Image: PNTA crew members use crosscut saws to clear a log from the PNT in the Pasayten Wilderness. In August, a ten-person crew spent a week camping out in the backcountry while taming the trail around the Pasayten River. Ancestral homelands of the Nłeʔkepmx Tmíxʷ (Nlaka’pamux) and Syilx (Okanagan) people.
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In This Issue
- How Volunteers are Reshaping the PNT
- Transforming the Bogie Experience
- Congrats to the Class of 2021
- Volunteer Spotlight
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Image: Volunteers Samantha Young, Marissa Leal, Eric Stark and Taylor Ross helped restore the PNT around Baker Lake last May. |
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How Volunteers are Reshaping the PNT
For many visitors, the Pacific Northwest Trail offered a more polished experience than they were expecting this year. With trail segments in places like the Pasayten Wilderness and Bogachiel River Valley greatly restored this season, the PNT’s reputation as “America’s gnarliest thru-hike” seemed less deserved in 2021.
These changes didn’t take place in a single year, of course. Even still, this season was transformative, and clearly the biggest in the trail’s history in terms of trail stewardship.
PNTA volunteers showed up in force across the trail in 2021, helping us to cut new tread in the Okanogan, and joining our Performance Trail Crews in the Pasayten Wilderness and Olympic Mountains to boost their range and capacity.
Volunteer packers with the Back Country Horsemen continued to provide vital support to our Performance Trail Crews in the North Cascades and Olympic Mountains.
And long-time partner organizations, like SWITMO, continued to safeguard the PNT in the North Cascades region serving as the primary caretakers of the trail on Anderson Mountain, and contributing many hours of service to the enhancement of the trail.
Our 2021 season serves as a strong example of how shared stewardship is a community-based effort that is improving the PNT experience and enhancing the trail system for generations to come. And the Association would like to thank our entire trail community for helping to make it all possible.
With the largest group of professional trail workers in PNTA history and a growing number of volunteers out on the trail, we felt the pace of change quicken this year, like a hungry thru-hiker crushing out the last mile toward town and the nearest cheeseburger.
Learn how volunteers like you are helping to enhance the PNT experience, and how you can get involved at our blog.
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Image: The Bogachiel River Trail spans 24 miles between the vast forests along the western side of the Olympic Peninsula and the popular Seven Lakes Basin. For over 140 miles the PNT traverses the Olympic Mountains.
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Transforming the Bogie Experience
For several years, the Bogachiel Trail segment of the PNT has been among the wooliest parts of the trail corridor. After a series of washouts damaged the trail and maintenance was deferred, the western artery of the PNT in Olympic National Park became blocked by massive trees and brush.
For a while, only the most adventurous hikers attempted to traverse “the Bogie.” Those that did seemed too distracted by “type 2 fun” to notice the qualities that make the Bogachiel River Valley so special, like its ancient trees, epiphytes, and Roosevelt Elk.
In the intervening years, as PNTA and our partners worked behind the scenes, many visitors were turned away or took alternate routes across the park. When the administrative legwork and interagency planning were completed this spring, the mission to restore the Bogachiel Trail finally surged ahead.
This summer, with the help of our partners at the National Park Service and some amazing volunteers with the Back Country Horsemen, a six-person PNTA trail crew tackled years of deferred maintenance to restore access to the 20-mile trail segment.
The project was at a scale unlike many others in PNT history. With over a hundred downed trees to clear from the trail and miles of thick rainforest brush to tame, our Olympic Trail Crew devoted their entire summer to the Bogachiel Trail.
Thanks to their hard work, this special part of the PNT is more accessible to hikers and equestrians than it has been in nearly a decade.
Learn more about the project and meet the crew at our blog.
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Image: Thru-hikers Napoleon, Twentyone, and Garden celebrate at Cape Alava, the western terminus of the PNT. |
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Congratulations to the Class of 2021
As tradition has it, we at the Pacific Northwest Trail Association would like to express our heartfelt congratulations to each and every “1200 Miler” that completed a Crown-to-Coast adventure this year!
In many ways, this season was like no other. Mother Nature continued to step up the challenges placed upon hikers while record numbers of visitors vacationed in America’s favorite National Parks as travel became practical again.
On the PNT, a trail known for solitude as well as adventure, a new kind of animal encounter became more common this year — seeing fellow hikers. For PNTA trail crew members, those special moments when their paths crossed with yours out on the trail were pure magic. Even during brief encounters like these, the bonds we share to the Pacific Northwest Trail can bring us closer together.
Most of all, our 2021 season was exceptional because of you!
If you have traveled the entire length of the Pacific Northwest Trail, we believe your achievement should be chronicled as part of our 1200 Miler Project. If you would like to have your name added to our official list of PNT finishers and receive your very own 1200 Miler rocker patch, please contact us at the link below.
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Image: Volunteer Christian Frey has joined work parties across the trail corridor from the Salmo-Priest Wilderness to the Olympic Mountains. |
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Volunteer Spotlight
Get to know one of our most avid volunteers west of the Cascades, Christian Frey!
While thru-hiking the PNT in 2017, Christian earned the trail name, “Blues Clues,” for his ability to reunite other thru-hikers with their lost gear. Since then, Christian has reconnected with the Pacific Northwest Trail by signing up for trail work parties everywhere from the Washington-Idaho border to the Olympic Peninsula.
This year alone, Christian has joined more than seven volunteer events and has clocked over 90 hours of service!
As he puts it, “the trail gave me so much, and I want to give back. Volunteering with the PNTA brings purpose to my outdoors time — and I get to do a lot of hiking too.”
So far, Christian’s proudest accomplishment is helping to build a 100-foot trail segment near Sullivan Lake to reroute the PNT around a washout along Noisy Creek. “Seeing that new trail come out of raw, untouched forest was a great feeling, and definitely helped solidify my understanding on how much effort goes into constructing trails for people to use.”
On his next big adventure, he looks forward to attempting the Pacific Crest Trail and seeing “more of the many ecosystems that the USA has to offer.”
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Join PNTA today! Membership supports trail stewardship programs for volunteers and local youth and recreational opportunities for one and all.
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We're hiring trails staff for our 2022 season. Join our team and spend the summer outdoors working to maintain and protect the Pacific Northwest Trail.
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Visit our web store to shop a variety of PNT hats and other great merchandise, like this limited edition Kula Cloth.
Mountains-to-Sea is an original design created by Washington-based designer, and former PNTA crew leader, Kelsey Leppek! Every sale benefits the hard-working trail crews that maintain the PNT!
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Follow us on social media for trail updates, pictures and fun!
Use the hashtag #crowntocoast and we'll share your PNT pictures.
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Support the PNTA While You Shop! |
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You can support the Pacific Northwest Trail Association just by shopping at REI.com and REI-OUTLET.com. All you have to do is click on the REI logo in this email and shop!
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Fred Meyer Community Rewards is "where shopping and giving unite." You can support the Pacific Northwest Trail Association just by shopping at Fred Meyer with your Rewards Card. All you have to do is link your Rewards Card and scan it every time you shop at Fred Meyer.
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AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support the Pacific Northwest Trail Association every time you shop, at no cost to you.
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