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Professional Trail Crews
In addition to Alaska Trail Stewards volunteer events each summer, Alaska Trails hires professional trail crews to decrease the backlog of necessary trail construction and maintenance projects in Southcentral Alaska. Trail crews work in coordination with municipalities, the US Forest Service, Chugach State Park, the BLM, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Hatcher Pass State Park, and Denali State Park to complete projects that improve our trail systems.
In 2026, three trail crews will spend the summer out on our trails, working hard to ensure that we can enjoy the trails that make Alaska so special.
Chugach State Park Trail Crew
This crew will work primarily on the Lost Cabin Valley and Wolverine Ski Loop Trails in Chugach State Park. The crew will focus on drainage solutions, building and improving trail structures, and trail reroutes to avoid perpetually wet and muddy sections. They will also spend a few weeks on Chugach State Park priority projects that require maintenance.
Meet the Crew
Jennie Robinson, Crew Leader
Jennie has always been drawn to adventure, working for a study abroad company before getting her start in trails as a crew member at American Conservation Experience. She went on to work in fuels reduction and wildland fire for a couple seasons before returning to trails. Jennie loves perusing used bookstores, hiking, and crafting.
Wils Evans, Crew Member
Wils Evans grew up on a small family farm in southern Illinois, and now studies environmental science at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. He fell in love with the mountains while working and backpacking in New Zealand during a gap year, and has been tirelessly chasing new mountains since. Some of his favorite hobbies include mountain biking, rock climbing, fishing, backpacking, and especially exploring new places. Wils was introduced to trail work when he joined the Nevada Conservation Corps in the summer of 2025, and after thoroughly enjoying his time spent building trail in the scenic backcountry of Nevada and California, he decided 2026 was the year to pursue his lifelong dream of working in Alaska. He is very excited for his first season with Alaska Trails, and his first time ever in Alaska!
Jacquelyn Opalach, Crew Member
Jacquelyn is happiest in the backcountry and can’t imagine life without trails. With a bit of volunteering experience doing landscaping, forest restoration, and construction work, she is an eager newcomer to Alaska and trail work. Jacquelyn grew up on the north coast of California and loves to embroider, alter clothes, make jewelry, carve stamps, eat good food, and, of course, hike.
Matthew Medina, Crew Member
Matthew is from a small town called la Plata Huila, located in Colombia. He grew up on a cattle ranch, working since he was five years old. Once he graduated high school, he moved to California and joined the California Conservation Corps (CCC) and right then and there he fell in love with trail work. After being in the CCC, he joined a California statewide trail crew and worked on all different kinds of trails from backcountry to front country and ADA Trails.
Eli Pettet, Crew Member
This is Eli's first season on the Alaska trails crew! He is a new-grad paramedic who has been doing seasonal work for the last few years while training. He is an avid white water kayaker, skier, and simply adores all things nature. Eli is excited to spend the summer out in his happy place and to bring some new life to the Wolverine trail system.
Chugach National Forest Trail Crew
The Chugach National Forest Trail Crew will be working on the Meridian Lakes Trail, Upper Winner Creek Trail, and Iditarod National Historic Trail. This crew will work on trail maintenance projects such as brushing, drainage, tread hardening, as well as wooden structure work.
Meet the Crew
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Olga Iwaniuk, Crew Leader
Although originally hailing from Illinois, Olga has been stewarding trails in Chugach State Park and Chugach National Forest since 2022 and is excited to be returning to Alaska Trails for a second season. Spending several summers on the banks of the Copper River and in the Wrangell Mountains, she loves her time in the backcountry paddling rivers, climbing mountains, skiing, and occasionally tandem bikepacking.
Ellen Eller, Crew Member
Ellen is currently living in Portland but was born and raised in the woods on the Kenia Peninsula where she helped in the garden or with building projects on her homestead. She loved growing up in Alaska, going on week long camping trips in the Chugach National Forest mountains, jumping off a raft somewhere down the Kenai river and picking seaweed and berries across the Kachemak Bay. She fell in love with trail maintenance last season working with Alaska Trails. You can usually find her building houses with natural materials or adventuring outdoors with friends.
Ethan Copp, Crew Member
Ethan was raised in Butte, Alaska, under the shadow of Matanuska Peak. He enjoys trail running, mountains, a sauna, a multitude of movement practices, and fresh air. Ethan has done trail work in the Kenai Wildlife Refuge, Katmai National Park, and around Southcentral Alaska, volunteering with Alaska Trails. He looks forward to contributing his time and labor to build trails for Alaska's people and communities.
Jillian Gehman, Crew Member
This will be Jillian's second season as a trail crew member with Alaska Trails. She's originally from Pennsylvania, but found how much she loves hands on, physically demanding work on an environmental restoration crew in California. From there, Jillian moved to Colorado to work for the Rocky Mountain Conservancy for two seasons on their backcountry trail crew. She then spent two years exploring Colorado and other job fields, but is at her peak happiness on trail alongside other crew members! She's stoked to be returning to Alaska this summer!
Claudia Lyman, Crew Member
Claudia grew up in the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania where she developed a passion for exploring the outdoors. In 2022 after graduating with a B.S. in Environmental Geoscience she had no idea what to do next so she joined an AmeriCorps trail crew and learned to maintain trails in California State Parks. Eager to explore and build more trails she spent her next summer with the Montana Conservation Corps learning to crosscut in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. She fell in love with working in the backcountry and bringing forgotten trails back to life. Claudia continued exploring remote areas and spent two seasons in Washington working on backcountry trail crews for the Washington Trails Association and the Pacific Northwest Trails Association. When not on trail, she enjoys traveling abroad, browsing local thrift stores, and being cozy with a good book. She is very excited to be joining the Alaska Trails team and is looking forward to a great season.
Mat-Su Trail Crew
This crew will spend most of their season on trails in Nancy Lake State Recreation Area, Denali State Park, Gull Rock Trail, and Horsetail Falls Trail. They will complete log outs, reroutes, tread hardening, minor structure work, brushing, and drainage.
Meet the Crew
Sarris Harris, Crew Leader
Sarris grew up in Anchorage, AK and is happy to be returning to Alaska Trails for their fourth full season of work, and their third year leading a crew. Previous work with Alaska Trails includes building step-and-run structure on Heney Ridge Trail and McKinley Lake Trail in Cordova, extensive reroutes on the Williwaw Lakes Trail in Chugach State Park, and copious amounts of brushing to clear the Childs Glacier Airstrip. They have a BS in environmental science from WWU, but after serving a term with WCC after graduating, they decided they like to dig and run saws more than they like to do science. Sarris loves listening to music, writing, skiing, climbing, fatbiking, knitting, running, chocolate, dogs and probably some other stuff too.
Taylor Gephart, Crew Member
Taylor Gephart joined the Alaska Trails pro crew team in 2026. She is a born and raised Alaskan. Taylor has previously done two seasons as a wildland firefighter with the Alaska Division of Forestry and one season with NOLS Alaska as an operations assistant. She enjoys backpacking, snowboarding, ice skating, and long slow walks with a chainsaw. Taylor is passionate about all things outdoors and is super excited to be joining the crew this summer and exploring Alaska's vast backcountry and wildlife.
Henry Staunton, Crew Member
Henry was raised in a small woodsy town in Connecticut where he developed a passion for hiking and the natural world. He attended the University of Vermont where he spent much time exploring the mountains of northern New England, and after graduating went on to perform two seasons of trail work for conservation corps in Utah and Idaho, as well as a season fighting fire with the Forest Service in Arizona. In addition to hiking and enjoying nature Henry loves music, climbing, and skiing.
Jeremy Felton, Crew Member
Jeremy grew up in Arkansas with a love for the outdoors, spending most of his childhood exploring and playing in the woods. He then moved to Seward shortly after high school, where he felt drawn to explore Alaska’s rugged landscape. Jeremy's adventurous spirit and strong work ethic came in handy on his first trail crew on the Arizona Trail in 2021. Since then he has continued to grow his trail building skills through Crew Leading for the Montana Conservation Corps and working for the Washington Trails Association. Jeremy has traveled far and wide to follow his passion for trail work. Jeremy spends most of his free time on spontaneous road trips, adopting house plants, and petting every cat he finds.
Kelvin Rivas, Crew Member
Kelvin grew up in Virginia where he went to Virginia Tech and received a BS in environmental data science and developed a deep love of the Appalachian mountains. He started his conservation journey with Appalachian Conservation Corps on a trail crew, then worked with Vermont Conservation Corps on a forestry crew, and most recently worked with Montana Conservation Corps as the assistant crew lead on a trail crew. He enjoys skiing, biking, hiking, swinging tools, and operating chainsaws and of course has a deep love of the natural world and conservation.
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