Preservation and Prosperity, Please.

It’s no secret that goals of protecting large amounts of land and creating a vibrant economy can be at odds with each other.  Man has always used the land and natural resources to drive commerce. Unfortunately balancing environmental protection and economics is often easier said than done.

Garnet-Hill-Lodge-view

Over the last few years, I’ve been working with a few of my favorite mountain businesses on search marketing and web development. My most recent project is helping Garnet Hill Lodge with a new responsive website design.

Last weekend, in addition to getting some of our projects done at the cabin, I visited the Lodge to connect with owners Don and Mindy to review our progress.

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Paddling Thirteenth Lake

I put in another work weekend at our camp in North River.  It’s not really work to me — stacking firewood and improving our trails — it’s exactly what I want to do with my free time in summer.

paddling Thirteenth Lake

I actually daydream about cabin projects from my desk at work. Six million acres of opportunity for adventure all around, and I’m completely content on just a handful of hectares.

But Thirteenth Lake is practically in our backyard. Big and beautiful and right there, the lake is hard for us to ignore. After working on the Red Trail for the better part of the day we drove to the boat launch and put in. Even on a gray day the lake is a special place.

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North Creek Ski Bowl MTB

Two winters ago, on a bit of an impulse, I asked my friend and professional trail designer Steve Ovitt to evaluate the potential of our property for dual purpose nordic/mountain biking trails.

North Creek Ski Bowl MTB

Steve’s evaluation was enthusiastic and now, two summers later, we are all in, doing trail maintenance and riding on our land. I never imagined biking out the back door could be almost as much fun as skiing. Indeed it is.

After two days of blowing, raking, trimming and riding our trails, I ventured down to North Creek Ski Bowl to check out the relatively new trails that Steve designed and built for the town of Johnsburg.

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