Haines’ trail-building nonprofit, Haines Huts and Trails, hired a new director last month. Erik Boraas spent nearly the last decade leading a nonprofit trail organization in Juneau.  Boraas has big plans to make Haines a travel destination for trail lovers of all abilities, including his cat.

“It’s a dream job.”

That’s Erik Boraas, the new Outdoor Initiative Coordinator for Haines Huts and Trails.  Borass spent last week in Haines, meeting with the Board of Directors and getting a lay of the land.  He’s working remotely from Juneau, where he’s spent the last 15 years. But he told KHNS that he’ll be moving to Haines in May.

 “I’ve been waiting to move to Haines for years,” Boraas said. “But I wanted a full time job.  I wanted something that would keep me here.  I didn’t want to just move here and be like, ‘Ahhh. What work is there?’ So finding this–something that is 100% in my wheelhouse, that I’ve done before–in a place that I’ve been meaning to move to, and I love. It’s perfect. It’s great.”

Boraas spent the last nine years working as the executive director of Trail Mix.   That’s a Juneau-based nonprofit that is–much like Haines Huts and Trails–dedicated to maintaining and developing trails. 

In his Juneau role, Boraas says he helped develop a lot of trails. He says that building trails in Southeast Alaska is as much about building relationships as it is about moving dirt.   

He says trails in Alaska often cross land owned by different entities. For example, a trail could start in city land, then go through Alaska Parks Land, then travel through U.S. Forest Service land, then maybe end up back in borough land. It takes a nonprofit trail crew, like one from Haines Huts or Trail Mix, to be able to work on any section of that trail, no matter who owns the land.  

“The average trail user doesn’t care,” Boraas said. “You start on a trail and you end on a trail.  And where the property line is, that’s not important at all to anyone who wants to go for a hike. But it is important for government agencies.  They have to respect those boundaries.  You can’t pay your trail crew to go work on State Parks Land if you’re the Forest Service.  So that’s why Trail Mix was incorporated. And I hope to bring that to Haines. Because there’s a lot of the same issues.”

Boraas says that in his first month as coordinator, he has already written three grants.  He says that intensive fundraising and grant writing is a top priority. But when he arrives in Haines this May, his first order of business will be to learn the Haines trails firsthand. 

Boraas loves trails.  He’s a hunter of both deer and mushrooms.  He hikes every morning for a few hours, but says his daily hike isn’t about distance.  He can often be found sitting on a rock and whittling spoons.  He hikes with his cat, and she won’t let him miss a day.  She wakes him up, meowing for her morning ritual.  

“Her name is Winter,” Boraas said.  “Well that’s on her paperwork. She thinks her name is Princess Fuzzy Butt. Because that’s what I call her.”

Boraas says the long term goals for Haines Huts and Trails is to accommodate users at both ends of the trail-use spectrum.

Right now, there are two main goals: The first is to create more accessible trails that would accommodate all user types.  From stroller runners, to foragers to feline-loving whittlers.  Boraas says Haines is lacking in options for people who just want to go for an hour hike, without hiking straight up and down a mountainside.  He says he helped develop the first wheelchair accessible trail in Juneau. 

The second goal is to create a hut system on the ridgelines above Haines. The huts will be public-use cabins that will be connected by trails, built and maintained largely by Haines Huts and Trails.

“People from outside of Alaska have a very good reason to come to Haines,” Boraas said. “They’d be like, ‘Oh, there’s this hut-to-hut system I can rent.   This hut, to this hut, to this hut.  And I can do a week-long adventure.  I know where I”m going every night.  I’ve got a place to dry out, warm up. It’s bear proof, all that.’ So we’re hoping to develop something like that. To make it a destination for people to come to Haines.”

Haines Huts and Trails is almost finished with the first hut in this system.  The organization’s flagship hut is located at 3200’ on the flanks of Mount Tukgahgo.  It’s called Tukga-hut, and volunteers helped to build it last year.  

Boraas says that the cabin still needs a few finishing touches and is expected to be open for reservations this summer. He still needs to create a reservation system on the Haines Huts and Trails website, and members will be the first allowed to register.

He says that Haines Huts and trails will not be developing any new trails this summer, but will instead work on maintaining existing trails. Once the snow clears, Boraas plans to host monthly work days where volunteers will brush and clear existing trails.