♪♪ -Welcome to Windows to the Wild, I'm Willem Lange.

New England has a lot to offer to anyone who wants to get outside.

Today we share stories about what it means to embrace that sense of belonging in the great outdoors.

First, we take you to New Hampshire's Presidential Range.

That's where members of the Randolph Mountain Club have kept people moving on the trail safely since the early 1900s.

♪♪ On the slopes of New Hampshire's northern Presidential Range, the whisper of spruce and fir rustling in the wind creates an atmosphere unlike any you can experience, closer to sea level.

♪♪ For the past few years, it's been the job of a young man Declan Kiley, to maintain its accessibility to hikers from all over.

-This is my commute.

[Declan chuckles] I've been hiking up on this path to the project sites for Trail Crew all summer so, this is, feeling very familiar.

Just like I'm going, going back to work.

[Declan chuckles] Yeah, I'm Declan Kiley, I've been a caretaker for the Randolph Mountain Club for three seasons of caretaking, and I've been on the Trail Crew this summer so, Lowe’s Path, this has been my commute to work to the project site this summer.

Rarely taken this way to the camps, but it'll be great to pass my work this summer and head back to where I feel at home.

-For Declan, that home is 4372ft up at Gray Knob Cabin, one of the Randolph Mountain Club’s four refuges, below the summit of Mount Adams.

-I'm going to do something really bad, a cardinal sin.

[Declan chuckles] [spaghetti snaps] I hiked as a Boy Scout in Connecticut, hiking around ten mile hikes, state parks, and almost on a whim you know, I was reading a lot about the White Mountains when I was going to school in Manchester and hiked Mount Moosilauke and just the landscape, the feel of being up in the alpine zone of Moosilauke really grabbed hold of me.

I knew that Gray Knob was open in the winter, and that was always really cool to me.

But my first time hiking up to the camps, I was volunteering to help out with, the annual airlift of supplies to the camps, and I was offered a spring caretaking job.

Since then, I've been a caretaker for three seasons and have another winter lined up.

[match strikes] [gas hisses] This is where the, the most of the caretaking takes place from, it's in the kitchen.

Got my favorite spoon too.

It's like the best drink spoon ever.

[Declan chuckles] ♪♪ I do pretty well with the solitude and alone time because during the winter, you know, it's been six days in a row, seeing nobody, many, many, many of the times Id hike up on Monday and not see anybody until Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

-That solitude has characterized the RMC caretaker experience since itinerant volunteers began helping out around the club's sites in the 1920s.

The club was created by Randolphians in 1910 to restore paths destroyed by logging and forest fires, but soon opened the initially private Gray Knob Cabin and Crag Camp to the public alongside the more primitive log cabin and Perch shelters.

-That is a-- the important aspect of caretaking is staying busy, you know, keeping yourself busy, small tasks around the cabin, making sure you stay in good routine of hiking rounds daily.

I always went to the Perch and Crag Camp, each night and, yeah, because of that, I don't think I ever felt any any loneliness or anything.

Last fall, I was coming back to the (quay?)

from the Perch on evening rounds and I-- same thing it-- that sounds like a robin.

Sometimes you feel, ♪♪ maybe your mental state is changing a little bit.

I never felt like I was going nuts up on the mountain or anything, but.

And, a big group of, like, a dozen robins just took off and faded off into the horizon on their fall migration.

Really surreal.

I feel the same about hiking, where I really enjoy hiking alone, and then it really makes you appreciate it when you have good company on a hike.

-It also makes you appreciate the little things-- -It’s like the pieces are moving.

They were pretty close a little while back, but that's our ♪♪ distinctive sign, has all the major points on Lowe’s Path.

Gray Knob, Adams, Lowe's Store.

And this is, the really big landmark is whale Rock.

♪♪ I really wanted to take the crew picture with all of us on the top actually.

[Declan chuckles] Nobody ever, anybody was ever up for it when we were hiking down.

I think it is very important and, really inspiring the, amount of, the number of people who care about these trails and volunteer their time and effort.

The RMC has a very good spirit of volunteerism.

[indistinct background chatter] The board is all volunteer.

The caretakers and the Trail Crew are the only employees of the RMC, and, having an organization to manage the areas, you know, with a permit through the Forest Service, I think it's very important to steward these areas.

That see use.

Yeah.

Two years of work on Lowe's.

I think you could work on Lowe's pretty much indefinitely.

This one was a little small, but we were having to do our work in, you know, less than one day kind of trying to improve this mud pit quickly, you know, make some crushed rock, stabilize these rocks.

This took us, I believe, nine weeks of work, the 40 hour work week.

So this is rock work that will last for a generation at least.

But yeah, you do have to love it.

I think, outdoor jobs are very, very difficult to do if you aren't passionate about them.

And that's incredible to think about, you know, to think about the impact that my work this summer has had on Lowe's path.

To steward and maintain the trails and camps for visitors and to maintain them for the future.

That's your mission statement.

That's, I'm on the spot mission statement.

♪♪ What's been thought provoking to me as a caretaker.

Is that balance the the contrast of the isolation, solitude, alone time and that sense of community.

Whenever it comes together.

You could pack up RMC Trail.

I don't trail run up this!

I just, I just hike and try to, like, keep going.

Yeah.

For sure.

It's definitely, Grey Knob is like the cozy cabin.

It's a communal space, and it's a resource for the hiking public.

And the.

The hikers come together a growing up.

And for the caretaker, that means getting to meet great folks who come through, you know, from all sorts of different backgrounds.

Yeah.

People from all over come and stay here, and you get to form those bonds, you know, make friendships, meet new people.

♪♪ Yeah.

The alpine zone is something indescribable.

You know, the feeling of being out in the elements in the alpine zone, the stunted growth.

It really captures you.

Looking down at Grey Knob cabin, suveying the caretaker kingdom.

See the cabin and Randolph Valley below It's funny.

You feel like you're spying a little bit from up here.

The view is so unique b ecause you really are facing out from the mountain Jefferson and Castle Ridge, but you're really just looking into the valley really far north and west.

It's a scenic spot.

That's something that is really special about caretaking At Grey Knob is being right below the alpine zone.

I can, you know, go out my front door and in a couple minutes be up among the alpine plants.

I already was conscious of that, of trying to walk on rocks.

That's what I always say, especially in the alpine zone, is stick to the rocks and you won't be contributing to erosion.

♪♪ Usually people just are very thankful, you know, getting battered around by the wind, in the cold.

We are right below treeline on Lowe's path.

So a lot of times people are coming over, coming down from Mount Adams and the northern Presidentials, you know, day hiking through come here for the shelter.

But for the most part, people coming to spend the night sunset up on the mountain.

It's always important to get out and make sure you catch it.

Last rays of the sun.

For heading in and making a big dinner.

One of the really interesting aspects of caretaking, one of the things that is always so interesting to me is the legacy of the caretakers who came before me, who have stewarded the camps, who have had a deep connection to this place.

I always feel it Sometimes I'm really struck by that sense of history, you know, the legacy and traditions of the RMC.

And I'm following in the footsteps of many, many great caretakers over the decades.

I do feel like that gives a lot of weight to to caretaking, you know, the the legacy of caretakers past and the number of people who have contributed to the history of the RMC.

That is something I feel strongly that it's a privilege to just play a small part in this area of the Randolph Mountain Club.

Mirna Valerio is an outdoor athlete who travels around the world and competes as a trail runner.

Now for Mirna it's not necessarily about winning, but about inspiring other people to get out and enjoy nature and the experiences it offers.

♪♪ Everything that I do comes down to this, comes out to me being out in nature and being able to be like my most, my most human self.

Just last week, I was out on the bike trail on Lake Champlain and this woman and her daughter recognized me and asked, what are you, the Mirnavator?

Yeah, you know, you really can't see me blushing, but I was blushing.

and and the mom said, well, we thought that was you.

I just wanted to say.

I wanted to say thank you for for giving me the courage to get out and ski again.

Now, this woman, her daughter was a ski patroller and hadn't skied in a long time until she saw my videos of me learning how to ski, and so she felt encouraged to get at it again.

And so, like my job is done when someone is motivated or inspired by seeing me out there, by seeing me on a trail, by seeing me on the slopes, by seeing me on a bike, I have done my job.

♪♪ At a very young age, Mirna walked outdoors into a place you might not think of as being outdoors.

I grew up in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, not Brooklyn, Ohio.

And, you know, even though Brooklyn is a very urban place, we were outdoors kids.

We spent a lot of time just kind of roaming the streets, going from park to park, being kids and having we had a really great childhood, in Brooklyn.

And so I've always been sort of an outdoors person, an outdoors kind of person.

Mirna is known as the Mirnavator but she didn't realize her potential as an inspirational force for others until she ran into a hurdle of her own.

My trajectory started in 2008, when I had a health scare and, you know, and this health scare prompted me to start taking care of myself again.

So I got back on the treadmill, started running outside again.

And then people saw me.

My students saw me.

I was working at boarding school at this point.

My students saw me going out for a run.

My colleagues saw me running, and then they would ask me, hey, Miss Valerio, can we go?

Can I run with you?

And it just started very organically.

And that's how this sort of community started growing.

They asked me, at school to become a coach.

Hey, why don't you take some girls with you on that run?

And that's how I started coaching.

I didn't know what I was doing, but I had a bunch of girls.

It was an all girls school, and we would go running after school every day, and it became a lifestyle for them.

They learned how to run.

They learned how to love their bodies even though they had been kicked off of other sports teams, even though they always felt that they were clumsy.

And we had a great time.

Made me want to coach more.

It made me want to, see that happen for other people When not in person, Mirna connects with her community online.

As I got into longer and longer distances, I started writing a blog called Fat Girl Running and and that I just shared stories about, you know, what it was like to run a long distance in a plus sized body.

Being a black woman and a plus size body.

And so, you know, I didn't expect anything of it.

I wasn't writing for any audience beyond my family and my small community of friends, but other people read it apparently.

Apparently they did.

Fat girl running continues to grab the attention of national and global media outlets.

One of the goals of the blog, Mirna says, is to challenge people to think about the word, fat.

The word fat is not a word that a lot of people like to use.

Unless they're using it in a negative way.

You know, they might be name calling somebody or they might be feeling bad about their body, so they'll refer to them as fat.

But fat is is the thing fat is, is a condition of, a body, like, it's it's a descriptor.

It's also a noun.

I'm fat.

And I want to take away the stigma of the word fat.

Some people are fat, some people are not.

Some people are thin.

And also, I wanted to give people an opportunity to think about the word fat, and how they use it in their own daily lives.

And maybe change the usage to move it from being a negative thing, to move it from being a stigmatized thing to something that's just a neutral descriptor.

It all goes back to the idea of breaking down stereotypes and building a place in nature where we all belong.

The outdoors is for everyone.

It is for every race.

It is for every gender, every age, every ability.

You know, it's it's really tough when you feel like you don't belong, like it's and it's and it's also really tough when because of this issue of belonging, and the perceptions that other people might have of you that you don't even want to try, you don't have it in you to try.

It's it's really tough to get somebody who's never been out on a trail.

Because that's not what we do, or I'm this age.

I'm not supposed to be doing that.

Right.

It's very tough to get out of that mindset.

So I would sign up for something.

I would sign up for, if your local churches is sponsoring a hike or something, or if, like, even growing up, our, neighborhood associations would, offer us bus trips to the to Bear Mountain from Brooklyn to Bear Mountain.

And people would go and they would take all their picnic stuff and they would have a picnic out on Bear Mountain.

Like, those things actually help people to get outside and doing it in a way that that doesn't stigmatize them for never having been out on the trail and and being really kind, and just bringing people with you because you know, that nature has so many benefits and you want them to have some of that too.

So when people see me out on the trail, they know that they belong on the trail, too.

I am middle aged.

I am African American, I'm plus size.

I am from an urban background, and I belong on the trail as much as anybody else does.

And I want everybody to know that.

Manchester, New Hampshire's is largest city just outside the hustle of its downtown is a place that the Nature Conservancy helped create.

The All Persons trail is for anyone, no matter of their age or ability, can experience nature.

The Nature Conservancy owns and manages the Manchester Cedar Swamp Preserve.

It's a 640 acre urban forest that sits right on the edge of the city.

How in the world in the middle of this, you know, maze of traffic and everything.

Did you end up with 640 acres of unspoiled wilderness right here?

How did you do that?

So, So, yeah.

So we're here at the Manchester Cedar Swamp Preserve, which has long been recognized as an ecological gem in not only in New Hampshire but New England.

And so, the land was owned by the city.

So basically EPA and the city of Manchester chose the Nature Conservancy because of our mission and the way that we do work preserving biodiversity, Acquiring the property was one thing.

Getting people from the city to the preserve was another challenge.

The Nature Conservancy found the solution and the partner, the Manchester Transit Authority, they work together to create a new bus stop right at the trailhead.

The all persons trail is pretty much as the name implies, it's there for all people to use barrier free.

You'll see the forest and meet some of the people who escape into it.

About a 640 acre playpen here, really I met Bill about six years ago while filming a story on the Welsh Dickie Loop Trail.

He suggested we meet at the preserve today and hike on the All Persons trail.

What's spectacular about it?

Well, we got the, the Atlantic white Cedars.

They're spectacular.

Yeah, there they are.

We got giant rhododendrons.

Really?

And we have a hosting one of the oldest trees in New Hampshire, the the black gum tree.

And hopefully we get a chance to hug that before we come back.

I hope so, yeah.

It was growing when Queen Elizabeth the First was reigning back in the 1540s.

So that's amazing.

It's older than us!

There are not too many trees in the woods that are, when you think about it, none of these, for example.

Yeah.

Bill lives just up the street at River woods, a senior living community.

He's here almost every day and sometimes brings a friend with him.

Bill won't mind if I tell you that he's in his 80s.

Age hasn't put a dent in his desire to be outdoors.

Bill told us about an ancient black gum tree.

He often stops, admires it, and shows his appreciation.

I owe it reverence anyway, at least once a year.

♪♪ Everybody should be able to enjoy this peace and tranquility at any time in their life.

Kim is a hiker who's blind.

She grew up playing in the outdoors and wanted to stay that way.

She worked with the Nature Conservancy to make sure people with disabilities feel a sense of belonging here.

I am a resident of Manchester, so it was exciting to know that, the city and the Nature Conservancy was taking, such a nice, look at something being so inclusive and, and it kind of rejuvenated my feeling of, you know, being a part of nature, but also, you know, getting out there and being more active.

So it's not a, just for a, a subset of the society that should enjoy this.

Everybody should.

Because, you know, our mental health is better for it.

My name is Pedro and I was born in Puerto Rico, but my parents are both Dominican.

For me, growing up in New York City, we didn't really have access to all those things.

And being from a marginalized population, we don't have access to many things that promote wellness.

So I had to go to New Hampshire to kind of spark and strengthen this relationship that I had with nature, because it wasn't accessible to me in New York City.

After wrapping up high school, Pedro left the Bronx and came to New Hampshire.

He studied environmental science at Colby Sawyer College and reconnected with the land.

So when the Nature Conservancy asked for input on building this trail, Pedro volunteered.

This is the first time he's hiked on it.

You don't have to walk too, too far into this trail to know just how intentional the design of this trail is.

Like.

It's very thoughtful, very mindful.

The fact that there's a gravel pit that allows for, you know, wheelchairs to come through.

And so like being able to, like, spread out, it's like you can walk with families, you know, partners can hold hands.

You know what I'm saying?

Like there's opportunity for that kind of intimate relationship with, family and nature to happen all at once.

The all persons tool, in particular, means that anyone has access to the magic that the outdoor brings.

Regardless of what body you born into, regardless of what body you grow into as well.

So for people of variety of different identities, having a trail that promotes access, that, is very inclusive and promotes belonging into the community and belonging into this outdoor landscape, it's really, really cool and honestly very impactful for those communities that don't have this right next door or in their backyard.

The preserve is more than a playground.

It's a classroom.

Students of all ages learn above the earth, hands on.

We found out that on Earth Day the park was open and it was a new trail.

So the girls love to hike and we wanted to come out and explore.

We are always trying to find places that are even safe for the kids to walk around and explore, and I love all of the signs that are posted with information.

The kids love reading and it's very easy to get to.

So very nice.

This is what happens when communities come together and create a place where all people belong.

♪♪ Well, we come once again to that part of the show that I've always liked least, the time we have to say goodbye.

But we do.

So I'll say goodbye.

I'm Willem Lange.

Thank you for watching Windows To the Wild.

♪♪ Support for the production of windows to the wild was provided by the Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust.

The John D McGonagle Foundation, the Bailey Charitable Foundation, Road Scholar, and viewers like you, thank you.

Make a gift to the wild and support the Willem Lange Endowment Fund, established by a friend of New Hampshire PBS.

To learn how you can keep environmental, nature and outdoor programing possible for years to come, c all our development team at (603) 868-4467.

Thank you.

♪♪