Just to confirm, we’ll be working on the Bear Springs trail tomorrow morning at 9. It might be raining lightly, so bring rain gear. Meet at corner of S Mt. Shasta Blvd and Old McCloud Rd at 8:45 for a caravan to the work site. Or, from S Mt. Shasta Blvd, turn east on Old McCloud, go 2.5 miles and cross the RR tracks, continue 1.4 miles further, then take a left on Forest Road 40N76 (orange tape is tied to the brush there). Go straight about ¼ mile (slowly uphill), then when the road forks, stay right and go uphill. The meeting place is about ¼ mile ahead of that. The road’s a little rough and there’s some residual snow, but it’s not too bad (I drove it this afternoon).
We’ll be working on the new “Bear Springs” segment of Gateway Phase II this Saturday. If you want it easy, meet me (JH) at the corner of Old McCloud Rd. and South Mt. Shasta Blvd. at about 8:50 am (just across the street from Seven Suns Café and next to the old gas station). We’ll depart there just before 9 am and drive up Old McCloud together in a caravan. Takes about 10 minutes to the trail.
If you go on your own: Take Old McCloud Road / FR 31 east from S Mt Shasta Blvd for almost 2-1/2 miles to the old RR track crossing. Continue on FR 31 another 1-1/2 miles beyond the old RR tracks then turn left on FR40N76. Banners have been hung at this left turn. Go straight about ¼ mile, then take the R turn up a somewhat rutted road for another 3/8 mile, where you’ll find a bunch of people waiting.
Bring water and gloves; we’ll have the tools. Be a part of creating a new trail!
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
