Dollars for Miles

Protecting trails one walk at a time.

What do you have planned this weekend? Odds are it involves walking, running, hiking, or biking on trails in or around Bozeman. Now that the Gallatin Valley Land Trust is launching a 17-day fundraising drive, your outdoor recreation can go to work for conservation. Every mile you go, GVLT gets a dollar from local businesses. It's that simple. With a goal of raising $20,000, better start moving.   

Maybe you are training for a late-summer run that has you putting in multiple days a week on trails all over town; or maybe you're planning to photograph wildflowers as they bloom across the hillsides of the Bridgers; or maybe your favorite mountain-bike ride is finally dry and you just can't wait any longer to put rubber to dirt. Well now is the time—starting on National Trails Day, June 4, you can log your miles—honor system—on the land trust's website. There will be a tracker so you can follow the community's progress as we do our best to raise money to protect the trail resources we all use every day.

If you don't have time to get up into the mountains, the trails around town will do fine. Walking your dog counts; walking to work (on trails) counts; biking to the Co-op (on trails) counts. By now, most of us have some way of easily tracking the distance we cover every day. Whether you have a smart phone with GPS, wear a FitBit band, or utilize apps such as Map My Run, keeping count is easy and logging your miles onto GVLT's site is just one more step—not too much to ask to protect and grow this vital resource.

There are also ways to get more bang for your buck. GVLT is running two double-miles days, one on June 11 and one on June 19. On the 11th, grab Rover and jog along Sourdough Creek. For bringing your dog along, you'll get double miles—his work should pay off too. On the 19th, two wheels gets you double miles. If you ride your bike, you'll be earning two times the dough for GVLT. Time to tune that cruiser and plan a brewery tour...

So we've established that you use trails. You're probably out several times a week and even short jaunts add up over the course of 17 days. Do yourself and your neighbors a favor. Log your hours, raise some Washingtons, and protect our trails. If you don't, who will?