Here's what it's like to work as a trail designer -- a job where you get to decide how hikers should hike

Official Colorado Mountain Club/Flickr What do you see when you look at a trail? Dirt and rocks? A line sketched across the landscape by 100,000 footsteps? The adventure of some not-yet-visible lake or summit or cirque. Master Forest Service trail designer Loretta McEllhiney sees those things, too. But she also believes that a good trail is about controlling two unstoppable forces: People flowing up a mountain, and water flowing down. And on a wintry May morning, I provide a perfect object lesso...