Help us build trails!
Email John Harch at mtshastatrail@gmail.com and he’ll get you signed up.
Gateway Phase 2 is shaping up well, and the good news is volunteer opportunities are still available. We’re coming up on the most exciting part of this 50+ miles trail project, so it’s a great time to be involved. Our trail work days are in partnership with Trail Labs Co and the US Forest Service. Apart from learning new skills or or applying your existing knowledge, trail building is just as fun as riding or hiking, and you’ll be welcomed into great community. So come out and get dirty with us, we’d love to meet you!
Besides trail building, we often meet to trim brush encroaching on trails, repair erosion damage, remove downed trees, and collect litter.
Attend a Trail Work Day
Volunteers are an essential part of building and maintaining trails that the community will love and care about. When you come out to help us, you are getting to see the impact that your work has on the future of the Gateway Trail network and all the surrounding trails in the Mt. Shasta area. Work days are a great social event that are more than just about digging and getting dirty. If you show up and bring your friends, we’ll bring the tools. Whatever your experience and skill levels in trail building and management, we will have a role for you.
Spring Trail Work Days:
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 “News” page (mountshastatrailassociation.org/latest-posts). 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.
- April 24, 2025 — Very successful work day accomplished, with 13 eager volunteers and 4 Trail Labs Co. employees. We cut in a long segment of new trail, nearly down to the next connector. Very satisfying to see a trail appear in a few short hours. Thank you, everyone!
Remember, if you’d like to volunteer or learn more about it, please contact John Harch via mtshastatrail@gmail.com so that you will be included on his emails updating you as to location and other details. And please do feel free to contact John with any questions.
Trail Workers
Becky Cooper and the USFS graciously provide a chainsaw certification courses for our trail workers, which allows us to do chainsaw work on USFS property. These are recertification as well as new certifications. These courses typically fill up, so keep an eye on your inbox for information about upcoming classes, which usually take place late spring/early summer.
