Sightings | Alumni Spotlight

Happy Trails…for Everyone Alums Work with Subaru to Improve Mountain-Biking Opportunities

—by Laura Ertel

For 11 months out of the year, Aaryn Kay and Scott Linnenburger, both 1998 graduates of the Nicholas School’s Master of Environmental Management program, pretty much live out of their car.

Kay and Linnenburger are touring the country in a logo-covered Subaru Outback as one of two Subaru/International Mountain Biking Association Trail Care Crews dedicated to improving mountain-biking opportunities. While their territory is technically the eastern United States and Canada, they have already visited 40 states to teach people how to build and maintain sustainable mountain-biking and multi-use trails.

Each weekend, Kay and Linnenburger—mountain biking enthusiasts themselves—lead programs to teach local cycling and trail advocacy groups proper trail maintenance and construction techniques. They also conduct training sessions for the National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and work closely with the Army Corps of Engineers to provide technical expertise on how to construct and manage their trail systems.

The couple learned about this unusual job opportunity though an online posting while Linnenburger was working in environmental consulting and Kay was grant writing for several North Carolina nonprofits. She also spent several years directing community education programs for the Nicholas School’s Center for Environmental Education.

“It looked like a good opportunity to get out and travel and teach people how to be better stewards of their parks,” he recalls. “We have always believed that the only way to get people to protect more land and preserve more open space is to get them out into those areas to participate in what’s around them. Trails are a great way to get people out and let them see the environment in their backyard: it really makes believers out of people. And when they actually put a tool in the ground and make a part of the trail and leave behind a legacy there, it’s amazing how tied they become to the parks around them.”

During the week, the couple drives from site to site, crisscrossing the country and giving them an opportunity to consider where they might want to live and what they want to do when their two-year commitment with Subaru/IMBA ends.

“We still can’t believe we have this job,” Kay laughs. “Every single weekend, we work with a new group of volunteers who are just so passionate about trails and open space and their particular park, and we get to help empower them to make a difference. In between, we put a lot of miles on the car, but getting to work with people who are making a contribution in their own area really inspires us and keeps us going.”