The Colorado Trail, an iconic 567-mile high-elevation trail that crosses the Rockies, owes its existence largely to , a charismatic, six-foot-tall woman who could make tough things seem easy. Gaskill not only carried out the vision of a state trail, beginning slowly in the late 1970s but also gave birth to it. In 1972, she lobbied Congress, along with forester Bill Lucas, credited with the Colorado Trail idea, to change federal law so that volunteers could be allowed to build trails on public land.
Volunteerism was so potent an idea, that when, in 1984, writer Ed Quillen broke the story about Gaskill’s efforts to revive trail building that had foundered under the Colorado Mountain Trails Foundation, people were energized to join her. Soon, thanks to fundraising, she had 350 volunteers coming each summer to join trail crews she often led herself. She made creating the Colorado Trail seem like a privilege: You camped out in beautiful backcountry, ate great food, and found stamina you never knew you possessed.
In 1985, caught up in the story, my father, Ed Marston, then publisher of High Country News, volunteered my sister, Wendy, 15, and me, 13, for a week of trail building. That’s how we learned how to swing those axe-like tools called Pulaskis on the Molas Pass to Durango section. Gaskill herself led our crew, setting out early with orange ribbon to mark the trail.
She was efficient and tireless, and in just a few hours, older, urban and young volunteers became trail buil.