Workday Tomorrow on Old McCloud Ave

Come join us keeping our trail corridors clear. 

Saturday July 25rd, 9am.  Meet on Old McCloud Rd aka FS31,
@ Railroad track crossing Just below Mx
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        Help us go from this….                                                       …to this.

Have you been riding or hiking recently and thought to yourself, “It would be nice to not have to dodge so many branches.” or, “Wow, I’d really like to be able to see a little farther around this corner”?   Now is your chance to help out!   Saturday we’ll be working in the area of Middle Bear Springs and Mx along the 31 road above the tracks.  We’ll spend the morning primarily working to keep the trail corridor clear of small to medium branches and brush.  Many hands make light work to keep these trails free of unwanted and intrusive vegetation.  We had a great turnout on Thursday and hope to see you Saturday!  

Tools and hardhats will be provided. Come dressed for trail work with long pants, long sleeves,  and gloves. Bring water, sunscreen and anything else you need to be comfortable. Be sure to take a look at the weather forecast. See ya there!

Two Workdays This Week

Meet Thursday July 23rd, 9am at Nordic Center Parking lot.
Saturday July 25rd, 9am.  Details to come.

Keeping with the summer rhythm, we’ll be having morning work days this Thursday 7/23 and Saturday 7/25. 
Both days will be primarily lopping and cutting vegetation out of the trail corridor and we’ll be working in two separate locations.  Thursday we’ll be in the Learning Zone, meeting at 9am and working a couple hours.  Saturday will be lower down in Gateway, with a reminder containing specific location coming on Friday.  We try to provide a variety of options to choose from, or even better, you could come to them all!

Tools and hardhats will be provided. Come dressed for trail work with long pants, long sleeves,  and gloves. Bring water, sunscreen and anything else you need to be comfortable. Be sure to take a look at the weather forecast. See ya there!

Pioneer Trailhead Completed!

Howdy Everyone,

The Gateway 2 Trail system has reached another significant milestone with the official completion of the Pioneer Trailhead at the south end of Mt. Shasta Blvd. (just north of the radio tower). The trailhead sits at the bottom of the Bear Springs Trail.

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our hard-working volunteers, John Thomson, and the excellent heavy machine work performed by Ryan Fletcher of Fletcher Earthwork, the final product looks absolutely amazing. Local hikers and cyclists have already discovered the new trailhead and are putting it to good use. Every time I’ve been out there over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen a steady stream of folks arriving by car and bike to get out on the trails.

The City has been a fantastic partner throughout this process and is genuinely excited about having this direct city connection to the Gateway network.

I hope you all get a chance to head out there soon and check out this incredible new addition to our growing trail system. Thank you to everyone who helped bring this project to completion.

Happy Trails,

Paul Schwartz

Yesterday’s Work

Yesterday morning, Bryson Schreder was joined by Kate Bachman and Bryson Adams to cut back the overgrowth on upper Gateway. Without this work, these trails soon won’t be walkable or rideable. Thank you!

In the afternoon, the youth group from the Redding Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints arrived with their supervisors en masse to help attack the alien-looking teasel in Kingston Meadow. Fifty-eight of them were looking for a community service activity, and I thought up this horrible thing. Rick Cory and I (from MSTA), along with Keegan, Gabriel, and Gwen from SLT teamed up to rip out this stuff in 88-degree heat, brambles, and waist-high brush. The kids were amazing, and I bet we removed at least 5000 plants. Thank you to Sue Tavalero for making the connection and to Dave Harmon for organizing. We could never have gotten this done without so much power.

Do we know how to have fun or what?

Trail Work Tomorrow, Thursday July 9–Two Choices

Bryson will be at the Gateway Trailhead at 9 am tomorrow to drive through the green gate and do some brushwork on lower Gateway. Join him for a light morning of lopping and trimming without a long walk.

At 1 pm, I will be joining forces with the Siskiyou Land Trust interns at Kingston Meadow (end of Kingston Road near the apartments) to take another crack at the mass of teasel. This time, however, we’ll be assisted by 50-60 high school students from Redding looking to do a community service project. It’ll be hot, but I’m betting we can get the rest of that invasive plant ripped out. Come for the spectacle and to help open the way into the field for the kids, who may be in shorts. It’s a crazy idea.

Yesterday’s Work at Spring Hill

Yesterday at Spring Hill, two volunteers showed up: Chris Marrone and yours truly (to accompany the contracted SORA trail stewardship crew of Renee and Bryson). Fortunately, Chris brought his motorized brush cutter to rip the bulk of the weeds at Spring Hill, then moved it over to Kingston Meadow to open up a wide swath along the trail to City Park. I estimate Chris saved us at least 50 hours of volunteer work (he spent 11 freakin’ hours over there!). Bryson, Renee and I used the weedeaters to do the fine work around the rocks and bushes.

Thank you, thank you, Chris Marrone!!!! These trails were almost impassable two days ago.

Tomorrow (Saturday, June 27), we’ll gather at Spring Hill again at 9 am to finish some remaining brush work, and if we get a couple volunteers, we’ll send several people over to complete the weeding that Chris couldn’t reach with his big machine. LET’S SHOOT FOR MORE THAN TWO VOLUNTEERS!

Remaining work at Kingston Meadow

Do You Love Spring Hill Trail?

Look at this weedy mess, folks!

The Spring Hill Trailhead needs some love from those who hike there all the time. Come join us on Thursday, June 25 at 9 am to cut weeds and brush, rake up, and check the trail for needed care. Bring a weedwhacker or rake or wheelbarrow if you can, plus gloves, water, and eye/ear protection. We’ll also have that stuff. I’ll be late that day, but will start tomorrow (Wed) at about 10 am to get a jump on it. Bryson and Renee will manage the tools and volunteers on Thur.

By the way, the trailhead is across N. Mt. Shasta Blvd. from the City Park.

We’ll also have another go at the site on Saturday, June 27 at 9 am to make sure everything gets done.

SLT invasive weed pull in Kingston Meadow this Saturday, June 20 at 8:30 am

The following is from Keegan Moore of the Siskiyou Land Trust regarding the recent invasive weed pull and another coming up this Saturday. You can see that it was a beautiful morning and we had fun in the meadow. You might come out just to see this special place (at the end of Kingston Road).

JH

Hey all,

On behalf of Gabriel and I, we wanted to thank you all so much for coming out and digging through the weeds with us at Kingston Meadow! We got a ton of work done and the meadow is already looking miles better. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Since we’ll be leading more events like these in the future, we would love to hear how we did. If you get a chance, I created a short survey where you can leave your thoughts on the event: Post-event feedback link

We’re also planning on going back out to Kingston Saturday, June 20th from 8:30-10:30 for some more teasel pulling and thinning! You can RSVP for that event on GoldenVolunteers here. Hope to see y’all there!

Thank you once again,

Keegan

Headwaters Trail Runs

The following is from Gerad Dean, director of the Headwaters Trail Runs:

I would like to share with Mount Shasta Trail Association members that Headwaters Trail Runs is scheduled for June 20,2026.  This event is a project of the non-profit Associated Charitable Resource of Southern Siskiyou (ACROSS), and is provided under special use permit from the Shasta-Trinity National ForestSiskiyou County Flood Control District, and Sierra Pacific Land & Timber.  I project 250-300 runners will participate this year. 

The event utilizes trails and forest roads at Lake Siskiyou, Rainbow Ridge, Sisson-Callahan Trail, and North Shore Road.  The course will be pre-marked the week of June 15th with purple and white survey flagging.  Course marking is necessary for runners’ safety and successful event operations.  All course marking will be removed following the event. 

A portion of the proceeds generated by Headwaters Trail Runs are donated annually to the Mt. Shasta High School Track & Field and Cross-Country programs. 

We are looking for a few more volunteers on race day.  There are a range of volunteer positions available. Time commitments range from 2 – 8 hours on June 20th.   Anyone interested in volunteering or with questions may contact me at info@headwaterstrailruns.net.

Thank you for helping spread the word!

Sincerely,