project, hindsight provided the answer. "I'm not from Massachusetts, and later I realized it was a chance to explore places in this state I never would have gone to [otherwise]."

Cohen's take on the challenging days is how great it feels to look back, knowing you prevailed. For him, the big reward was getting to spend a lot of time in the woods. "Plus," he says, "RTC paid for half of the beautiful new mountain bike I bought for the project."

Of all the interns, Shannon Simms delved deepest into the experience. A Shippensburg, Pa., resident, Simms was hired for additional work at the Northeast Regional Office in Camp Hill, Pa., to research trail policy—especially how trails are funded—in each of the six New England states. "It was good to get out and do the mapping; to see the policy at work," Simms says. "And I learned what it takes to throw a map together, and how it helps an organization to see the bigger picture."

Simms' experience gave her new insights into landscape architecture, and she starts a three-year masters program this fall at Harvard. "I wasn't sure it was right for me," she says. "My internship helped me see that it is."