Volunteer

Help us build trails!

We are so excited to be building Gateway Phase 2, but we’re going to need a lot of help to build 45 miles of rad trail. In partnership with Trail Labs Co and the US Forest Service, we host Trail Work Days to complete work on Gateway Phase 2. Trail building is just as fun as riding or hiking, so come out and get dirty with us.

We are so excited to announce we also broke ground last fall on the new Heart Lake Trail! This spring we will resume building that trail, so please join us for those work days as well. 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 and the know-how to get the job done. Joining us at a trail work day, you will begin to learn what it takes to build good trails and be stewards of our forest.

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— 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!

If you plan to volunteer 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. Also feel free to contact him with any questions.

Trail Workers:

Becky Cooper and the USFS graciously offered to provide a chainsaw certification course for our trail workers, which will allow us to do chainsaw work on USFS property. It was for recertification as well as new certifications. We were maxed out on attendees: thanks and we look forward to your help sawing our way to new and improved trails.

Davis Bowden drops a tree under supervision during the last chainsaw certification course.