As Volunteer Programs Assistant with PCTA, I take great pride in helping coordinate an expansive and high-caliber volunteer program, one that offers sophisticated training opportunities such as our annual Trail Skills College. Over the last six years, PCTA’s Trail Skills College has evolved into a premier trail maintenance education program in which students and agency partners sign up for months in advance. I’ve been promoting this program since my first week on the job, but after attending my first event last weekend, I can now say with full confidence that it’s worth the hype!
The 2015 Tahoe Trail Skills College brought together an entertaining and unassuming group of trail workers, users and lovers for a weekend of hands-on, expert-led trail maintenance classes and community-building.
Dave McNeil and Alice Su assembling a McLeod on Saturday’s Introduction to Trail Maintenance course.
On Saturday, July 18, 45 volunteer students, instructors, agency partners and PCTA staff members (myself included) gathered around PCTA’s Justin Kooyman, Northern Sierra Regional Representative and Jennifer Tripp, Trail Operations Manager, as they kicked off classes in Boca Springs Group Campground. Earlier that morning, the group chowed down hot breakfast sandwiches, oatmeal, fruit and coffee, so announcements began with a hearty applause for the dedicated volunteer camp cooks, Roberta and Tenaya. We then congratulated Jan Le Pouvoir as she was awarded the 2014 Northern Sierra Trail Maintainer of the Year Award. Before Justin and Jennifer continued with the day’s schedule, I could already feel the group kinship. Who else out here today – in this campground, in Tahoe National Forest, or in greater Truckee – could be bundled up for breakfast, prep for a class about manual labor and then present conservation-based awards all by by 7:30 on a Saturday morning?! We are a special bunch.
Thank you to all that attended the Tahoe Trail Skills College! Your willingness to volunteer on the Pacific Crest Trail ensures that others can enjoy it!
That sense of community grew throughout the day as students teamed up for a selection of classes. I joined nine other students in Intro to Trail Maintenance and enjoyed our diversity of experience. We had a number of students associated with the Forest Service (current/former employees and interns), retirees who volunteered with various trail associations, an outdoor rec company representative and others still who were dabbling in trail maintenance as means of straying from their day jobs. Despite dramatic differences in experience, we enjoyed working together and learning the basics: pushing dirt, directing water and swinging tools. By the end of the day, I was grateful to see and understand some fundamental field terminology: slough, berm, cupped, outslope. Success!
Roberta and Tenaya cooking up delicious fare. We generally eat extremely well on projects!
As rewarding as it was to be on the trail and swinging tools all day, returning to camp in the late afternoon and catching up with students from other classes was a delight – particularly with those who were in the Waterbars & Checks course. They raved about the massive boulder they’d spent all morning moving! It was a joy to relax in camp with these new friends, swap stories, play cards, dine on chili and cornbread (thank you Roberta and Tenaya!) and gather around an evening campfire. Granted, we were all a bit slower getting out of our tents on Sunday morning, but another tasty breakfast got us moving. And after the morning announcements, we enjoyed another round of well-planned instruction and field work with friends.
My first Trail Skills College was incredibly fun and rewarding, thanks in great part to the volunteer students, instructors, agency partners and my PCTA co-workers who attended. It was fantastic to get out on the trail and to meet so many folks in person (after swapping emails for months), but I’m most appreciative of the opportunity Trail Skills College offered to join the larger PCT community. We can’t all be skilled crew leaders, long-time volunteers or even experienced hikers, but you can bet there’s a place for everyone here. Trail Skills College and PCTA volunteer projects are proof of that!
Class time at the Trail Skills College. It’s remarkable how much there is to learn about the Pacific Crest Trail. This was our Intro to Scouting and Adopting sections of the PCT class.
Want to volunteer? Sign up! If you can’t get out on the trail this year to volunteer, you can still support our work by joining or renewing your membership.
Want more? Check out our re-cap from this year’s Columbia Cascades Trail Skills College: My four-day island vacation in the Columbia Gorge: behind the scenes at Trail Skills College.