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Trail Challenge and Annual Meeting News

The Mount Shasta Trail Association has postponed the annual meeting until further notice. In order to complete the 2019 Trail Challenge event and maintain social distancing, we decided to draw the special prize winner today. We would like to congratulate Katy Ostrowski!  The special prize this year is a $150 gift certificate for the Fifth Season.

The Mount Shasta Trail Association would still like to celebrate your accomplishment at our annual meeting. We will announce the date of the meeting in a few weeks.

If you are interested in participating in the 2020 Trail Challenge, the new passport will be available at the Siskiyou Science Festival in downtown Mount Shasta on May 16th. The passports will be distributed at MSTA orienteering booth.

Hope to see you out on the trails!

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Trail Challenge Appreciation at MSTA Annual Meeting

Congratulations go out to those that completed all of the trails included in the 2019 Trail Challenge!

The Mount Shasta Trail Association wants to celebrate these accomplishments during our annual meeting on April 2, from 6:00-8:30. The evening will begin with a social hour of appetizers and drinks. It’s a great opportunity to meet other trail enthusiasts and find out more about current and future projects.  Then, near the beginning of our meeting we will have a drawing to determine the special prize winner. The location will be announced soon.

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GATEWAY AND LOLLIPOP TRAIL CLOSURES

The USFS has asked us to post a notice about temporary closures of the Lollipop Trail and the first section of the Gateway Trail due to logging in the area. The closure will begin on Wednesday, Feb. 12, and possibly extend to Feb. 17, 2020.

Also, please do not remove the orange flagging in the area. Mt. Shasta Trail Association volunteers have spent many hours flagging trails so that the loggers don’t obliterate them.

For further information and maps, please refer to the Shasta Trinity National Forest Facebook page or the Mt. Shasta Trail Association Facebook page.

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START GETTING EXCITED!

Most of the Gateway II Trail Expansion has been reflagged, so that the trail construction crews can locate exactly the routes through the forest. This morning, a crew of three worked in the plantation area just north and east of the Gateway Trailhead, placing orange tape on trees and dense brush. Sometimes we were crashing through manzanita 8 ft. high. We hope to begin trail construction this spring. Get your bikes and shoes ready.

John Schuyler is shown gently placing a tape on one of his favorite trees.

Mike Hupp smiles because he placed two heavy rocks in John Harch’s backpack before starting the hike.

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Trail Association Raises Nearly $23,000 on Giving Tuesday

Mt. Shasta Trail Association board members Debbie Derby and John Harch picked up a check for $22,652.73 from the Shasta Regional Community Foundation on December 18, 2019, representing the final tally for the Giving Tuesday fundraiser. Sincere thanks to so many of you who donated.

We will now focus on: 

  1. Getting construction started on the Gateway II Trail– early spring?
  2. Moving forward with the trail to Mossbrae Falls
  3. Completing the City Park to Downtown Trail

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John Harch New MSTA President

John at Castle Crags, 2019

The Mount Shasta Trail Association (MSTA) is very pleased to announce that John Harch was recently elected as the association’s new president.  John has been active on MSTA’s board of directors since 2013 – serving as its vice president for the past three years.  He was elected president at a recent board meeting, assuming the reins that Barry Price held for over three years.

A retired general surgeon, Harch brought a good mix of humor and energy to the MSTA.  John has been very successful in getting volunteers and other organizations out on the ground to cut brush, dig trail tread, build rock walls and install trail signs.  His core of hard workers has been nick-named the “crazy old men,” but under John’s leadership they’re the hardest working bunch of guys and gals you’ll ever meet.

John earned a degree in biology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, before going on to medical school at UCLA.  He completed his surgical internship and residency at LA County/USC Medical Center.  Before landing in Siskiyou County, John practiced surgery in the Bay Area and southern California.  John is board certified in general surgery and critical care medicine.

Don’t be surprised to run into John on an area trail, hiking, riding his mountain bike or leading a group of volunteers working a trail.  With surgical precision, John will use his skills and passion to lead the MSTA into the future!