In Memory of Meichen
On July 20th, 2025, Sitka Trail Works lost a cherished member of their team, Meichen Plumhoff. Meichen, a Trail Crew Lead for two years, was a force of nature and an inspiration to everyone who knew her. Her contributions to Sitka Trail Works went far beyond trails; she built community.
The below poem was written by Emily Pound, edited and added to by the rest of the staff at Sitka Trail Works. A version was read aloud at their annual membership meeting.
To honor Meichen’s legacy, Sitka Trail Works launched a new endowment-like fund with the goal of having sustainable returns that could pay a trail crew leader's salary in perpetuity. Learn more about the fund here: https://sitkatrailworks.org/evergreen/.
In Memory of Meichen
She’s a figure in the distance, with a chainsaw over her shoulder.
She's dirt freckled cheeks, strong hands, and a metal binder of field notes and project plans .
She’s the precisely placed rocks on the armored water crossings at Mosquito Cove, the new timber slab foot bridge on Kaasda Heen, and the chainsaw milled stairs at Sealion Cove.
She’s a neon yellow beanie, leather work boots, mud-caked canvas pants, and a gray hoodie, abandoning the flashy work vest she just couldn’t justify.
She’s the clean work bench, the custom rockbar hanging rack, the rehandled tool. She’s the ride home for a coworker, the hour of prep before a 10-hour day, the project report submitted on a Saturday.
She's a white Rav 4 with a spotted dog peaking out the front passenger seat, who chooses his collar each day, ready for his next adventure with her.
She’s a charming grin, ruthless teasing, and an energizing laugh that lifts the collective mood in a downpour.
She’s the future friendship we were slowly nurturing through intimate moments on trail and the lessons we were to learn through her mentorship. She is the trails she built and the trails she would have built. She is the stone stairs, the yellow cedar stringers, the crib wall, the cleared trail. She is the projects left waiting, the ones she had planned, and the lifetime of projects she would have attempted. All the memories, and everything she touched in her evergreen world.
