Steve Elkinton writes

TRAILS for 20 YEARS

Last fall I commemorated 20 years working on the National Trails System within the context of the National Park Service where I have worked since 1978. In those 20 years the system has grown from 16 long-distance national scenic and historic trails (picture the Appalachian Trail) to 30 -- and my agency's budget for them has grown from $1.1 million to $14.5 million a year. I had no idea when I got into this work what I would learn, such as ways to successfully involve American Indian communities, or run a grants program, or the facts about the Puebloan Revolt of 1680 in the Southwest, or how to hike at high altitudes, or how to organize a fund-raising campaign. It has been a fascinating and fun career, and I have been blessed with working closely with a cohort of deeply committed citizens and government colleagues from whom I have learned so much.

The photo shows me arriving in April, 2009, on Hawaii's Big Island where there is an historic trail -- the Ala Kahakai -- which we explored for a week. (Curiously, exactly 40 years before, I graduated from Kalamazoo College wearing an Hawaiian lei.) Such trips are one of the privileges of this work. One treasured colleague who came into the Park Service for a while but who has moved back to Pennsylvania is Westonian Brenda Barrett (I believe class of 1968) who is an expert in the sister program of heritage areas and corridors.

My two daughters are now both college age. The younger is a freshman at the University of Vermont. Her real love is the sport of ultimate frisbee. (How different would some of us be today if such a sport had existed 45 years ago?) My older daughter (approaching 22!) went to Earlham College for two years, then transferred to the University of British Columbia only to decide after one semester that she preferred to be cooking. So she is enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute (also in Vermont) and is spending this winter and spring here in the DC area at a restaurant internship.

Meanwhile, by mutual and amicable consent, my wife of 29 years and I have decided it's time to separate and move apart. It's like gingerly stepping into cold water an inch at a time. I prefer to plunge in. But in this case, it seems wiser to de-build our household slowly and deliberately. I have the support of many loving friends and family, so this transition will work out -- plus I may get a chance to re-invent myself a little to be more energy efficient and wiser about relationships. In some ways, I feel 18 again.

Life is full of surprises. I am blessed to still be healthy and fit with an address book full of friends and family for whom I care deeply. In a few years I plan to retire and help out in some volunteer way make the world a better place for our children and grandchildren. There is so much more to share: Bible studies, Quaker committees, aging parent stories, my dear poodle named Taj, adopting children, writing books, global climate change, the nature of the Divine. Hopefully I'll see many of you soon and be able to share in some of these stories with each of you. Cheers!

Steve Elkinton <sdsvelkgmail.com>