The Tahoe Rim Trail Association’s Annual Awards Dinner was held on May 18th at Granlibakken Resort in Tahoe City. It was a special evening in a historical building, the hallway lined with black and white photos of Lake Tahoe’s early days, the smell of old wooden beams complementing stories about the Tahoe Rim Trail’s 40+ year history. There were some new faces in the crowd, and there were many legends: former staff members, board members, long-time volunteers, and countless other individuals who have helped write the trails’ history. At the end of the evening, it was finally time for the main event: the announcement of 2024’s awardees. One week after the big announcement, TRTA staff sat down with each of the evening’s esteemed awardees to talk about their time with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association.
Peak Awards:
Peak Awards recognize the time and tireless efforts of outstanding volunteers. This year’s Peak Award recipients were Cheryl Bailey, Bob Anderson, and Melissa Johnson.
Cheryl Bailey still has the t-shirt from the National Trails Day where she first volunteered with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association. It was 2012, many years since a high-school aptitude test told her that she’d make an excellent park ranger. She ended up having an administrative career that took her coast to coast, working mainly with the military. It wasn’t until she found herself retired, living in an old Forest Service cabin near South Lake Tahoe, and spending hundreds of hours each summer volunteering on the trail, that she began to wonder if that aptitude test had been so wrong after all.
When asked what she loves about volunteering, Cheryl explained that she’d always been a runner and at first it was just a good excuse to go outside. After the first couple of work days, she realized that her career working with the military helped her understand the structure of the work crews and connect with fellow volunteers, many of whom are veterans. From radio communications to safety briefings, Cheryl has always felt at home with TRTA trail crews.
“I understand the work crews, get a sense of accomplishment, and just enjoy being outdoors,” Cheryl told the TRTA. “And it’s something that Don and I could do together, that’s part of it.”
Don and Cheryl Bailey married in 2009 in the backyard of her South Lake log cabin, with a friend officiating. It wasn’t long before trail work became a huge part of their relationship. These days, Cheryl says that traveling always includes checking out the local trail. “I don’t care what part of the U.S. we’re in. As we’re hiking, Don is cleaning trail,” she said.
In almost no time after they began volunteering, Cheryl and Don had made some of their closest friends at the TRTA. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, those friends and their affinity for the outdoors became a saving grace. That summer was the last of a 3-year re-route at Echo Summit. It was the perfect distraction: working together toward a concrete goal when so many aspects of life felt unpredictable and isolating.
“It’s probably what got us through the pandemic,” she said. “To see the progress every day was just amazing…and it was with 10 of our best friends.”
Another favorite project of Cheryl’s was building the Van Sickle Bridge.
“It was just a hoot,” she said, reminiscing on the horse and mule teams that helped carry in supplies and the moment that she was screwing bolts into the decking of the bridge and thought, “…this is something that’s going to be here for a long time, and we got to help build it.”
Knowing the impact her work will have on trail users is a huge motivator for Cheryl. She and Don work on the segment of the TRT that is co-aligned with the PCT, so they have the chance to interact with a huge number of thru-hikers each year.
“Not only the PCT hikers but people in general, when they come up on us, it’s always ‘thank you for your work, we’ve never been on a trail this good.’” Cheryl said. “People do acknowledge it, and that means a lot.”
With her husband, friends, and even daughter involved at the TRTA, Cheryl goes to show that trail building isn’t just about swinging tools. It takes a community—some might even say a family—to create and maintain something that will last for generations and enhance so many lives.
Thank you, Cheryl, for all that you do!
Bob Anderson has become pretty accustomed to receiving awards at the TRTA. In fact, he’s officially received them all now—even ones that we don’t give out anymore. Of course, volunteering has never been about accolades for him. Bob had one of the most straightforward answers when asked what keeps him coming back for more work at the TRTA.
“For any of us that have been doing this for a long time, what you enjoy is the satisfaction that you’ve created something,” he said. “And created something that you hope a hundred years from now, people will still enjoy.”
That satisfaction, and the joy that his creations bring other people, have also made Bob one of the Nevada Museum of Art’s most esteemed docents. Bob creates exhibits at the museum with the same care that he places into his work on the trail, bridging the gap between recreation and art with a simple passion for helping people make memories.
From vista points to drainages and everything in between, few recreators probably think about how intentional every curve and climb of the TRT is. Yet Bob sees how the trail is as carefully crafted as an art exhibit. Of course, every artist deserves some creative liberty and the chance to add a little flair for the pure joy of it.
“This is kind of funny,” he said, eyes smiling at something far away from the Starbucks where he was interviewed. “After my first crew leader class, we were finishing the trail between Martis Peak Rd and Relay Peak and we had hired an intern for that year and the next year. We were so excited about this whole idea of building rock structures, that in this one section of the trail we were building, we decided to build a step.”
“Looking back now, it probably was not needed,” he said with chagrin. “But we wanted to build a step! The good news is that the step is still there, perfectly in place. But it’s totally useless…I think about that now and just laugh.”
Trail building techniques have evolved a lot over the years, and Bob has been there along the way to implement those changes. He first started volunteering for the TRTA in 2000, one year before the trail was completed. He showed up to National Trails Day as a member of the local Sierra Club chapter and didn’t even know what the TRTA was. He picked small rocks off of the trail with the other rookies and was approached by an eager staff member (one of three at the time) who told him that he should attend Crew Leader training the next week.
“I said I don’t want to be a crew leader—too much responsibility and too much work,” he said with a laugh. “And she said, well, we just teach basic trail stuff that will be useful to you. So that’s how I got involved and…ended up here today.”
“Ended up here” is a bit of an understatement, though. Bob is a true TRTA legend, having spent more than 6,700 hours volunteering on the trail. Now, he has the ironic responsibility of convincing unsuspecting volunteers that they, too, need to learn just a little more “basic trail stuff.”
Sharing his passion with new volunteers is yet another way of creating something lasting for Bob: another artistic stroke, perhaps. With both his work at the TRTA and at the Nevada Museum of Art, Bob explained, “both organizations, for me, created a sense of family. And you don’t want your family fail. You want them to be as successful as possible.”
Bob has helped the TRTA redefine success over the years, and for that, we are incredibly grateful.
Melissa Johnson may have broken the speed record after earning an award at the TRTA after just one year of volunteering. But anyone who’s had a conversation with Melissa can tell you why: energy radiates off of her that seems to say go, go, go!
This fact became obvious right away when the 2020 Segment Hike that Melissa had registered for was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she reached out to the TRTA asking if the program manager would please share her email with the rest of the group and see if anyone wanted to take the trail on themselves.
Eventually, she found a hiking partner, and they got to work. Melissa was retired and had more free time than her hiking partner, who still had to work during the week; so she and her husband would scout out the trail during the less busy weekdays: planning where to drop cars or refill water, if needed, so that by the weekend, Melissa and her partner functioned as a well-oiled machine. Weather interrupted their schedule just a bit, but they completed all but three of the 14 day hikes they’d based their plan around in 2020, and finished the remaining sections in 2021.
“The thing is, we would never have met!” said Melissa. “She was signed up for the weekend and I was signed up for Wednesday, so we never would have met except for COVID. And now we’re like hiking partners for life.”
After completing the trail, Melissa asked herself, “now what?” and reached out right away to the TRTA to register for guide training.
Perhaps it was the initiative to do hike the trail herself after the pandemic, or how shortly after doing so she registered for training, but once Melissa finally arrived at her New Guide TRTA training, Lindsey Schultz immediately approached her and asked if she’d be interested in lending a little extra help. The TRTA was looking for someone to help out with the Youth Backcountry Camp program. Without hesitation, and without even knowing what the program was, she said yes.
“I lost count of how many bags of trail mix I made last year,” Melissa said with a laugh.
YBCC sends about 150 regional teens on four-day, fully outfitted backpacking trips each summer: and that means a whole lot of preparation, planning, and packing food. It isn’t the kind of work that people always imagine when they sign up to volunteer for the TRTA, yet the impact of Melissa’s time made an immense difference for the staff running the program, and the youth taking part.
“At the end of the year we only had like one bin of food left, and I felt very accomplished, just knowing all that food went out,” she said. “I don’t need to be on the frontline…I know the efforts I made contributed to the whole program and that’s enough for me.”
Of course, Melissa can’t deny that guiding is her favorite thing to do. “It’s a beautiful trail, a beautiful area, and people need to be outside recreating,” she said.
Giving people the skills and confidence to get outside is the true reward of the work for Melissa. She shared one story of a group of teens she had the chance to guide from Mt. Rose to Galena Falls and back, and how the wonder and excitement of the first-time hikers in the group reminded her just how powerful the outdoors are.
Melissa’s energy and enthusiasm invigorate everyone who works with her: thank you Melissa!
Agency Award:
The Agency Award honors an organization or entity that has provided unparalleled support to the TRTA, financial or otherwise. This year, the TRTA was proud to recognize the Tahoe Fund, a true champion for environmental stewardship in the Tahoe Basin. Accepting this award was Amy Berry, Executive Director.
Amy Berry came to her role at the Tahoe Fund serendipitously, with a career that started in New York City in advertising, eventually led her to a small marketing company in Tahoe, then into the renewable energy field, and finally to the Tahoe Fund at the non-profit’s inception. Her broad background poised her perfectly to develop relationships with private donors who want to support environmental projects in the Tahoe Basin, with an emphasis on forest health, lake clarity, sustainable recreation, transportation and stewardship.
“We’re really a first and only non-profit [in the area] dedicated to raising funds,” Amy explained.
The Tahoe Fund works diligently to create community partnerships that help ensure that the environmental projects around the Basin are collaborative and not duplicative. Much like the TRTA, this places the Tahoe Fund in the position of working closely with both private and public entities: from one individual donor to a widescale governmental agency such as the Forest Service. Amy explained that Tahoe Fund wants to “be a model for how working together gets things done.”
Tahoe Fund’s partnership with the TRTA is a true testament to this fact. The organizations have worked together every year starting in 2018 to support a huge array of projects including trail maintenance, youth programs, fire restoration, trail ambassadors, and even the new trailhead kiosks to be installed in 2024 and 2025. Many of these grants are multi-year agreements, demonstrating the Tahoe Fund’s trust and dedication to support long-term efforts in the Basin. This approach embodies a shifting mentality in the outdoor and environmental industries to, simply put, think big.
Amy sees this approach reflected in the recent emergence of collaborative groups and strategic planning around the Tahoe Basin, including the Tahoe Regional Trails Strategy and Destination Stewardship Plan.
“What if a 10-million-dollar gift landed in our lap?” asks Amy. “What would we do with it?”
Collaborative plans like the Trails Strategy help answer this question, which is an exercise that the Tahoe Fund sometimes uses to spark conversation and inspiration on their Board. Of course, there are no static answers when it comes to environmental stewardship. A lot of the region’s challenges are still taking shape, and they look different than they used to.
The biggest shift that Amy, and the TRTA, have noticed is the boom in recreation since the COVID-19 pandemic. The TRTA’s mission used to include promoting the trail but now focuses on preserving.
“We don’t really have to tell people to get outside,” Amy said, “but we do have to tell people how to behave when they’re outside.”
The availability of parking, restrooms, water sources, and garbage cans are the kind of infrastructure challenges that the Tahoe Fund sees as some of the Basin’s most quickly emerging threats to sustainable recreation. The scale of these projects and the need for constant management only further highlights the importance of partnerships, long-term planning, and collaboration: tenants of the Tahoe Fund.
In addition to providing financial support to the TRTA, the Tahoe Fund is a vital ally that helps bring more “players to the table,” as Amy phrased it. The organization regularly hosts events for nonprofits to gather and share successes and challenges, strategize partnerships, and gain solidarity.
Thank you, Amy and the Tahoe Fund, for being an invaluable asset to the Basin’s nonprofit community.
Volunteer of the Year:
Does this award need more explanation? Simply put, this awardee went above and beyond this year, proving themselves absolutely invaluable to the TRTA. This year’s Volunteer of the Year is Tricia Tong.
Tricia Tong had never heard of the Tahoe Rim Trail when a woman she did CrossFit with invited her on a hike. Little did she know that this woman was planning to meet up with a TRTA Guide who would be hiking from Echo Lakes to Bayview: a 22-mile slog through Desolation Wilderness and over Dick’s pass, where you walk on more rock than dirt.
The hike was “type-two fun” at its prime. Tricia’s 9-month-old puppy was still tripping over its own feet and protesting the hike by laying down in every available patch of shade, and the friend she’d come with bailed early on the hike and hitch-hiked back to the car. Yet Tricia had been dealing with some health issues and it was the first time in a while she’d been able to feel her muscles burn, her lungs ache for more air. Plus, she had the fortune of having another guest on the hike: Lindsey Schultz.
“She had just been put in charge of Trail Use,” Tricia explained, “and she was telling me everything in the world about the trail, and I was thinking, how cool!”
Tricia may have bailed on the party she was supposed to attend later that night, but that first hike ignited something, and soon she was back for more. She completed the thru-hike as a participant in 2016—the first year that they had a snowstorm hit while a group was on the trail. Her group skipped their last night of camping, opting for the extra mileage to finish a day early and call it a success. Yet another trying experience only seemed to solidify Tricia’s passion for the trail, and in 2018, she led her first thru-hike as a TRTA Guide.
The only years that she has missed a thru-hike since then were during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Caldor fire. When those circumstances intervened with her plans, Tricia still found a way to get outside. During COVID, she and two other TRTA Guides hiked a couple hundred miles up the PCT. During Caldor, Tricia and her husband drove out to Colorado to hike there.
“It becomes part of your ethos,” she explained. “I consider my summer thru-hike as almost my annual therapy session or something. It’s two weeks of disconnecting from the rest of society and getting to know the people I’m on trail with, reconnecting with the trail in a big way, and, you know, it’s awesome.”
For Tricia, the struggle is part of what makes these experiences special. “It’s especially cool guiding to help other people achieve that,” she said, “and to see the excitement and joy in their face…the first time they catch that vista off of Relay or whatever it is, that sense of accomplishment, that moment they realize: I got this.”
Tricia is a shining example of how putting one foot in front of the other out on the Tahoe Rim Trail can take you places you never expected to go. In addition to the time and effort that she puts in on the trail itself, Tricia has also become invaluable to the TRTA for her contributions as a trainer, an expert speaker at community Trail Talks such as “Let’s Talk Gear” and “How to Thru-Hike the TRT,” and as an outstanding Vice-President of the Board.
“I think I get a better perspective of the organization as a whole, being on the Board,” she said.
Tricia has helped forge deeper connections between TRTA Guides and Trail Crews during her time on the Board, even helping to implement a requirement for every Guide to attend at least one trail work day.
“Until you fully spend the day rolling up your sleeves and throwing some rocks around and digging in the dirt, it’s hard to have that perspective of what it really takes to build trail,” she said.
“I think that goodwill goes a long way in both directions,” she added, “in terms of everyone in the organization working as a team and knowing each other and appreciating what the other groups do.”
Tricia has made a deep imprint on the TRTA in her short time as a volunteer; from all the memories forged on the trail, to decisions made in board rooms, and everything in between: like the interpretive guides about the TRT’s history and ecology that she and Sharrel Katibah made it a passion project to publish last year.
Thank you, Tricia, for always embracing a new challenge and bringing your passion to the TRTA!
Hall of Fame:
The Hall of Fame, as the name implies, is saved for truly legendary individuals to be honored for their exemplary display of time and effort over the years. This year’s inductee into the TRTA’s Hall of Fame was none other than Don Bailey.
Don Bailey had “no earthly clue” that signing up for National Trails Day back in 2012 would eventually carve out a legacy for him and his wife Cheryl at the Tahoe Rim Trail Association.
Don grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. “I was a kid on a farm, so I kind of knew about dirt and stuff like that,” Don said, “but not about maintaining a trail.”
In true fashion, Don’s interview took place at Adventure Peak, a former Olympic training ground turned winter sledding hill, located near Echo Summit along part of the Big Meadow to Echo Lakes segment of the TRT. Don hopscotched over mucky pools of snowmelt to retrieve
diapers, microplastics, and water bottles that the spring sunshine had revealed; telling stories and reminiscing on his journey as he filled bucket after bucket with garbage.
After that first National Trails Day, the Bailey’s involvement with the TRTA quickly took off. The couple finished the segment hike program the next year in 2013 and returned to trail work with a new passion, having completed the entire trail. The two were quickly taken under the wing of some of the TRTA’s best, who recognized their passion for the trail and willingness to work hard. Within no time, Don was learning from a legend he probably never expected to join the company of in the TRTA’s Hall of Fame: Phil Brisack.
It was under Phil and his wife, Nancy’s, wing that Don and Cheryl began to gain the skills that they now teach others. Phil knew that eventually, he would have to give up his role as Segment Coordinator of the Big Meadow to Echo Lakes section, and he needed to make sure there would be someone capable of inheriting it.
Segment Coordinator is the highest leadership role for volunteers and requires a deep knowledge of the trail in that area, the partners that manage it, and the many skills needed to lead crews and complete priority trail work. More than that, though, being a Segment Coordinator takes passion, attention to detail, and a willingness to do the work. Nothing proved that more than watching Don’s tenacity on trash patrol.
After filling seven garbage bags, and only having one torn apart by a raven and re-bagged, it was time for a well-earned lunch break. In many ways, nothing speaks better to Don’s passion for and knowledge of the trail than listening to him and Phil’s banter. The two discussed if it was worth the three extra miles of hiking to check out trail conditions behind a locked forest service gate; debriefed a recent chainsaw training; and mused over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend and what the season would bring. Hopefully not too much more trash, they agreed.
Don’s eyes would often wander up the trail as they talked and ate, tracing the path of a re-route that he said was one of his most memorable projects, especially the 5,000 ft stretch etched into the granite slope with just a power drill, feather shims, and wedges. The re-route provided better sight lines where the trail crosses Highway 50, improving user safety and also, Don noted proudly, reducing road noise on the approach.
Later this summer, Don will lead another re-route with the same safety objective but south of Echo Summit, where the trail crosses Highway 89 near Big Meadow. That work will continue improvements to the Big Meadow area that started with replacing the downtrodden bridge last summer. The Big Meadow bridge is somewhat like Sisyphus’s boulder for the TRTA, with the cycles of snow and sun inevitably taking their toll each yet. Yet Don has embraced that task as a particularly storied part of his responsibility as Segment Coordinator; going to show that for him, the hard work is what it’s all about.
Thank you, Don, for carrying on the trail’s legacy with ceaseless positivity and energy.
2024’s Annual Awards at the Tahoe Rim Trail Association honored the many unique perspectives and stories that make our volunteers special. Since its inception, the TRTA has relied on the passion of our community members to make our mission possible. Thank you to this year’s awardees, and to each and every individual who makes this organization special. We couldn’t do it without you!
