Trails

(Runtime 1:00)Jaelle Downs was a wilderness ranger for the Cle Elum Ranger District in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. Being out amongst the towering…

On a cloudy Sunday morning, a large group of volunteers with axes, shovels, saws and rakes gathered to help clear a trail on Moscow Mountain.

Judy’s Trail, located in Troy, Idaho, is managed by the Palouse Land Trust. Easement properties like this create spaces for nature and wildlife preserves.

Long-distance hiking can be the experience of a lifetime. It also can present dicey to mundane hurdles, like having to hike stretches along busy highways or logging roads. Trail crews are working this summer to improve some enticing regional routes -- that you may or may not have tried -- including the Oregon Coast Trail and the east-west Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana to Washington's Olympic Coast.