Skagit Trail Builders

Cascades Job Corps students and staff.

The November 9th session was amazing!

Our “Guest Group” Cascades Job Corps (shown above), with their twelve (12) volunteers put in forty-three (43) hours, that helped set a ‘single session record’ of one hundred and twenty-seven (127) volunteer hours. Of note this is the fourth “Guest Group” appearance by Job Corps!

Photos show twenty-six (26) volunteers, that was almost twice our average for the year. Cascades Job Corps has really stepped up on the trails project. We hope that their example will inspire other groups to get involved.

Since we’re now operating as a nonprofit, in addition to volunteering, donations can be made, and sponsorships are available. Thanks!

Pictured is the next trail section being built.

Work on the Pump House Trail continues. Our “Guest Group” will be the Cascade Job Corps students, and the Estep family is again bringing lunch. It will be ham and bean soup, along with homemade mac and cheese.

We’re hand-finishing the machine roughed-in trail (above) and graveling the tread. Our goal is to break one thousand volunteer hours this year, and next year two thousand – as we double our number of volunteer sessions.

We also want to remind you that our nonprofit status has been restored. Please consider making a charitable donation. Thanks!

On Saturday, October 12th work on the Pump House Trail continued. Turnout was up, with twelve volunteers – on Sept. 14th we had just seven. Since this year’s goal is to break one thousand hours, in November and December sessions we must do even better.

Our 2020 goal is to break two thousand volunteer hours. To achieve this we will resume our old schedule of the two (2) sessions “most” months, on the second and fourth (2nd & 4th) Saturdays. Exceptions are Summer break and the holidays, shown on our session calendar.

Thank you Leslie and Roger Estep for a wonderful lunch! To see more photos please checkout our gallery.

Our next session is Saturday, Nov. 9th. Please join us!

On Saturday, September 14th work on the Pump House Trail resumed. Summer is behind us, the bridge is finished and we celebrated the bridge opening, so back to digging.

We had a light turnout at this session, but a great deal was accomplished. To see more photos checkout our gallery.

Our next session is Saturday, October 12th.

Pictured above, our first bridge user, immediately following final cleanup on the morning of August 27th. We love the new bridge!

It reconnects the historic Northern State Hospital site to the land inmates once farmed. Art Tuftee and Jerry Granahan led the project. Eleven volunteers put in 250 hours, completing it in less than a week. Concept Construction LLC was the contractor, which is owned by Art – with Jerry acting as our crew leader.

Those helping were; John Erbstoeszer, Jerry Granahan, Amos Grey, Gary Moody, James Neff, Lynn Postler, Kinsey Shilling, Jim Taylor, Art Tuftee, Bret Turner and John Yeager. A special thanks to all of them!

For bridge building photos go to our gallery. Building trails isn’t cheap, we hope you will make a donation to help support our work…

Next session, September 14th – at 10:00 am…

Compared to the first session our turnout was comparatively light. Beyond the light turnout our photographer had a conflict, so we don’t have photos. Every once in a while the real world collides with a volunteer session.

Please excuse our absence of photos, we had a productive session. Our volunteers all worked very hard. We put in about two-thirds the hours of our last session, doing some really good work.

Cascades Job Corps College & Career Academy was our guest group, this was their third appearance in consecutive sessions – which is a record.

Pictured above, from left to right: Leslie Estep, Germaine Kornegay and Gretchen Cohan. My guess is that Germain’s thumbs up was all about Leslie’s amazing lunch. Thanks Leslie and Roger, hard work and great food go together!

Cascades Job Corps College & Career Academy was our guest group again, making a second appearance in consecutive sessions. The weather change between those sessions was dramatic. The grass we seeded was up, and temperatures at this session were in the 80’s.

Please checkout our gallery for more photos. To quickly recap the session, thirty one of us put in one hundred and fifty volunteer hours.

Guest groups and great lunches are essential. Please think about forming a guest group, or providing a tasty lunch – volunteers get hungry.

Next session, June 8th, is our last before Summer break – please get involved!

Cascades Job Corps College & Career Academy demonstrated that great work can be done rain or shine. Above, on Saturday April 13, 2019, Job Corps volunteers (at this special session) stand on top of their work. We got a lot done, pushing through some really tough weather – with smiles. The mud that you see here was seeded to pasture grass…

Skagit County Parks and Recreation was our lunch sponsor. Thank you! Guest groups and donated lunches in the past were central to our success. As you might guess, these hard working volunteers got hungry.

Our guest group calendar is open, and we’re looking for lunch donors and sponsors. If our work interests you please reach out to us…

May 11th will be our first “public” session!