Tag: Gateway Trail

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Trail Challenge Update and Swag!

The 2025 Mount Shasta Trail Challenge kicked off a few weeks ago so we better start telling you about the cool finisher swag!

This year we are giving away FREE “Alert Bells” to the first 100 finishers.  These bells are custom made for us by Bevin Bells in East Hampton, Connecticut.    They have our popular Trail Challenge logo on them and a very nice sound.   They work on bikes, backpacks, dog collars, you name it.   Bells work remarkably well to alert others when you are just around the bend.   It’s also a good idea to keep an ear bud out so you can hear the bell:)   

The Gateway Trail System has been a multi user trail network for more than a decade and the recent trail expansion was paid for with grant funds that mandate multi use.   Some historic trails are “Hike Only” while others are “Downhill Bike Preferred”.   Responsible trail users practice “Share the Trail” principles and should always stay under control.   With a little courtesy we can all use these beautiful trails together safely.

But that’s not all Trail Challengers…   Stay tuned for another finisher swag announcement in the coming weeks!

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Carolyn Napper Joins MSTA Board of Directors

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

Carolyn grew up in Connecticut and Pennsylvania and graduated from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT with a degree in Marketing and a minor in Economics. Her cross-country running coach encouraged her to join the U.S. Peace Corps and off she went to the Philippines for 3 years where work involved helping a large farmer’s cooperative. Upon returning to California, she pursued a Master’s Degree in Agriculture specializing in Soil Science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Carolyn returned to the Philippines to instruct incoming Peace Corps volunteers. The last group that Carolyn trained as new Peace Corps Volunteers included a couple who had just retired from the Forest Service in Oregon, and they encouraged Carolyn to pursue a job with the Forest Service.

Carolyn started at the Stanislaus National Forest in 1989 as a soil scientist and spent 8 years working and living in Murphys, California doing soils, range, and hydrology. The range management involved lots of long hikes into the wilderness to evaluate range conditions and use.  Carolyn met her husband Greg, a civil engineer who also worked for the USFS. Carolyn and Greg moved to Chester, CA and raised two boys before moving to the USFS San Dimas Technology and Development Center in Southern California. Carolyn was able to travel to visit other National Forests from Alaska to Florida and helped on wildfire recovery in Greece, Australia, and Israel.

In 2011, Carolyn was selected as the District Ranger on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Mount Shasta, CA and has worked closely with the MSTA since then. Upon arriving in Mount Shasta, Gateway Phase I was being implemented and was well received by the community. Carolyn retired December 2023 and is delighted to be able to continue to help serve the community on the MSTA board.

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Support Trails This Giving Tuesday

It has been an extraordinary year for the Trail Association as we expand the Gateway Trail system. We still need your help to get all 46 miles of new trail and 5 trailheads across the finish line!

Please consider donating to MSTA on Giving Tuesday this November 28th. As an all-volunteer organization, 98% of donations are invested in on-the-ground projects.

The Community Foundation of the North State will be awarding different non-profits monetary prizes throughout the day on Tuesday, so donations made between 6:00 AM and 8:00 PM increase MSTA’s chances of getting an additional $1,000 or more!

Here’s the link for donations: click

Your support is what makes our work possible!

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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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Trail Challenge Hunt #5

To begin your search for the fifth trail treasure, start at the trailhead that is at the one mile marker of the highway named after a forest supervisor who died fighting the Bear Springs Fire. Travel along the main trail. After crossing a newly build causeway you will see your first glance a basaltic andesite outcropping that looks like a prow of a ship. Find the formation that is remnants of the Sand Flat Cone. This was one  of the first of the Mount Shasta flows, which occurred around 600,000 years ago.

Here are the rules of the hunt. Each time you locate a treasure, send us a photo or description of the treasure along with your contact information to: mtshastatrail@gmail.com. Then, your name will be entered into a drawing for the grand prize. In addition, the first person to locate each new treasure will receive their choice of a prize, and their name will be placed into the grand prize drawing.  For example, if you find 5 treasures your name will be added five times to the grand prize drawing.

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Trail Challenge Treasure Hunt #1

The Trail Challenge for 2022 has begun! Here’s the clue to finding “treasure” along one of the trails in the Mount Shasta area:

To begin your search for the first trail treasure, go to the Gateway Trailhead and then hike, run or bike to the trail that is named for the phase of construction for every house, the first makeup that is applied, or the name of a philanthropic organization. Continue along the trail looking for a tree that is unique to the entire Gateway Trail system. You will know this tree because it will remind you of a time at the beach when you got a bad sunburn and peeled. If you come to the trail that is named after you and me, you will know that you went too far and missed the tree.

To help you, below is a map to the treasure.

Here are the rules of the hunt. Each time you locate a treasure, send us a photo or description of the treasure along with your contact information to: mtshastatrail@gmail.com. Then, your name will be entered into a drawing for the grand prize.

In addition, the first person to locate each new treasure will receive their choice of a prize, and their name will be placed into the grand prize drawing.  For example, if you find 5 treasures your name will added five times to the grand prize drawing.

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Pile Burning On Ten Gallon Trail — Wednesday December 8, 2021

The US Forest Service Shasta-McCloud Management Unit fire and fuels programs will be burning slash piles on the newly constructed Ten Gallon Trail (BMZ-7), which is within the Gateway Phase 2 trail system. The first ¾  miles of trail will be CLOSED on Weds., December 8th (from proposed trailhead to where trail crosses the road – approximately ¾ mile long). For safety of yourself and FS fire personnel please respect this closure and stay out of the area. Prescribed burning signs will be posted on sites of closure.

As weather permits, the remainder of  slash piles on Ten Gallon, BMZ-11, and BMZ-12 will be burned as well over the coming weeks. The trails will be closed during burning operations. See map for locations.