Connecting infrastructure services to hidden histories
Reclaiming Trails is a field‑ready media and inspection service built for construction crews, site managers, real‑estate teams, and anyone who needs reliable visual documentation. We provide drone operations, 360° walkthroughs, and audit‑ready capture workflows designed to keep projects moving, compliant, and clearly documented.
But behind the commercial work is a deeper purpose.
Every flight, every walkthrough, and every mapping job strengthens the same skillset and toolkit we use to pursue our long‑term mission: documenting and preserving the hidden infrastructure of the Presidio, the Marin Headlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge region. Our business exists not only to serve clients today, but to fund and support a larger historical effort — uncovering forgotten structures, mapping buried installations, and creating a visual record of the landscapes that shaped the Bay Area’s past.
Whether you’re a construction foreman booking a site capture or an archivist researching our work, Reclaiming Trails is built to be transparent, purposeful, and aligned with both worlds. The services we offer are the same tools we use to explore the hidden layers beneath San Francisco’s most iconic terrain — and every project helps move that mission forward.
What is the intention? To what end?
My work is driven by a very specific purpose: to gain access to the Presidio’s historical archives and uncover information that has never been made publicly available. Much of the infrastructure beneath the Presidio and the Marin Headlands remains undocumented—not because it lacks significance, but because the underground structures have deteriorated to the point where entering them is hazardous or outright impossible.
The goal is to secure grants that allow this work to move forward responsibly. Funding makes it possible to collaborate with the Presidio Trust and the Marin Headlands groups, obtain permissions, and deploy the right tools for the job—whether that means entering confined spaces myself or, when human access is unsafe, sending in specialized equipment.
In many cases, the safest and most ethical approach is to use a drone or an RC rover equipped with LiDAR to navigate these dangerous underground environments. With LiDAR mapping, we can capture complete scans of structures that have never been documented, preserving their history without putting anyone at risk. Once mapped, these spaces can be sealed permanently, ensuring no future personnel are exposed to the hazards within.