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THANK YOU, DEBBIE DERBY

That’s Not A Trucker Hat!

Debbie Derby is retiring from the Mount Shasta Trail Association Board after 13 years of service, and boy will we miss her! Debbie was part of the formation of MSTA. In 1989, founder and then-president Tom Hesseldenz asked Debbie to attend meetings as a Forest Service representative because she was interested in the around-the-mountain trail. In 2010 District Ranger Priscila Franco asked Debbie to become involved as a board member. Debbie gladly became part of the MSTA team.

During her tenure on the board, she wore many hats, her favorite being the trucker hat! Debbie became secretary of the board in 2011 with coaching from lawyer and board member Barry Price. She turned out to be the best and most exacting secretary ever.

Over the years, she established a framework to chronicle MSTA’s many directions, ideas and projects. In addition, she helped in many other ways: she completed environmental studies for several trails, was a team captain for the Giving Tuesday fundraiser, contributed creative ideas and– probably many peoples’ favorite– brought treats to the trail crews. Debbie will be greatly missed, but her influence will continue to live on.

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Gaylin Rezek Joins MSTA Board of Directors

Gaylin, When Not Globetrotting!

The Mount Shasta Trail Association is pleased to announce that Gaylin Rezek has joined its Board of Directors.

Gaylin has a master’s degree in Arts Administration from UCLA. She started her own business in Los Angeles and then later in Sacramento doing accounting for several arts organizations and non-profits including the Sacramento Theater Company, the Zoo, the B Street Theater, La Raza Galería, the Sacramento Ballet and many more. It was interesting and varied work and she scored a lot of free tickets.

When she and her husband decided they were ready to retire in 2001, they found a beautiful parcel of land in Hammond Ranch and built their dream home. In the early years, they hiked all over the county with the Siskiyou Wanderers.

Since coming to Mt. Shasta, Gaylin has done lots of volunteer accounting: her first group was the Siskiyou Humane Society, followed by Mountain Runners (sponsors of the 4th of July run/walk) and then the Mount Shasta Trail Association as bookeeper/accountant. With some overlap, she spent about 10 years with each of these organizations.

Early in 2022 she passed along the duties of accountant/bookkeeper for MSTA to the very able and gifted Jackie Shelby. Since Gaylin had sat in on board meetings for many years it made sense to invite her on as a board member (knowing where the “financial bodies” are buried). After reporting to dozens of boards over the course of her career, she is very pleased to finally serve on one.

Gaylin loves walking her golden retriever, Sammy, reading, dabbling in various art projects and relaxing in her hot tub. Her passion though is travel; to date she has been to 60 countries.

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Another Fantastic Giving Tuesday Success!

A HUGE “thank you” to all the donors who gave generously to the Mt. Shasta Trail Association on Giving Tuesday.

The total amount raised from 133 donors this year was $19,319. We also were awarded two prizes totaling $2,000*.  In addition, we have received at least $3,600 in “off-line” donations.

Your support will help us to continue our work on the Gateway Trail network expansion and maintenance of all the other trails we’ve built.

*Prizes were sponsored by the law offices of Campbell, Clark & Vienneau; and the Knodel Family Endowment Fund. Thank You!

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Donate to the Trail Association as You Cyber-Shop This Holiday Season

For those of you that shop online at the Amazon website, here’s a way to make a portion of your purchase a donation to the Mount Shasta Trail Association.  What a deal!

Instead of logging on the the regular Amazon website, log on to the smile.amazon.com site and register the Mount Shasta Trail Association as your chosen charity and bookmark the smile page.  Then as you shop, 0.5% of your purchases will go towards trails in the Mount Shasta area.

Fine print: this is not an endorsement of Amazon by MSTA, but simply an opportunity worth sharing.

Dreaming of snow this Christmas
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Giving Tuesday — Less Than A Week Away!

What a great time of the year to gather with friends and family, as the holiday season begins with Thanksgiving.

The Trail Association wants to remind you of accomplishments — past, present and future as we conduct our only fundraiser of the year. Looking back, the list is long and includes the Cabin Creek Trail, Lake Siskiyou Trail, and the Springhill Trail. Currently, we are focused on expanding the Gateway Trail network by 46 miles! And looking forward, we think we’ll partner with the Forest Service on trail opportunities in the South Sacramento River watershed.

To help us continue this work, please consider making a donation this Giving Tuesday, November 29th; although early donations have already opened up. Here’s the link: click

Otherwise, below are some photos to remind us of the work we do.

North Shore – Lake Siskiyou Trail
Heart Lake Trail Improvement
Box Canyon Trail Work
Boy Scouts Springhill Cleanup
Cabin Creek Trail Workday
Gateway Phase Two Construction
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Giving Tuesday — Once Again! — November 29, 2022

Once again, the Mount Shasta Trail Association has created a new Giving Tuesday movie, entitled “The Trail Crew Gets a Call”.  This award winning movie is out performing MSTA’s previous winners: “Santa on the Trails”, “Do you Love Us” and “Oh Yeah”.  This engaging iMovie was created with the hopes of inspiring donations to the MSTA for Giving Tuesday which is on November 29th, from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm this year. Early giving begins November 15th. Please share with other trail lovers — whether they are hikers, mountain bikers, runners or equestrians.

For more information and to donate, click here.

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Armoring Muir’s Ascension in Cascade Gulch Yesterday

Fourteen MSTA volunteers met yesterday morning to fix the washed-out drainage in Cascade Gulch. We were joined by Carolyn Napper (USFS District Ranger) and Forrest Coots (the new trail coordinator for the USFS)!!

In less than two hours, our ant colony hauled rocks and boulders to the drainage site, dug them in place, and prepared the gully for the deluge we are all hoping for. Carolyn, Rick Chitwood, and Scott Anderson acted as engineers for the rock placement (along with others). This should stabilize the trail crossing for a while. Thanks to all who helped.

Before
Jessica harvesting rocks, Mark and Neil carrying with rock slings
Not the biggest one we moved
The engineers
Busy, busy, busy.
Upper gully
Lower gully after