Region: Eastern Washington
Professional Performance
The PNTA Performance Crew program provides opportunities for local trail enthusiasts to learn and apply trail construction and maintenance skills. By working as stewards of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail and other trails in Eastern Washington, Crew Members serve their communities and our public lands, by providing outstanding recreation opportunities for visitors to the area.
All Performance Crew Members are fully compensated and trained to perform at a professional level, by constructing and maintaining trails to U.S. Forest Service Standards. Led by Performance Crew Leaders, Kristin and Bodhi Ackerman, crew members are provided with valuable training in: first aid/ CPR, safe food handling, tool maintenance and safety, trail-building and maintenance techniques, wilderness stewardship, Leave-No-Trace Ethics, and backcountry living.
Many projects require backcountry camping in remote spike camps and long, labor-intensive work days. Depending on the size of the project and its location, crews may work either a 40-hour work week (5-days on, 2-days off) or more often, an 80-hour week (10-days on, 4-days off) through the course of an 8-10 week season.
The Ackermans have co-lead PNTA trail crews since 2012, training crews to perform at a professional level, by constructing and maintaining trails to U.S. Forest Service Standards.
About Our Crew Leaders
Kristin Ackerman co-leads PNTA Trail Crews on the Okanogan. Her pre-trails background includes communication, customer service, and business administration—and you’d be surprised to learn how much she leverages those skills as a crew leader! Although her family camped every summer, a childhood in the burbs did not satisfy her innate craving for nature. While studying at Cal Poly, she relished wandering the canyons, hills and shorelines of San Luis Obispo. In 2004—for her first-ever backpacking trip— Kristin hiked 100 miles of the PCT in the High Sierras. Since then, she is thrilled to discover that leading PNTA SKY Crews is the perfect way (for her) to become profoundly engaged with a specific place in the wilderness, while quieting the mind and exercising the body. To boot, she has discovered a passion for sharing this experience with youth crews, and nourishing them as camp cook.
Bodhi Ackerman serendipitously stumbled into trail stewardship in 2012, when the PNTA hired him to lead SKY Performance Crews in North Central Washington. His pre-trail experiences include firefighting, landscaping, construction, food service, ski-lift ops, lifeguard and camp counselor. He has always been an outdoorsman: skiing, camping, and Boy Scout adventures were the norm in his youth; then, as a young man— following in his grandparents’ footsteps— he roamed the backcountry of the High Sierras. Since then, he has rooted himself in a “forever home” in the Okanogan, and is grateful to hang his hat with the PNTA, where he can pursue excellence in trail construction, and share his passion for the outdoors and honest, hard work with the next generation of stewards.
Support the Crew
Donations made to the PNTA, in support of the PNTA Performance Trail Crew, Eastern Washington Region, can help fund trail work and support the crew in circumstances where grant funding is limited or unavailable. For photos of the crew at work, please visit the PNTA Okanogan Facebook page.