20 Years in Trail Maintenance: 1993-2013

It began with a notable 250 hours of volunteer work on two short sections of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Now, 20 years later, those first modest efforts have grown into the largest volunteer trail maintenance program of its kind in the nation. Over the past two decades, thousands of WTA volunteers have contributed 1.1 million hours of labor on more than 550 trails across the state. And the pace is not slowing. This year, we expect that more than 2,500 volunteers will spend 100,000 hours on trails in three national parks, five national forests and numerous state and county parks across Washington.

And while WTA’s trail maintenance program is a story about trails, it is just as much a story about the people who have maintained those trails. After all, the program has been built on volunteers from the very beginning.

Read the story and watch the video below.

Digging in the Dirt

Explore the story of the last 20 years on trail in the interactive article below from the Mar+April Washington Trails magazine.

A Trail Is Made...by You