Meet Tony Boone | Kinesthetic Dirt Sculpter, educator and Proud Father

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tony Boone and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tony, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Like many creatives, I loved art at a kid, whether it be sculpting with clay or slathering paint on canvas. This was the same for my Mom as well as my four kids. We are all very fortunate to happily immerse ourselves in art for hours to the point of it being meditative and therapeutic and often losing our sense of time. As I finished college and begin to establish myself in the new field of adventure recreation and outdoor education I bought my first real mountain bike in 1984 – a Specialized Rock Hopper.

My evolution from jumping trash cans and friends on my Schwinn Stingray with a banana seat turned to riding dirt singletrack trails in the forest and prairie as a young adult. I began realizing that this felt like an entirely different kind of art I was experiencing and loving. It was enjoyable like visual art but it was art that I could experience through my body. Kinesthetic awareness is our body’s awareness of its position in space through our propriocepters in your joints, tendons and muscles.

The simple act of biking not only let my body experience a diversity of feelings including weightlessness, G-force and centrifugal force but also propels me along in an everchanging, non-stop, all-natural art gallery created by our amazing Mother Earth. Rolling through a high, mountain forest I could catch views of huge coniferous trees, lichen covered boulders, expansive views of the Southern Rockies, or slow down a bit to catch my breath and see some of the indigenous wildlife that calls these natural areas home, like Rocky Mountain Elk, my favorite.

I could come back to “my gallery” in late fall and ride the same trail again with an entirely fresh display of art along the route. Trees were now a brilliant yellow gold with the high peaks were cloaked in white snow. The dark blue sky, the pure white snow, the dark green evergreens and the electric looking aspens are a sight to behold in our massive backyard.

I never take this for granted and and gratefully everyday.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
After 8 years as a Natural Resource Specialist for Boulder County Parks & Open Space, I decided to take a risk and start my first trail company Arrowhead Trails, Inc. in Nederland, Colorado. We were the first and only WTBA member in Colorado in 1995 and we could barely make a living. These years were tough as we were raising two kids and scraping by, literally living on our credit cards during the winter off-season.

I started a second company, Anasazi Trails, Inc. in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2007 and jumped directly into a 300 mile trail feasibility along the Rio Grande River from Belen to Sunland Park, NM. What an epic project that was and is still moving forward as we speak by others.

In 2010 I began phasing out of these two companies that specialized in natural surface trail construction and started Tony Boone Trails, LLC in July, 2010. My new company focused more on planning and design as well as construction but turned our market focus to Asia and Australia projects. After three years and numerous projects in China, Philippines, Hong Kong and Australia my wife, Zel and I decided to return to the states since our youngest was already a year and a half old and she was 8 months pregnant with my last daughter.

Having traveled extensively for past three years we decided to stay close to home awhile in Salida, Colorado and help the older kids on their business pursuits. In 2019 we started Amor Tierra Global to focus on Southeast Asia projects as well as another domestic company Timberline Trailcraft with Tim Emick and his 36+ year company Timberline Landscaping in Colorado Springs.

After successful start ups in 2019, COVID hit and totally shut down our South Korea project that was just getting planned, while Timberline Trailcraft had back to back record years during first two COVID years. Since then Timberline Trailcraft has continued to grow and prosper while Amor Tierra was put on the back burner.

After four plus decades, working in 15 states and nine countries on five continents we are blessed to have designed over 3000 miles of trail and constructed almost 1000 miles. We are currently focusing our efforts on Colorado, New Mexico & Texas with our winter digs being spent in Aruba designing and building 30+ miles of new trail for the island.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

To call Salida, CO a city is a bit of a stretch I reckon. Town or village is more appropriate as we still barely have 6000 residents in town. Of course that swells to 10,000 plus most weekend and can exceed 20,000 tourists on our big festivals like FIBARK. The oldest river festival in the USA, started in 1949 and still going strong 74 years later. www.fibark.com

First place I take visiting friends and family is same place we go as a family on a weekly sometimes daily basis. Grab the cruiser bikes and head down to the River, the mighty Arkansas River, our nations most popular whitewater rafting/kayaking destination. Whether we just sit by the river with our toes in the icy water or we decide to take a lil surf session at our whitewater play hole designed specifically for SUP (stand up paddle board) surfing. After that we could grab a bite to eat on the river at The Boathouse Cantina or hit one of the local food trucks.

After we digest a bit under the shade of a 200 year old cottonwood, we can plan our mt. bike ride, run or hike up S Mountain just across the bridge in downtown Salida, If folks need a rental bike or running shoes we could visit one of three bike shops (Absolute Bikes, Salida Bike Company * Subculture Bikes) or 7000 Feet Running Company a block away. Perhaps even grab a sammy at Sweetie’s our local sandwich shop.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My mentor was Jim Angel, He was a crusty ol scotch drinker and was still designing and building trails well into his seventies when I started working with him. He mentored me and sponsored me into the Western Trail Builders Association (WTBA) which later changed our organization name to the Professional Trail Builders Association (PTBA) www.trailbuilders.org

His most impactful quote which I have shared with thousands of students and trail crews around the world for the past 40 years was that – “People Don’t Need Trails, The Land Does”. This impactful statement was life changing for me and set me on the course to the career I have now decades later. To me these words meant that our best way to protect our cultural and natural resources for future generations is proper and sustainable trail planning, design, construction and routine maintenance, I also feel that trails are one of the best way to gain new stewards to help protect our planet, especially our youth.

Website: https://www.tonyboonetrails.com https://www.timberlinetrailcraft.com https://www.trailbuilders.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyboonetrails/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyboone/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TonyBooneTrails