WATERVILLE -- Call it a ski boost. This weekend, area hotels and restaurants will get an economic jolt when 200 college athletes, their families and fans arrive for the Colby Carnival Nordic 2013 cross country skiing event.

Morton Trails helps clients reimagine their property

A solitary figure glides through the woods, marking his passage with colorful pink and black striped flagging tape. Suddenly he stops short, momentarily perplexed, and it is clear that John morton, trail designer extraordinaire, has a problem. a plethora of problems, actually.

Just up ahead, there are major impediments to a trail which — thus far — exists only in his mind’s eye. First, there is a ledge where he wants a loop, a swale where he prefers a rise, and a creek which cries out for a crossing.

Not to worry, though. Morton, a resident of Thetford, Vt., has made a career of solving problems — as an army captain in South Vietnam, an Olympic competitor and U.S. Biathlon team leader, and a longtime coach of the Dartmouth Ski team.

Faced with what initially appears to be insurmountable obstacles, morton often harks back to a lesson in patience learned many years ago up in Alaska while listening to a radio interview with a carver of walrus ivory and sandstone. When asked by the interviewer, “ how do you know what you are going to carve?” the man replied, you just look and get the feeling of what kind of animal is in there that wants to come out.”

Something Will Emerge

Since starting his trail design business in 1990, “something will emerge” has become something of a credo for Morton as he has crisscrossed the country, planning and designing more than 150 sports and recreational trails.

For the past five years, he has been joined in this ambitious undertaking by his former skiing protégé turned business partner, David Lindahl, also a resident of Thetford, Vt.

Along the way, Morton has benefited from Yogi Berra’s sage advice, “ When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Morton confesses: “There was a time years ago when I would get anxious after stringing a line of flagging for several hundred yards and getting to a dead end. I would think, ‘This shelf doesn’t go anywhere. Where do I go from here?’”

Twenty-plus years into his career as a trail designer, Morton has answered that question — many times over — to both his and his clients’ satisfaction. now when he reaches an impasse, Morton just beats a retreat and starts somewhere else, all the time knowing something will emerge.

Ideal Clients

In the late 1980s, while first contemplating a career change, Morton recalls posing that same question, “Where do I go from here?” to a career counselor. he was advised “to look at the skills you have developed as a coach and see how they are transferable.”

Having skied on trails all over the world, Morton realized that his most highly transferable skill was an “instinctive sense of how a course [or a trail] really should flow and feel.” That instinctive sense has since been parlayed into a trail design business which is celebrated across the land by skiers, hikers, bikers and runners.

Morton Trails’ clients represent a veritable “who’s who” of private schools, public and commercial enterprises. Counted amongst their ranks are such luminaries as L.L. Bean, The trapp Family Lodge, Jay Peak, North Face Lodge in Denali national park, the town of Breckenridge (Colorado) and Middlebury College.

When asked if there is such a thing as an ideal client, Morton immediately conjures up an image of a large landowner with financial wherewithal who has a vision and wants it implemented. Lindahl agrees that having “motivated stakeholders” — be they private landowners or a group — is essential.

But “the most fun projects are ones where there is a creative challenge,” he adds. Increasingly, these projects involve private landowners, often retirees, who “just want a nice loop which would be a reasonable walk or snowshoe or cross country ski from their house.”

“One of the starting points,” Morton insi sts, “is to find out what the landowner wants. and oftentimes they don’t know what they want. That comes from sitting down with them or actually going out with them walking on their property. a lot of it is letting them talk and listening.”

Carving out their niche

With increased specialization in the trail building industry (specialists who just design equestrian or mountain biking trails), has come increased competition. So how does Morton Trails stand out from the crowd?

Lindahl has no trouble answering that particular question. “ First, John clearly has a name. Especially for cross country skiing, there is practically no one else in the country who has a name associated with the design of a trail,” he says.

Plus, according to Lindahl, his partner has a unique ability to read the terrain underneath a forest of vegetation to “visualize what the trail will look like after it is built.”

And then there is the intangible fun factor. morton designs loops and “signature downhills”, which are a lot of fun for a lot of abilities.

It isn’t the fun factor, however, which appeals to many of Morton Trails’ newest clients. Instead, it is the potential economic payback of trails which is encouraging organizations such as planned retirement communities to bring in trail designers at the very first stages of a project. “like you would a golf course designer,” Lindahl explains.

Out In The Field

Much as they appreciate this new revenue stream, it is clear that both Morton and Lindahl would much prefer to be out in the field, rather than indoors writing economic impact studies.

Of course, they readily admit, spending their days “thrashing through the underbrush” also has its pitfalls. Asked about occupational hazards, Lindahl muses, “Other than ticks, at least once a job, one of us takes a face plant. and you also get hit in the eye with branches.” Not to mention, Morton adds, “dive-bombing goshawks over in Moretown, Vt.”

And then there are the grizzlies.

Morton recalls designing a trail near Big Sky, montana, and being handed a pepper spray canister. He was told, “Just make plenty of noise and keep that [canister] handy on your belt.” When Morton asked, “ Does it really work?” he was reassured, “ yup, within 10 feet it works great.” Needless to say, Morton spent the better part of the next two days singing, shouting and talking to himself.

Thankfully for Morton Trails, dive-bombing goshawks, grizzlies and persnickety stakeholders prove the exception rather than the rule. Mostly they are in the business of building trails of dreams for clients.

The ultimate reward, for both Morton and Lindahl, “is to take the client out for the first time and walk the flag line”. It is music to their ears when the client exclaims, “ Wow, without you guys, in my wildest dreams, I would never have thought of doing it this way!”

This story by By Skip Sturman with Photography by Jim Mauchly is reprinted with permission from the September-October 2012 issue of Upper Valley Life