Emerging Trail Leader Scholarship Recipient

Chris Rivera

Atascadero California, United States

I would like to start by explaining a little about why I am so interested in trail work. I was one of those normal humans growing up in a flat city with nothing going on. So, when I turned eighteen years old I joined the California Conservation Corps and started working for them. On my first day they sent my crew on a spike assignment on mount San Jacinto which consisted of doing trail work for eight days straight with a couple days off then you go back for another eight days. To sum it up, this was my first experience on a mountain and basically out of a city as well. When I started hiking and seeing all of this kind of land for the first time ever, I just simply couldn't get over that these kind of places existed and I wanted everyone to experience this as I did. Hello, my name is Christopher Rivera and I'm a trail worker.

Secondly, I am very interested in this opportunity due to the simple fact that I'm going to be in a room full of humans that enjoy trail work and people that genuinely want to keep that king of lifestyle alive. It's very exciting to think about actually talking to people about trail work that actually knows what it means to work for the mountains and what it takes to do such a job. I've been trying for years to explain to my friends and family what I do for work when I'm gone and they all still just call me a lumberjack, so that is one thing I would like to experience from this symposium is good proper conversations about trail work.

Lastly, to whom it may concern I would like you to note that trail work not only made my lif, enjoyable but saved it as well. Before I got in this beautiful way of life I was born and raised in a very rough city where not too many positive things come out of. So that brings me into my next reason why I need to go to this symposium, I want to meet and greet with a wide range of trail organizations and get as many contacts as I can for trail work so that I ensure that I will be doing this type of work for the rest of my time.