Volunteers Needed! Join One of Four Featured Trips

Volunteering on a trail with WTA is always a good time, but these four trips are something special. From a weekend trip with views of Mount Rainier to week-long trips into some of the prettiest country in the state, check out four featured volunteer opportunities where we need your help.

Glacier View Trail

When: Sept 7-9 (Fri., Sat or Sun.)
Type: Overnight
Why it's special: We're partnering with the Backcountry Horsemen, camping is free at the trailhead and Saturday night features an optional potluck. WTA provides burgers and veggie burgers, you bring a side dish to share.

>> Sign up for the Glacier View Trail trip now

The Glacier View Trail (#267) follows a ridge at an elevation of about 5,000 ft for approximately 2.7 miles before ending at Lake West. The route passes meadows with wildflowers, views of Mount Rainier and a short spur trail to a view point that greets the hiker with a 360 degree view including Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens and Puget Sound. WTA volunteers completed one section of tread reconstruction in 2009, and again in 2011 but the job is not done yet.No prior trail work experience necessary, WTA provides tools and instructions.

Cathedral Rock near Deep Lake. Photo by FaireduSnow.

PCT at Deep Lake

When: Sept. 1-8 or Sept. 8-15
Type: Volunteer Vacation!
Why it's special: You'll improve an iconic trail just in time for thru-hikers. Also, we'll provide a week long of fine food and all the fun you can handle. When's the last time that happened on your backpacking trip to one of the most beautiful parts of Washington?

>> Sign up for the Sept 1-8 Deep Lake trip now
>> Sign up for the Sept 8-15 Deep Lake trip now

Lend a hand on one of the longest trails in the US—the Pacific Crest Trail. Your camp is in the shadow of Mount Daniels, on the shores of a crystalline mountain lake. You’ll work just underneath the magnificent Cathedral Rock, on the switchbacks leading down to your camp at Deep Lake. Pick some huckleberries in the neighboring meadow on your way to work each day, and make sure to make it up to the magical Peggy’s Pond on your day off.

Hiking Eightmile in the Pasayten Wilderness. Photo by D. Inscho.

Drake Creek Bridge - Hidden Lakes Trail

When: September 1-8 (Sat.-Sat.)
Type: Backcountry Response Team trip
Why it's special: It's a chance to join a trip into one of the most remote and beautiful parts of Washington, and you'll have a bridge to show for your week away!

>> Sign up for Drake Creek Bridge rail trip now

This is a great trail construction project helping to replace a bridge across Drake Creek on the Hidden Lakes Trail in the Pasayten Wilderness. We will assist the Forest Service in felling, bucking, peeling, and skidding trees for the bridge structure. We will be building bridge abutments and if we get all that done we will set the sills and stringers. The final steps are to install the decking and handrails. If any of this doesn't make sense rest assured you will have mastered all these skills by the end of the trip and will have had a lot of fun doing it. Oh, and you will have done it all with hand tools in one of the most remote and beautiful wilderness areas in the state.

Sauk Lake. Photo by Jay l.

Sauk Lake Trail

When: Sept. 8-11 (Sat.-Sat.)
Type: Backcountry Response Team trip
Why it's special: With only a short window to visit and enjoy the North Cascades, this is the time to go. Hikers to Sauk Mountain this year have called the views stunning, and one hiker even spotted a marmot with her baby.

>> Sign up for the Sauk Lake Trail trip now

Sauk Mountain rises above the confluence of the Skagit and Sauk rivers with spectacular summit views of the surrounding valleys and the snowy peaks of the North Cascades including Mount Baker, Shuksan and Glacier Peak. A series of switchbacks through a massive avalanche chute climbs to the ridge just below the rocky summit. Also at the ridge crest a second trail drops down to beautiful Sauk Lake nestled below Sauk and Bald Peaks. We will be camping at the lake and will be working on the trail between the ridge and the lake. The work will include retreading, drainage and brushing to improve the overall condition of the trail.