Mount Shasta Trail Association
Inspire • Create • Conserve
Looking for a great trail that has something for everyone? How about the McCloud River trail on the Mount Shasta Trail Challenge! THREE waterfalls, swimming holes, tall trees, campgrounds, fishing spots, and dogs are OK. This trail is ADA accessible around the trailheads and otherwise mostly flat and easy. There’s still time to download and finish the 2023 Trail Challenge!!
Check out the Trail Challenge here.
Join us on Thursday September 28th at the Weed Community Center for our annual meeting. Do you see yourself in the photo below? That’s a blast from the past from our 2018 meeting. Doors open at 5:00 PM and we promise to be done by 8:00. Hors d’oeuvres and refreshments to be served!
Sixteen of us had a great morning together yesterday heading into the Gateway Trails to buff up the lower portion of the new Strawberry Valley Trail. Half of us trimmed out the encroaching brush that had nearly closed off the trail while the rest hiked up to clean up the tread and the drainages that had suffered a bit from the recent rains. The photos show that it was as much a social event as it was a successful work day. Many thanks to Renee Casterline, Davis Bowden, Kerry O’Brien, Neil Jacobs, Dave Pfurr, John Kelly, Mark Derby, Eric Blomberg, Steve Diaz, Neil Posson, Tony Mills, Mike Bradley, Chris Marrone, and Pat Titus, and Bryson Schreder.
Stay tuned; there will be many more trail days this fall as MSTA, BikeShasta, SORA, and the USFS get together to prep all the new trails for winter (and more importantly, spring!).
Remember that we’re meeting tomorrow morning at 9 at the Gateway Trailhead to do some trail maintenance/cleanup.
We recommend boots or sturdy shoes, long pants, long sleeve shirt, eye protection, gloves (although I have those if you need them), and water. I have the hardhats, which we have to wear on USFS property.
Hope to see you!
The recent rain has really cleaned the smoke out of the air and made the dirt perfect for mountain biking or hiking. What a perfect time to check out Bear Springs Trail on the Mount Shasta Trail Challenge! Great views, flowing cross country, and technical elements with go arounds. Did you know Bear Springs Trail is expanding further up Mt Shasta to Everitt Vista AND all the way down to the town of Mt Shasta! Check out the exciting plans at https://www.gatewaytrail.org/
Please join MSTA on a trail work day this Thursday, Sept 7 at 9 am at the Gateway Trailhead on Everitt Memorial Hwy. We’ll enter the Gateway System through the green gate (hopefully in carpools) and drive to the North Gateway Crossing (about 6-8 minutes) where we’ll organize to trim back the brush and improve the tread on the lower part of the new Strawberry Valley Trail. This is light to moderate work with either a very short hike (for the brushers) and a slightly longer hike for those doing tread work. Stay only as long as you like. Bring water and a snack. We have all the tools.
This is a great chance to meet new trail crew members as well as Bryson Schreder, trail steward coordinator for the Siskiyou Outdoor Recreation Alliance, who will be helping organize some trail work days in the future.
Thankfully, eight volunteers showed up to install the kiosk at Ten Gallon Trailhead, and we needed everybody. The posts are very heavy, the levelling is difficult once everything is connected, and there were 12 bags of cement to mix and pour. Thanks to Tony Mills, Rick Cory, Payton Birch, and Jim Wrona. A special thanks to Steve Diaz, David Court, and Mike Hlynsky who seemed to have additional construction knowledge and helped us avoid technical mistakes. Mike is an electrician who is newish to town and is the owner of Apollo Electric Co. (530-643-0217)—my “plug”, not his (and my pun).
Stay tuned; there are two more kiosks to install before Jan. 1.
Last week, Hanne Meyers (fuels specialist at the USFS) informed us that a fire crew might be available to help with brushing on planned trails in the new Gateway System. Josh McNulty (also USFS) contacted us yesterday to say that a crew was ready. This morning, Alyssa Winkleman (Trail Labs) and I headed up to the Learning Zone (near the Nordic Center) to direct the Mesqueda 19 Crew of 24 workers on where the new trail will ascend Everitt Hill to a great overlook.
This well-equipped group tackled the mix of manzanita, snow brush, and fallen trees to open a corridor for the new trail. This is hard, dangerous work (heat, hornets, and chainsaws) that helps train these crews to cut fire lines, but translates to free brushwork for MSTA and Trail Labs as we continue construction of 10 miles of new trail in the Learning Zone. Thank you USFS and Mesqueda 19!!
Recently, a volunteer crew dug holes at McBride and Ten Gallon for kiosk installation, but we ran into some large rocks at Ten Gallon that prevented us from finishing. So, Kyle from Trail Labs helped out with his excavator (see pics). Those rocks don’t look very big, but they’re impossible to pull out of a hole with shovels and rock bars.
We’re planning to install the first kiosk (out of five planned for the new Gateway System) at Ten Gallon this Thursday, August 31, at 9 am. Let’s meet at the Ten Gallon Trailhead: head up Everitt Memorial Hwy. When you pass McBride Campground, go 2.5 miles further and turn right on the short, paved apron which turns to a gravel road (I’ll leave an orange ribbon on a piece of rebar at that right turn). Travel about a quarter mile on that gravel road and it will open up into a large parking area at Ten Gallon. We’ll be at that spot.
I will have the kiosk steel posts, cement, and tools. Please bring 5 gallons of water if you can (to mix cement and clean up the tools). It will be fun…really!
