Westhampton, MA — Pioneer Valley & Berkshire foothills
The seven people who cut your trail are the same seven who walk you down it.
We regrade tread, cut drainage, and set stone steps on conservation land and private hunting-and-fishing tracts, then guide the hikes that cross the ground we just finished maintaining. One truck. One trailer. No subcontractors, ever.
16
Years running crews and guided trips, since 2009
7
People on the crew, one truck, one trailer
2
Year drainage guarantee on rebuilt tread
1
Region worked: Pioneer Valley & Berkshire foothills, nowhere else
Why one crew does both jobs
One crew, two jobs, and no daylight between them
A guide who has never swung a rock bar on the trail underfoot is guessing about what that tread does in a storm. We don't guess. The person walking point on Saturday's hike is often the same person who reset the drainage on that segment three months earlier.
Jasper Cole started this outfit in 2009 after eleven seasons on volunteer trail crews for the Massachusetts Trails Association. He still leads the Saturday crew and still guides the harder multi-day trips himself, which means the founder's hands are on both the tools and the map more often than most owners this far into a business.
The overlap isn't a marketing line. A crew that only builds trail can tell you how a switchback should drain in theory. A crew that also guides on that switchback finds out within a season whether the theory held, because they're the ones standing in the runoff at 6 a.m. explaining to a client why the footing changed overnight.
We keep a written record of it, by trail segment: who cut it, when it was last drained, blazed, or stepped, and what that segment does in weather. That logbook, not a slogan, decides who leads a given trip. If nobody on the schedule has serviced the ground a group wants to walk, we say so and move the trip to someone who has.
What the crew does
Two disciplines, four ways to book them
Guiding and trail work aren't two businesses sharing a logo. They run off the same tools, the same seven people, and the same stretch of Western Massachusetts ground. Pick the one that fits, or run the Trip Fit Checker if you're not sure which.
Guided Hikes
Half-day, full-day, and dusk headlamp routes led by whoever last serviced that mile of trail.
Trail Building & Maintenance
Tread and drainage rebuilds, hand-set stone steps, cribbing, and a three-year blazing cycle.
Wilderness Navigation Skills
Map and compass fundamentals through to a two-day dead-reckoning and night navigation course.
Custom Multi-Day Expeditions
Backcountry traverses and private family treks planned around permits, water, and pace.
Proof, not a pitch
We don't have reviews to point at. We have a logbook and a refusal policy.
We turn down trips when a group's stated experience doesn't match the terrain. That call has cost us bookings, and it will keep costing us bookings, because a guide's job on the day is to say no before the weather or the mileage says it for them.
The same discipline runs through the construction side. We work one region and we stop at its edge. Drive time eats a crew day fast, and a rushed rebuild is how a drainage line fails in its first winter instead of its tenth.
Sixteen years
Trading since 2009
Founded by Jasper Cole after eleven seasons on Massachusetts Trails Association volunteer crews. No franchise plan, no second location, no claim to be the biggest outfit in the valley.
The segment logbook
Every mile has a record
Who cut it, when it was last drained or blazed, and what it does in weather. Trip leads get assigned from that record, not from a booking calendar that doesn't know the ground.
Two-year guarantee
Drainage that fails, we fix
If a rebuilt tread's drainage fails within two years, the crew returns and repairs it at no charge. No argument, no reinspection fee, no fine print separating the guarantee from the invoice.
The refusal policy
We say no on purpose
Groups over eight on the Summit Trek need a second guide. Multi-day bookings need distance comfort past three miles. We flag the mismatch before a deposit changes hands, not after.
Ask before you book. It costs nothing and it saves a wasted trip.
Tell us the trail segment, the group, or the land you want maintained, and we'll tell you straight whether it fits the crew's schedule and the terrain. If it doesn't, we'll say so and point you at what does.
- Office
- 71 CHESTERFIELD RD
WESTHAMPTON, MA 01027-9633
United States - Phone
- +1 (898) 555-4791
- Hours
- Inquiries answered by phone and email