Mark Larabee is the PCTA's Advocacy Director. He is the former editor of the "PCT Communicator" magazine and co-author of "The Pacific Crest Trail: Exploring America's Wilderness Trail" published in 2016. Larabee is a journalist, part of a team who won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for The Oregonian newspaper. He hiked the PCT across Oregon for a 2005 series for the paper and has been with PCTA since 2010. He lives in Portland.
When a huge tree falls and destroys a bridge crossing a high rocky gorge in the backcountry, the challenge to replace it would likely seem overwhelming to most, even an experienced trail builder. But the seasoned trail maintainers with the PCTA’s Mount Hood Chapter look at such problems, figure out ... Read more
In PCT thru-hiker circles, it’s been a tradition going back longer than most of us can remember.
The Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off — ADZPCTKO, we’ll call it Kick Off for short — brought together new distance hikers with seasoned veterans who shared their wisdom about everything ... Read more
An excerpt from The Pacific Crest Trail: Exploring America’s Wilderness Trail
By Mark Larabee and Barney Scout Mann
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Eight inches of fresh snow lay on the ground but the day was sunny in ... Read more
Six PCTA volunteers and seven staff members spent last week in Washington D.C. visiting with members of Congress and their staff, federal agency partners and other trail groups to advocate for continued funding for trails, land protection and other important issues that affect our national trails.
We also were joined ... Read more
It makes sense that the folks at Crux Fermentation Project, a popular small-batch brewery in central Oregon, felt a kinship to the Pacific Crest Trail.
Given that PCT travelers are staple customers — especially during the summer months when trail hikers and horseback riders flock to the Cascades — they ... Read more
Volunteer Caretaker Jack Konner, who helped build the Pacific Crest Trail Association’s Mount Hood Chapter into a trail-maintaining powerhouse, died Nov. 11, 2016. He was 89.
Jack, who lived in Beaverton, Oregon, was one of the Mount Hood Chapter’s earliest section caretakers. As the chapter’s first volunteer coordinator during a ... Read more
Did you take that magical photo this year while hiking or riding your horse on the PCT? Got a great shot of the scenery, wildlife or volunteers taking care of the trial?
Then enter our annual photo contest.
We’ll select many of the pictures we’ll publish in 2017 from those ... Read more
Our new coffee-table book, The Pacific Crest Trail: Exploring America’s Wilderness Trail, hits stores today! We’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to tell this amazing and important story about the trail’s history and to work with so many amazing photographers.
Special thanks to Cheryl Strayed for her inspiring ... Read more
Welcome to the blog of the Pacific Crest Trail Association. Check back often for news about the trail.