Bodi Delgrosse and the Trails of Life

Bodi Delgrosse would choose a forest over a desk any day so it was a definite yes when his college classmate, Adrian Vaillancourt, asked him, in the spring of 2018, if he wanted a summer job working on the Wakefield trails.

​“I first got connected working in Wakefield Trails at a school in Aylmer, a welding school. I met a man named Adrian. He asked me if I wanted a job this summer and I said ‘Ya, sure!’.

It was good. I worked with him all summer there…we did a lot of hard work.”
 
This summer, Bodi’s back at it, but working solo without his friend and workmate to keep him company. In October 2018, on a beautiful fall afternoon, Adrian was headed home, riding the old highway from Gatineau back to Wakefield on his motorcycle and looking forward to the upcoming weekend when he was suddenly and tragically killed in a collision involving two other cars. As Bodi continues as a Wakefield Trail Employee, he reflects on the work he and Adrian did together.
 
“There’s lots of places…that me and Adrian worked on at the same time…it brings back lots of memories. I can see his work and my work too…sometimes it’d be like ‘I wish I had Adrian here to help me with this’ or something but, you know, he’s not…it just makes it a little harder….” 

[Ed Note - I think we all say that]
 
Despite the sadness that occasionally tinges his time on the trails, Bodi is certainly an individual who fully embraces the great outdoors:
 
“I’m from the country so I can understand it’s important to keep a good mind about nature…if you live in the city…it’s easy to forget that you live on a green planet…if you’re constantly surrounded by cement all the time and streets and malls…it’s easy to forget what type of planet you’re on…it’s important to get back to it.”
 
You can hear the podcast version of our interview with Bodi by clicking the button below. ​

Bodi Delgrosse and the Trails of Life