Portraits of Adventure / Vultures Knob
Vultures Knob
The final season on land nobody wanted
2026 - In progress
Vultures Knob sits on 125 acres along the Killbuck River outside Wooster, Ohio. It is the oldest privately owned mountain bike trail system open to the public in the state, built and maintained for decades by a small board and a rotating cast of volunteers who dug, cleared, and rerouted trail by hand. This season is the last one. After Labor Day, the gates close for good.
This chapter documents the people who made the place run before that happens: board members who kept it solvent, longtime riders who measured their seasons by it, the trail crew who showed up on weekends with tools instead of bikes, and the wider community that gathered for races and, this year, for KnobFEST as a send-off. The portraits were made in the trail system's final months, with KnobFEST on August 22 and 23 serving as the last real window to shoot before closure.
The chapter is less about mourning a trail and more about what it takes to keep a place like this alive for as long as it lasted, and who was actually doing that work. It sits alongside a possible print component, a small photo book documenting the system before it disappears, for people who rode it and want something to hold onto.
Portraits of Adventure reveals the human connection to land and outdoor spaces, the culture built around them, and the experiences shaped by place. It exists to protect the spaces where those connections take root.
Chapters
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The Buckeye Trail
The volunteers who keep a 1,400 mile trail connected across Ohio, one blaze and cleared log at a time.
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The Connecting Thread
Kite surfers, mountain bikers, skaters, people met in passing rather than by appointment.
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Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Where this project began, a free national park that taught me how much people shape a place.
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3 Trackers
An adaptive ski program where students and volunteers make the slopes work for everyone.
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Vultures Knob
A 50 year old private trail, its final season open before logging moves in on land once used as a landfill.
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University of Akron
Portraits of Akron students building a life around the outdoors, met through a campus climate symposium and the people who followed.
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Gorge Dam
A dam removal on the Cuyahoga River and the people affected by the restoration. Coming Fall 2026.
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E 185th
A spillway rebuilt so steelhead trout can find their way back to Lake Erie. Coming Fall 2026.
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What's next?
Each chapter is handled with care, honesty, and respect. Here is what it takes to be considered for the next one.
