Abbie and Eric pictured at the Southern Terminus before embarking on their first hike as Crest Runners.
It’s entirely likely that the first person you’ll see at the start of your PCT journey will be one of PCTA’s Crest Runners. Whether you get off the bus in Campo or climb out of your buddy’s jeep after a bumpy ride up to Harts Pass to start your PCT hike, these PCTA employees are there to welcome you and provide important information. In 2024, three Crest Runners spent months at the Southern and Northern Termini welcoming hikers to the trail, educating them on Leave No Trace principles, and gathering vital data pertaining to trail usage, permit compliance, and hiker behaviors.
We recently published a StoryMap, “2024 Season in Review: PCTA’s Crest Runners” exploring the information collected throughout the 2024 Crest Runner season, offering insights into the experiences of PCT hikers and the trail conditions they encountered. We invite you to check out all the valuable data gained because of their presence on the trail.
View the StoryMap.
Trekking the Sierra
In the Sierra Nevada, the focus of the Crest Runners shifted conversation toward bear safety, responsible food storage, snow travel, and wildfire information. While tabling at Kennedy Meadows and roving the southern Sierra on backpacking trips, the Crest Runners interacted with some 1,800 hikers. Read more about their time in the Sierra here.
Scaling back
Unfortunately, due to the federal funding freezes and the uncertainty around if and when the PCTA will receive additional federal funds from the Forest Service, the Crest Runner Program has been scaled back significantly in 2025. The newly established North Cascades program was cut entirely, while the Southern Crest Runner season has been shortened. As of the time of this writing, Abbie & Eric are wrapping up their season on the PCT, rather than transitioning north to the Southern Sierra Region (as they did in 2024).
You can access the “State of the Trail” StoryMap here.