About

Elevated Trail Design builds trails that elevate a client's and trail users' expectations. We fulfill clients’ dreams by creating lasting trails that fit the natural landscape while maintaining high standards of safety, sustainability, and joy.

   Elevated Trail Design is a full-service trail planning, design, construction, maintenance, and trail education firm. Peter Mills founded ETD in early 2011 in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. Our primary goal is to help clients elevate the quality of their trail experience through thoughtful planning and design that helps blend with the natural landscape while maintaining high standards of sustainability, safety, fun, and accessibility for all trail user groups.  Whether building a trail system or a bike park, we always strive to make trails fun and safe for the intended user group while integrating them into the land in a low-impact, environmentally friendly way. Our specialties include the planning, design, and construction of multi-use trail systems of all types. This includes mountain bike, hiking, equestrian, and accessible trails. Our firm has led modern trail-building design and construction techniques for mountain bike park lift-accessed trails, Shuttle Bike Parks, Pump Tracks, Skills Parks, Adaptive Trails, and Strider Tracks. Although our roots are in NC, we have designed and built trails and bike parks in Colorado, New Mexico, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, New York, Virginia, and South Carolina. Our full-service shop keeps our fleet of specialty trail equipment in top shape, and our fabrication department prepares our boardwalks, bridges, kiosks, and other trail amenities before they head out to your project. Our firm prides itself on adapting to each unique environment and client goal. We can elevate your project at any phase, from vision and design to public engagement, construction, activation, and maintenance. 

We recognize that every trail project is unique, and we are eager to tailor our approach to your needs while leveraging our experience and expertise to elevate your project to its full potential and help you bring it to fruition. Our firm has built over 350 miles of trails in-house, and that number is growing every day!

  

 
Peter Mills | Elevated Trail Design

Peter Mills

Owner / Founder

Peter’s love for trails and being outdoors began at an early age through mountain biking and hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains with his parents. This progressed into riding dirt jumps, Slopestyle Courses, and racing downhill throughout the US as a youth. Trail building entered his life early, and everything began to revolve around trails. Peter got a degree in Business Management and Health and Wellness Promotion from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. While in college, Peter began pursuing the trail world, working and learning from trail professionals around the country. After graduating, Peter founded Elevated Trail Design in 2011. With the goal of elevating the professionalism in our industry and raising the bar for modern trail design and construction. Since then, it has been a nonstop adventure designing, planning, and building trail systems and bike parks across the US in 9 states. Leading every project since ETD’s inception, Peter draws on experience from a diverse range of trail projects across the US that his firm has led, creating trails of all types for all trail users.

Locally, Peter also serves on the Connect Buncombe Board, advocating for greenway accessibility for all people in his community. When Peter is not bouncing between job sites, personally leading projects with boots on the ground, you can find him at home, building and riding his backyard trails. Peter is also proud of his involvement with the Professional Trail Builders Association and loves presenting at trail conferences and helping educate the next generation of trail professionals. He enjoys life in the country just a few minutes outside of Asheville, NC, with his wife, Sara Mills, and their trail dog Lucy. 

 
 
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Josh Moore

Project Manager/Lead Builder

Josh was raised in Cary, North Carolina, where he spent most of his free time on his bike or on the sports field. Josh’s favorite places to ride in his hometown were the local dirt jumps, skatepark, and college campus. Josh moved to the Asheville area after high school and earned an associate's degree in CNC machining from AB Tech and a Bachelor of Arts in wilderness leadership and experiential education with a minor in business and organizational leadership from Brevard College.  His career path has spanned many aspects of the cycling world, including teaching merit badges in cycling for Boy Scouts, manufacturing high-end mountain bike wheels, and providing guided tours and skills coaching in DuPont and Pisgah National Forest.

Now, he leads ETD crews that design, build, and maintain bike parks and trails of all types. Josh has been involved in every ETD project from start to finish since becoming a full-time employee 7 years ago. When Josh isn’t on the job site, he enjoys adventuring in the mountains around Brevard, NC, with his wife. They enjoy canoeing, riding motorcycles, mountain biking, and eating burritos!

 
 

Clay grew up in Greensboro, NC, where he spent most of his free time riding bikes, focusing on BMX. In 2012, he moved to Boone to attend App State. Being in close proximity to some of the Southeast’s best trail riding, he found a passion for mountain biking. Exploring Wilson Creek and Pisgah National Forest was only made easier on two wheels. Clay spent lots of time at Boone’s local Trail system, Rocky Knob, developing skills and working on the trails. He also supported Boone's bike community, volunteering at Rocky Knob and spinning wrenches at Magic Cycles for 3 years. Making the move to Asheville, NC, over 2.5 years ago to join the ETD’s full-time team. His passion for the outdoors and two wheels is rivaled only by the precision he brings to the trails he builds and maintains. From sawyer duties, woodworking, layout, and design to leading the construction of hiking, multi-use, and mountain bike trails with ETD’s fleet of specialty equipment.  When off-site, you can find Clay exploring our region’s trails with his dog, Frank

 

*updating soon!

 

Sara Mills

Office Manager

Sara is the wife of Peter Mills and the one who helps keep ETD organized behind the scenes of trail building. After meeting in college at UNC Asheville, Sara & Peter moved to Colorado, where Sara got her master's degree in Chinese medicine. Sara is a Licensed Acupuncturist & Herbalist and owner of the Acupuncture Center of Asheville and Nourishing Roots Apothecary. Sara believes that movement is a key pillar to a healthy lifestyle, and she loves seeing people in their community have access to more trails. When she’s not seeing patients or helping ETD, she loves to play outside with their dog, Lucy. Sara enjoys running, biking, hiking, stand-up paddleboarding, and gardening.