John Catts Little Cougar Award

John Catts, whose leadership as the Western States Endurance Run Foundation’s Trails Manager over the past decade has ushered in the most comprehensive and successful trail effort in WSER’s long history, was presented with the organization’s highest honor – the Little Cougar Award – on the evening of Sept. 12, 2026, during a trail work weekend in the Granite Chief Wilderness.

Catts, a longtime trail runner and WSER finisher, equestrian and volunteer, started participating in trail work as a requirement for entry into the 2009 race, and quickly developed a relationship with the U.S. Forest Service, American River Ranger District, which was cemented in 2014 in a weeks-long effort to rebuild the Swinging Bridge following damage cause by the 2013 American Fire, with Forest Service personnel and a few other volunteers.

Catts is credited with implementation of the trail stewardship model that Western States’ Mark Falcone and Catts developed in 2018. In partnership with the Western States Trail Foundation (organizer of the Tevis Cup Endurance Ride), and in collaboration with the American River and Truckee Ranger Districts and the Auburn State Recreation Area. The model has worked to maintain and improve trails used by both WSER and the Tevis Cup as well as the public at large, ensuring the WS Trail is open year round for use.

The Volunteer Steward Program, modeled after the successful approaches used to maintain the Pacific Crest Trail and Tahoe Rim Trail, has relied on small, well-trained and highly committed core groups of volunteers working through open signup work days throughout the trail maintenance season. The Volunteer Stewardship Program has been so successful that WSER volunteer workdays throughout the trail season are usually sold out. And because of the dedication of our core trail team members, which has attracted others interested in giving back through trail work, rather than performing it as a requirement to race entry, Race Director Craig Thornley was able to successfully advocate to drop the volunteer requirement for WSER participation.

In 2022-2023, Catts played an important role in planning and executing the extraordinary effort to bring portions of the Western States Trail back after the trail was heavily damaged by 2022’s Mosquito Fire, which occurred in September 2022. Remarkably, with only a brief window available for trail work in the winter and spring 2023, and after hundreds of hours spent every single weekend on the trail, Western States Trail was reopened for public use in early May of 2023, and our event was held on time in June 2023 with no reroutes.

Craig Thornley and John Catts

Most recently Catts has spearhead efforts that have included a mammoth, four-year Granite Chief Wilderness course reroute project that is nearing completion this month. The effort, known as the Granite Chief Wilderness Trail Reroute Project, began in earnest with initial funding through the U.S. Forest Service in 2022, with work commencing in 2023.  From its inception, the Granite Chief Reroute has been designed to close sections of the existing Western States Trail that had been created by the public (not designed), with unsustainable grades that traverses sensitive habitat and active water courses, and replace them with trail segments that are higher up on the ridge, out of sensitive habitat, but also have commanding views. Divided into nine trail segments, a combination of professional crews as well as WSER trail volunteers have created more than six miles of new trail and rehabilitated three miles of existing trail in the area connecting Granite Chief, Needle and Lyon Peaks. The new trail allows recreational users of all types the opportunity to walk, run or ride.

Catts’ strategic skills have been at the forefront of the project from its inception. His leadership has been critical in keeping the four-year effort moving forward uninterrupted, including during times of government shutdown as well as federal reappropriation policies.

“This has been one of the most complex undertakings WSER has ever been a part of,” WSER Race Director Craig Thornley said. “Without John’s vision, tenacity and capacity as an organizer who won’t be deterred, the Granite Chief Reroute could not have been completed in the record time that we’ve witnessed over the past several summers. It’s an example of the kind of work John has done on behalf of WSER for many years – work that will touch generations to come.”

Added WSER President Topher Gaylord: “John’s contributions to our organization have been immense. He has always represented the true ideals of Western States in his unceasing ability to collaborate positively with a wide multitude of stakeholders, resource managers and volunteers. His work is an emblem of what the Little Cougar Award represents, which is awarded to individuals who have served our organization through the years in extraordinarily significant ways.”