Ryan and Sterling met in 2010 while working for the Student Conservation Association and U.S. Forest Service on the Pacific Crest Trail. A few years ago they reconnected in Bellingham, WA and discovered that local land owners and managers were hungry for trails. Thus, Cascade Trail Design was born!
Ryan Hughes
Principal Project Manager
Ryan started his career in landscape design in 2004 at a landscape architecture firm in his childhood home of Tulsa, OK. After getting the urge to travel out west, he hopped on his first trail crew in the Umatilla National Forest and never looked back.
A graduate of Oklahoma State University and always one for extensive study and learning, Ryan threw himself head first into conservation work spending the next decade traveling around America’s wild places. From Alaska to Washington, Wyoming and California Ryan developed a love of traditional skills, including dry-stacked stone masonry, woodworking, and trail design and layout. In 2018 he emerged from the wilderness and assumed a career in architecture drafting and designing custom home remodels and additions throughout the San Francisco Bay and Seattle areas. He has also followed this woodworking passions making fine, handcrafted furniture.
Ryan brings nearly two decades of experience in trail layout and construction, project management, landscape design, and hands-on custom carpentry to Cascade Trail Design and is eager to help you build the wilderness experience of your dreams. He loves the challenge of making something work. On his weekends you can find him bumbling around his cabinet shop laughing at his own jokes.
A fervent examiner of how things get put together, Ryan is your go-to contact for the nuts and bolts of your project. Whether it is a question regarding the intricacies of planning and building code, or what species of wood to use on your new boardwalk, Ryan is ready to help you pursue your ambitions of better accessing your land.
Sterling Collins-Hill
Principal Designer
Sterling grew up in the forests of Maine with outdoor and conservation ethics instilled in him from a young age. In 1998 he accepted his first job with a local conservation corps where he began his journey in trail construction and natural resource management. The lessons he learned about himself, teamwork, and being outdoors laid a foundation that he would build on for years to come.
He graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges double majoring in Design and English Literature and then moved out west where he taught elementary school before transitioning permanently to a career in public land access and management.
Over the last fifteen years Sterling has held leadership positions with numerous conservation organizations as well as both state and federal agencies around The West from the New Mexico to Alaska. He has hiked thousands of miles, accrued tens of thousands of hours of outdoor leadership experience, and worked on three National Scenic Trails. He enjoys the challenges, freedom, and thrills that come with backcountry skiing. His happy place is seeing live music with his friends.
Sterling is eager to get out on the land with you and design a trail that gives you practical, enjoyable access to the land. Whether you’re looking to walk along the water’s edge, meander through the trees, or just get from here to there, he’ll bring his years of expertise to creating the right route for you and your ambitions.