"A passionate call for investing in the maintenance of trails in public lands across the U.S. [ ...] Through deep research and eloquent depictions of natural landscapes, Osleger reveals America's complicated relationship with preserving the outdoors. This deserves a place in every wilderness explorer's backpack." Publishers Weekly
"A thoughtful and passionate argument for public lands in the truest sense. For conservationists, outdoor recreationists, and all users of public lands." Library Journal
"Trail Work examines the broader pressures on public lands, including declining federal investment and growing debates over privatization. It highlights ongoing land-use conflicts tied to grazing, mining, logging, and energy developmentissues that continue to shape political discourse around public lands today. [ ...] The project is both personal and expansive, inviting readers to see familiar landscapes with new depthand to consider what has been lost along the way." Sierra Sun
"Dillon Osleger is a new voice in the wilderness, and what a voice it is. Trail Work is meditative, instructive and surprising at every switchback. We cant hike the high ridges with Thoreau, Muir, and Abbey, but we can read this book." Jason Roberts, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Every Living Thing
"Our public landsnow under constant attack from Washingtonare one of America's greatest legacies. This powerful book makes clear that they are places for more than recreationthey are our history, and our best possible future. Read this book out on a hike, and then return to 'civilization' to join the fight to protect these places and all they represent." Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun
"Both elegiac and optimistic, Trail Work reveals how wilderness trailswhether visible or vestigialembody the complex history of public lands in the United States. Osleger, a geologist and map lover who has spent years tracing forgotten trail networks, shows that following old pathways is in fact a kind of time travel." Marcia Bjornerud, author of Timefulness and Turning to Stone
"Both a sweeping historical palimpsest, a cartographic detective story, and an inspiring memoir of a life spent working outdoors, this book will enliven and enlighten any lover of wild landscapes." Robert Moor, author of On Trails: An Exploration
"Trail Work is a detective story revealing how trails and maps connect us not only to landscape, but to stories, to history, to each other, and most importantly, to ourselves." Rick Ridgeway, National Outdoor Book Awardwinning author of Life Lived Wild
