If you think the MSTA board has been sitting on their butts the past 18 months, YOU’RE WRONG!
SLT hosts the Mt. Shasta Trail Association on Tuesday evening, April 20 from 7pm to 8:30pm – presenting this year’s plans and projects for Mt. Shasta area trail construction and improvements. Register on Zoom. Watch live on Facebook, or join the Zoom by registering at https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_p5CASFsoRPmQ2MpUZGrW1A
Tune in to find out just what’s been happening out on the trails! And tell your friends.
Hordes of people have been pestering us for information about MSTA’s extremely popular volunteer trail work days, and we are red-faced about not providing regular updates. But today, for a limited time, we’re offering the following outline of upcoming trail work days and locations:
April 24—finish work on new trails in the Bear Springs area (or MX if snow still present at Bear Springs access).
May 1—CANCELLED due to conflict with Invasive Weed Pull event, and unavailability of trail work organizers.
May 8– tread and rock work on the improved Castle Lake to Heart Lake Trail, if snow has melted.
May 15—more Castle Lake to Heart Lake Trail work.
May 29, June 12, and June 26—It’s too early to know what the heck we’ll do, but it’s likely we’ll work on newly cut trails on Gateway II.
Work days typically begin at 9 am. Sign-in is first, followed by a brief safety talk (don’t hit your neighbor in the head with a pickaxe), then we get specific instructions on the trail work, split into teams and get it done. We try to be done by 12:30, but you can stay all day if you’re a glutton for punishment. Directions to each work day will be sent out via email, Facebook, and the MSTA website (mountshastatrailassociation.org). And don’t forget that you’re going to have FUN, whether you like it or not.
Please share this information with friends and then bring them along to help! The more volunteers we have, the more we save on trail construction, meaning we can build more miles of trail.
After posting a link to our 2021 Trail Challenge webpage yesterday, I was reminded by Board Director John Thomson that he had already worked up a much improved version.
The updated page has good information on the trails in this year’s Challenge, how to submit your trails, the stewardship component of the Challenge, social media, and links to trail descriptions. These links take you to Trail Guides that include trail maps, directions to trailheads, trail details, and more. No changes to the passport, so if you’ve already downloaded it, you’re good to go. You can get to the webpage by clicking here.
Sorry for the inadequate and late communication about this work day. We have reconn’d the two sites we wanted to work on (Castle Lake to Heart Lake Trail and Gateway II near Bear Springs) and they both have too much snow to address. So, the best thing is to cancel this work day and look to the next scheduled date, which is Saturday, April 24. By then maybe we will have figured out what the heck we want to do. Thanks for your patience.
This year’s trail challenge will run from May 1 to October 1.
Welcome to the 3rd annual Mount Shasta Trail Challenge. We want to share the beauty of our area with those who are inspired to get out and enjoy the vast trail system surrounding the mountain we call home. We are working hard on the trails to be included in the Challenge. Also, we are looking into how to reward those that take up the Challenge.
Stay tuned!
Taking the Challenge will put a smile on your face
South Fork Sacramento Public Safety and Forest Restoration Project – VIRTUAL Public Meeting: Wednesday, March 3, 2021 from 5 to 7 p.m.
The Forest Service will provide an overview of possible opportunities and challenges for improving public safety and reducing wildfire risks in the South Fork Sacramento watershed above Lake Siskiyou.
To participate: click on the Join live event link. For those that want to join by telephone, the number is listed below as well.
+1 323-886-7051 United States, Los Angeles (Toll) Conference ID: 413 700 194#
The Forest Service has been collecting data on this area and doing fire modeling to better understand current conditions. We invite you all to hear about the current conditions and to meet our team of specialists. We hope to continue this open forum and once weather conditions improve we will conduct field trips to the area.
Yesterday, we planted about 500 daffodils around the Spring Hill Trailhead. Many thanks to the 14 volunteers who showed up to help, including one very young, enthusiastic gardener. Since it’s so late in the season, the bulbs may not bloom this year. Opinions differed on this, so you’ll just have to visit the trail to see for yourself. We gave the balance of the bulbs to Lorie Saunders for the Beautification Committee to plant in the triangle and median strip for the city. Even though these non-native, ornamental flowers don’t help the pollinators or the soil or the little animals, they look pretty and thus cheer up the large animals who have been trapped inside for much of the pandemic.
OK, OK! I’m not smart enough to know that you shouldn’t plant non-native daffodils at the Gateway Trailhead or on USFS property. I’m a doctor, Jim, not a biologist. If I can ascertain the appropriateness of planting at the Spring Hill Trailhead (which most people seem to think is acceptable) we’ll do that at 1:30 tomorrow.
