Check YOU Out: 9 Big Projects Completed By WTA Volunteers

A group of BOLD volunteers flexes their muscles on the Mailbox Peak trail. Photo by WTA staff

Maybe you’ve encountered a WTA work crew on the trail. With their green hardhats and big smiles, they’re hard to miss. We want to shout a big THANK YOU to each and every one of those 3,300 enthusiastic volunteers who work hard year-round — for a day or a week at a time — to keep trails safe and hikable.

Near and far, WTA volunteers have improved 190 hiking routes across the state this year, smashing our previous record of 170 just last year. Here are some of this year’s most notable projects.

Take a look and see where we've worked near you, then get out there and see how the trail looks, or sign up for a work party to pitch in!

_________________________________________________________

Puget Sound

Pratt Connector Trail

Happy Volunteers at the Pratt River Connector Trail. Photo Credit: Evonne Ellis

Location: Snoqualmie -- North Bend
Round Trip: 1.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 100 feet

The Pratt Connector Trail is finished! Starting on Earth Day 2010, volunteers began rerouting 3.25 miles of trail along the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River outside North Bend. The new route was completed in July 2013—some 80 work parties later. Now hikers can take a lush walk to Rainy Lake, or they can connect to the Pratt Valley and hike to Pratt Lake via the Middle Fork Road.

Both safety and sustainability figure into the new route designed by the U.S. Forest Service. WTA volunteers brought the trail out of the floodplain by building a new trail uphill above the river. The new route eliminates the dangerous ford of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie, previously required by hikers using the old route. As plans to pave the Middle Fork access road get under way, this new trail is sure to become increasingly popular with hikers.

>> Plan your hike along the Pratt Connector here

_________________________________________________________

Mailbox Peak

A crew of Fireside Circle Members at the Mailbox Peak Trail. Photo Credit: Rebecca Lavigne

Location: Snoqualmie Pass -- North Bend
Round Trip: 6 miles
Elevation Gain: 3,100 feet

Ask an enthusiastic hiker about Mailbox Peak in North Bend, and you’ll be met with raised eyebrows, widened eyes and a sigh. Notorious for its straight-up route, the popular user-built trail has been utilized as a training hike for years. But the heavily used hiker-built trail has been a lesson in erosion, with tree roots exposed and dangerously steep spots where the tread has been worn away.

To remedy the danger and protect the recently established Middle Fork Snoqualmie Natural Resource Conservation Area, WTA joined with the Washington Department of Natural Resources, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, EarthCorps and Washington Conservation Corps to create a new 5.25-mile alternate route that safely and sustainably transports hikers up the mountain. Over the last two years WTA has logged 50 days at the site, with many including youth volunteers from YMCA’s BOLD Mountain School program. The new trail is due to open in 2014.

>> Plan your hike to the top of Mailbox Peak here

_________________________________________________________

Northwest Washington and Islands

Turtleback Mountain

A group of volunteers on the Turtleback volunteer vacation. Photo Credit: Kathy Bogaards

Location: Puget Sound
Round Trip: 3.0 miles
Elevation Gain: 830 feet

The San Juan Preservation Trust recently expanded the Turtleback Mountain Preserve on Orcas Island by acquiring 140 acres that had separated the popular Turtleback Mountain Preserve from the beautiful Turtlehead Preserve.The result is the protection of the Turtle’s entire ridgeline.

The Trust called in WTA to help create a new trail that culminates in a stunning 360-degree view never before accessible to the public. Along with members of the San Juan Preservation Trust and the San Juan Land Bank,WTA volunteers spent a week in May building nearly 1,500 feet of new trail. A ribbon-cutting ceremony in August celebrated its completion.

__________________________________________________

Larrabee State Park

A group of volunteers on the Rock Trail at Larrabee State Park. Photo Credit: Kathy Bogaards

Location: Northwest Washington near Bellingham
Round Trip: 8.2 miles

Since 2008, WTA volunteers have spent 134 days building and maintaining trails in Washington's first state park. This year we teamed up with the Chuckanut Conservancy to build a new hiker-only trail that will connect the Cyrus Gates Overlook trailhead with Lost Lake, creating a loop option for hikers.

The new trail is an engineering marvel with 87 steps on the upper part as it descends a steep hill to traverse the base of an impressive sandstone cliff. Crews spent more than 25 days this year building some of these steps and carving out a path through the abundant ferns, as well as providing maintenance on other trails in the park. It should be open to hikers in the spring of 2014, and is part of a comprehensive plan to increase recreation opportunities within the park.

>> Plan your hike to other trails at Larrabee State Park here

_______________________________________________

North Cascades

Pasayten Wilderness

Crosscutters on a Pasayten BCRT. Photo Credit: Daniel Silverberg

Location: Buckskin Ridge, Diamond Creek, West Fork Pasayten River, and many others!

As the Pasayten’s legions of fans know, some of the trails here just aren’t what they used to be. Declining funding for Forest Service trail crews over the last two decades, wildfire and extreme weather all add up to big maintenance backlogs in one of Washington’s most remote and beloved wilderness areas. Fortunately, WTA is continuing its partnership with the Forest Service to keep the eastern slopes of the North Cascades a backpacker’s paradise.

In 2013, two Volunteer Vacation crews and three BCRTs ventured into the backcountry to log out and brush more than 10 different trails, as well as construct two bridges over Diamond Creek and the West Fork Pasayten River. The beautiful, sturdy bridges will be appreciated by hikers on long backcountry treks for seasons to come.

>> Plan your hike to one of our Pasayten locations here

_________________________________________________________

Mount Rainier National Park

Wonderland Trail

A group from a youth volunteer vacation takes a break on the Carbon River. Photo Credit: Andrea Martin

Location: Mount Rainier National Park
Round Trip: 92 miles

The legendary 93-mile trail circumnavigating Mount Rainier takes quite a beating every year from the Northwest’s often-capricious winter weather. Fortunately, WTA volunteers have been a regular fixture on the trail since 2005.

This year, we turned our attention to a landslide near the Carbon Glacier. Both youth and adult Volunteer Vacation crews trooped to Ipsut Creek Campground this summer. They spent five days slinging mud to clear the trail for hikers navigating the Wonderland Trail. Additionally, a BCRT at Indian Bar worked on rerouting a washed-out portion of the trail, installing rock steps and cleaning out clogged drainages. And near Longmire, volunteers focused on brushing out several sections of trail that badly needed attention.

>> Learn more about hiking the Wonderland Trail here

_________________________________________________________

Olympic Peninsula

Enchanted Valley - O'Neil Pass

The superhuman O'Neil Pass BCRT group. Photo Credit: Scott Metzler

Location: Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park
Round Trip: 32 miles

This August, nine self-supported volunteers — forming a WTA Backcountry Response Team (BCRT) — hiked more than 16 miles into Olympic National Park with gear,tools and food to camp and work for five days. From a base camp above the Enchanted Valley at White Creek Meadow, they cleared the length of the O’Neil Pass Trail between Anderson Pass and O’Neil Pass, a remote location that rarely receives maintenance.

The work was strenuous. The volunteer crew cleared more than 30 huge logs along an 8-mile stretch. And if an extensive log-out wasn’t enough, they finished with some detail work, brushing and grubbing along the trail. The work that was required, and the sheer number of miles hiked with tools in hand, makes this one of the most challenging BCRT trips that WTA has ever held.This legendary trail is part of what Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell recently named as the world’s best hike: Dosewallips to Enchanted Valley to Lake Quinault.

>> Plan your hike to the Enchanted Valley and O'Neil Pass here

_________________________________________________________

Eastern Washington

Nimbus Knob Trail

Volunteers clear a tree from the Nimbus Knob trail. Photo Credit: Kindra Ramos