Trails in Montana were busy this summer as people took to the outdoors to escape the stress of the coronavirus pandemic, so busy that race directors and researchers became slightly concerned about the impact of so many trail users on public health. This is how they tried to balance getting people outside while teaching them how to do it safely.
Jenn Thomsen is an avid hiker who loves spending time outside on trails around her home in Missoula. During the stay at home order, access to trails helped her to cope with the unknowns of the pandemic.
"I really depended on these places even more than I usually did. And so, you know, trying to get once a day to local trails or parks, even if it is for short walks, was really helpful," Thomsen said.
Thomsen is also an associate professor in the parks, tourism and recreation management program in the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana. Back in March, she and her colleague, Libby Metcalf, noticed more people were out and about.
"All of a sudden these places that were right in our backyard locally were getting used a lot more. And so how do we do, study that and see, you know, is it being done in a safe way?" Thomsen said.
So they created an electronic survey in partnership with the City of Missoula Parks and Recreation Department to provide data to help keep trails open.
The preliminary results from 800 responses documented that trails were in fact getting more use. The Barmeyer Trail saw a 360 percent increase during a single week in March.
The study helped Missoula Parks and Recreation create educational signage at popular trailheads. Thomsen notes the signs also created an important opportunity.
"There are also some new users out there too, that maybe typically didn't use these places, but are now using them, which is really neat because that gives a lot of opportunity for, stewardship and support for these places," Thomsen said.
Race organizers were also challenged to figure out how to facilitate events while also showing people how to stay safe.
Mike Foote of Missoula is a professional ultrarunner who usually travels nearly half the year. During a normal summer, races take him across the country and around the world. The pandemic combined with a personal goal to be home more often, kept him in Montana this summer. The North Face athlete encouraged his social media followers to join him in finding “obscure local mountain adventures.”
"I bought a bike this year and I've been gravel biking a lot," Foote said. "So I've been just been exploring obscure dirt roads, all over Western Montana. It’ been great because I feel like it just brings you into different landscapes that normally I wouldn't have gone to for just a running adventure."
Foote says responsible, low risk recreation with ample distance from others and good communication were key this summer. Which is why he and his business partner ultimately decided to deconstruct one of Montana’s most popular trail races.
Foote organizes The Rut, a grueling three day mountain running festival that draws thousands of runners from all 50 states and a dozen countries to Big Sky every Labor Day weekend.
"When you have 3,000 people coming from all over the country and world to a small community in rural Montana, it doesn't feel right to be a part of the problem is what we ultimately said," Foote said.
They pivoted the event: runners could take part in a virtual run of the same distance over a 10 day period in August. They also provided weekly challenges and tips from professional North Face athletes.
Smaller races across the state also had to change plans. In Red Lodge, a community of roughly 2,500 people, Kristen Hollum owns and directs Red Lodge Events, which hosts races based in the surrounding Absaroka and Beartooth mountains.
Hollum also made the difficult call to cancel three of her five 2020 events.
"We did realize our actions had to be bigger than our personal interests. You want it to balance being appropriately cautious with overly cautious," Hollum said.
Like Foote, Hollum also connected with runners online, creating a virtual race series she called Low Key Pursuits. Along with directions for 10 of her favorite local runs, she shared current local health policies.
At the end of the summer, Hollum decided to host one in person race, The Nitty Gritty over Labor Day weekend, after reaching out to county health officials and Red Lodge Mountain where the race takes place, to make sure she could facilitate it safely.
"Participants had to wear their masks to check in and I encouraged them to wear their masks if they weren’t with their partners or teams or if they couldn’t be six feet apart," Hollum said.
She set the 83 runners off in staggered waves and came away feeling good. In a post-race survey, 91 percent of runners said they felt safe relating to COVID concerns. Weeks later, Hollum says everyone is still healthy.
Back in Missoula, Jenn Thomsen says as tough as the pandemic summer was, she feels lucky to be here.
"It was so different than what others, other family and friends on the East coast or in urban areas were dealing with that I felt really fortunate and it actually made me like, appreciate these places even more than I already did," Thomsen said.
This story was made possible by the Matthew Hansen Endowment for Wilderness Studies Fund at the Montana Community Foundation.