The seeds of a new volunteer group were planted during a Golden Spike celebration trail project on June 5, 1993 which was led by Roger Carpenter. I attended this event knowing that I wanted to start a local chapter, but having never done trail maintenance before. Our chapter’s first volunteers attended this project.
The first meeting of the Portland Chapter of the PCTA was held at my home in Tualatin, Oregon on November 23, 1993. Attendees were Lesya Struz, Joris Naiman, Roger Carpenter, Del Zander, Brice Hammack, Jill Wilson, and Steve Queen. Our next meeting was January 18, 1994 at Oregon Sports Offices – West in Beaverton and I had changed our name to the Mount Hood/Gifford Pinchot Chapter of the PCTA.
Our two primary objectives were to get some quality work projects under our belt and to establish a system by which we could lead future projects with our own trained crew leaders. Our first major trail initiative was to complete the Mount Hood National Forest sign plan. Lesya Struz began the project in 1992 by inventorying existing signage and the chapter finished the job in 1994 by installing new signs throughout the forest. We also participated in a five-day trial building seminar (June 22-26, 1994) on the Cathedral Ridge Trail sponsored by The Mazamas and led by Jim Angell (former president of The Mazamas).
In 1995 the Oregon Mule Skinners became our first equestrian group to adopt a section of PCT and we accomplished 8 work project totaling about 500 volunteer hours.
Steve Queen (August 14, 2018)
Early Documents
- 1993-11-23 Chapter Meeting Announcement
- 1993-11-27 Chapter Meeting Report
- 1994-01-18 Chapter Meeting Announcement
- 1994-03-08 Chapter Meeting Announcement
- 1996-01-05 Chapter Annual Report
- 1996-01-06 Area Coordinators Meeting
Older Reports
1993
150 volunteer hours.
Two trail maintenance projects were performed in southern Washington:
- Wind River Ranger District (1)
- Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area (1)
Leader was:
- Roger Carpenter (2)
Steve Queen was appointed Oregon Regional Coordinator by the PCTA. Brian Booth (Washington Regional Coordinator) and Steve divided their regions into districts and assigned district coordinators. (After 1993, the position of district coordinator was adopted by the PCTA, but the name was changed to area coordinator so as not to confuse terminology with forest service ranger districts.)
Steve Queen resigned as Oregon Regional Coordinator and became the Mount Hood District Coordinator so that he could focus on getting work done on the ground. The Mount Hood Chapter of the PCTA was established (originally as the Portland chapter) and its first meeting was held at the home of Steve Queen on November 23, 1993.
Mount Hood Sign Plan – Phase 2. The Mount Hood National Forest used the sign plan to order signs.
1992
??? volunteer hours.
Mount Hood Sign Plan – Phase 1. Lesya Struz coordinated volunteers to compile a sign inventory. Based on this information as well as another sign inventory performed by the USFS, Ken White created the Mount Hood Sign Plan and a document identifying signing standards for the PCT. In theory, this sign plan was to be adopted by all forests along the entire length of the PCT.