By Mary Burger
According to my Funk and Wagnall, a jinni is a mythological creature able to assume human form often at the service of men. My memory of the tale includes the concept that the jinni is often difficult to control and the outcome is often different than that which is expected by the ‘master’ of the jinni. So what is a trail jinni? It is anyone who is moved by the spirit of trail work to correct a problem, or improve a trail situation without necessarily obtaining permission from the agency responsible for the trail. These spirits move in mysterious ways, and accomplish their work with no witnesses. Sometimes the work is good. Sometimes it is needed. For example, a trail jinni removed a down tree from one of my favorite trails last spring. I know I have been a trail jinni myself, opening up a drain, or kicking down the berm as I hike. Many others I know have admitted to the same kind of behavior.
My favorite trail jinni was a man who passed away a few years ago. He and I knew who he was and what he was doing, but I never told anyone else, and neither did he. I was designing the Intemann trail, and we, the Intemann Trail Group, were building it one weekend a month. This person came to me at the end of a work day, and asked specific questions about where the trail was going, and how to do the work correctly. The next month, when we arrived at the trail, it was a thousand feet longer than when we had left it the previous month. The work was well done, and the trail was exactly the way I had designed it.
Sometimes the work of a jinni is not good, and/or not needed, such as the jinni who keeps removing rocks from our stone steps and drains. Or, the jinni who tries to ‘help’ with the maintenance of a trail without knowing the guidelines we are using, and therefore makes matters worse instead of better; i.e. filling in the drains with rock, cutting drains that are too deep, or too narrow, such that the water accelerates in the drain and causes more erosion, etc.
On the whole, I think trail jinni are well intended. But, for the most part they are uninformed. I would like to invite all people who may be trail jinn to join us in Crew Leader Training next year. That way, at least when they work on a trail, it will be a change for the better.
