End of the Year Trail Maintenance Highlights on the PCT

The Pacific Crest Trail isn’t just a path—it’s a lifeline to adventure, solace, and connection with nature. This summer, dedicated volunteers and trail crews worked tirelessly to maintain and protect this treasured landscape. From clearing debris after unprecedented winter storms to repairing sections ravaged by wildfire and erosion, their work ensures the trail remains a haven for hikers and equestrians alike.

Yet, the PCT faces growing challenges. Climate change has accelerated the frequency and intensity of wildfires, storms, and other environmental impacts that threaten the trail’s integrity. This makes our collective stewardship—and our members’ and volunteers’ dedication—more critical than ever.

We’ve heard your concerns about trail conditions and are deeply committed to addressing them. While we can’t control the weather or fires, we can respond to these challenges with tenacity and purpose, which our dedicated volunteers and staff continue to do each season. Thanks to the support of our members and volunteers, we’ve made significant strides in restoring sections of the trail this year.

Read on to learn more about some of the projects we’ve accomplished in 2024, the incredible people who make it possible, and how you have helped sustain this vital work.

Hart’s Pass Brushing and Drainage Project | Trailwork Project |

Joined by the North Cascades Regional Trail Stewardship Coordinator Kage, this Hart’s Pass crew brushed from the main Harts Pass CG northward to the second PCT trailhead, about 1.25 miles. From the first trailhead northward to the second trailhead, they rehabilitated a 15-ft. muddy section by knocking down the berm, adding rock and soil, installing one drain, and cleaning the other. Through this section, they improved a severely cupped section of tread, about 50 feet, by knocking down the berm, cutting into the backslope to bring it up to spec., and installing two drains. From the second trailhead northward, they cleaned 12 drains in the first 0.25 miles on the PCT and 7 drains on the access trail from the parking lot to the PCT. A raging success thanks to the tremendous efforts of five of our incredible volunteers!

Obsidian Logout | Trailwork Project | July 2024

A staff favorite of the season filled with fun work, a great crew, and some incredible views in a section of trail that had not gotten its annual maintenance in a while! We cleared 78 logs and opened up one of the most beautiful sections of the whole PCT!

Timberline South Logout | Trailwork Project | July 2024

This was an incredibly fun and productive project in which a group of volunteers (most of whom had never used a saw before) came out and cleared over 40 trees that were blocking hikers from making their way south of the Timberline Lodge on the PCT. We used a combination of chainsaw and crosscut to clear over 5 miles of trail in just one day. It’s important work that never could have gotten done without a great group that was willing to go out and have some fun trying something new!

Breitenbush Logout and Tread | Trailwork Project | September 2024

This was a small project- a team of three, but they logged out a section of the trail that had some areas of intense burn from the Lionshead fire! This area needed some tread maintenance, and the three of them scouted work and made some plans for GAOA projects in the coming years to rehabilitate the burned trail on the Mount Hood National Forest. Now that we are a few years out of that fire, we are ready to start building back some of that tread, and we had some great minds on this scouting and logging trip. Plus! Lovely photos!

Twin Buttes Culvert | Trailwork Project |

The project aimed to lower two exposed culverts beneath the tread and reorient them to drain better. Exposed culverts can cause slipping issues; horses hate them and really take people out of the wilderness experience.

They also were too high and too level, so, in the spring, water built up around them and flowed over the trail, with obvious downsides for sustainability and experience. To fix it, a group of seven removed the two culverts, dug a deeper, steadily sloped channel, replaced the culverts, and then built some small rock basins around their mouths to shore up stability.

 Mount Rainier Car Camp Project | Trailwork Project | September 2024

Volunteers overlook the summit at the Mount Rainier Car Camp Project in early September. This crew built 7 check steps with logs and rocks, brushed 1500 ft. of trail, fixed or cleaned 6 drains, and completed about 500 ft. of general tread improvement, like fixing sloughs and berms!

This work isn’t just for the trail—it’s for you, the community that loves and relies on it.

If you are interested in volunteering your passion for the PCT we invite you to contact our volunteer team at [email protected] or 916-285-1846 with any questions you may have and to visit the volunteer project schedule to find a project near you!