Each year, with your support, the PCTA brings on seasonal employees to get work done in the field. These experienced trail professionals lead volunteer crews on trainings and projects and oversee major PCT reconstruction completed by partner corps crews. The PCTA is pleased to welcome two new trail crew leaders and an assistant trail crew leader to the team. We also have three staff returning for another season of improving the PCT.
Jacob Sax
Jacob Sax is a new trail crew leader who will focus on leading volunteer crews in Southern Oregon. Jacob was born and raised in the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada and started doing trail work while serving with Nevada Conservation Corps in 2013. Since then, he has worked with several organizations such as Montana Conservation Corps, the Student Conservation Association, and the U.S. Forest Service. Jacob is excited to add the PCT to his list of long trails, after working on the Continental Divide, Arizona, and North Country National Scenic Trails. He says he views trail work as “a rare noble deed, as a vehicle for intentional community and healthy relationships to land.” A highlight of Jacob’s season will be working near Donomore Meadows, a former private property that was permanently protected in 2016.
Paige Greening
Paige Greening is thrilled to be joining the PCTA as a Trail Crew Leader in the North Cascades region for the season. Paige’s trail work experience includes two years working in Olympic National Park on a trail crew through the Washington Conservation Corps. She has also served in city government for parks and recreation and is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s in Outdoor Adventure Leadership. Outdoor recreation is her passion, in her free time you can find her climbing, kayaking, hiking, backpacking or traveling. This will be her first season exploring the North Cascades and she can’t wait to hit the trail! One highlight of her upcoming season will be taking a ferry ride across Lake Chelan to one of the projects she will lead.
Dylan Stirewalt
Dylan Stirewalt is also new to the PCTA and will work as an assistant crew leader on the PCTA’s Skyline and Sasquatch volunteer vacations. Dylan is a non-binary filmmaker and fiber artist who has spent their last 4 years working as a wildland firefighter in Eugene, Oregon. Along with their work on the PCT this summer, Dylan is also directing their first feature length documentary, Marrow of the Mountain, centered around three women in Ecuador fighting to defend their endangered rainforests from international mining corporations. Dylan grew up in Oregon hiking the Cascades with their dad and later studied Film Production at the University of British Columbia. They spend most of their free time in the outdoors and have hiked portions of the Appalachian Trail and John Muir Trail (which they hiked with a crew of Buddhist monastics). They strive to make outdoor experiences more accessible to LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
Justin Brimer
Justin Brimer will return for a fifth season to lead PCTA’s Skyline and Sasquatch volunteer vacations in the high Cascades in Oregon and Washington. Justin hails from Alabama, but he has professional trail building experience from all over the U.S. and he now calls the Pacific Northwest home. Justin plays a mean mandolin and enjoys searching for edible mushrooms and soakable hot springs. Other than the hard work on the trail, Justin’s favorite part of Volunteer Vacations may be connecting with inspiring volunteers from all over the world.
Two trail crew technical advisors returned for their second season with the PCTA team. Landon Coates Welsh and Eleonore Anderson are spending a long 9-month season overseeing the work done by American Conservation Experience (ACE), a partner organization that employs crews of young adults to work on the PCT. When they’re not out with an ACE crew, they will also lead PCTA volunteer projects and trainings.
Eleonore Anderson
Eleonore has worked in a variety of field-based positions in the West including working as a seasonal trail worker and wildland firefighter for the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. Eleonore is a photographer and artist; she designed the 2018 Trail Crew T-shirt that went to volunteers who contributed more than 40 hours on the PCT. She is excited to lead a logout project across 40miles of trail in the Trinity Alps and Russian wildernesses in northern California.
Landon Coates Welsh
Landon spent a significant amount of time in the last two years reopening the Mountain Fire closure near Mount San Jacinto, first as a trail crew leader with ACE and then as a trail crew technical advisor for PCTA. Last year he reflected on his experience working with ACE and what it took to open 14 miles of trail through the fire on the PCTA’s blog. Among his projects this year, he will advise on new trail constructions projects near Echo Summit in Northern California.
We’re proud to have these talented leaders as part of the PCTA team. There are many opportunities to meet them and get out on their projects as a volunteer. Please visit the project schedule or contact us at 916-285-1838 if you would like to learn more.