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Cowgill Trail Collective, Seattle's Free Trail Group

Cowgill Trail Collective began as a joke Instagram account in 2018 and now runs free weekly trail runs across Seattle, a group since spring 2021.

<h2>Aaron Long Started Cowgill as an Instagram Joke</h2> <p>Aaron Long started an Instagram account called Cowgill in 2018, posting silly, deliberately non-elite trail running content out of Seattle: in-jokes, shenanigans, nothing that resembled a training log. For a few years, that&#x27;s all it was. In the spring of 2021, Long and two friends, Rachel Dam and Brad Leatherbarrow, turned the account into actual trail runs, meeting up on trails around the city instead of just posting about them. The result, now called Cowgill Trail Collective, has grown into a free trail running group with no fee attached.</p> <h2>The Account Predates the Group by Three Years</h2> <p>The joke and the club run on different clocks. Separating them fixes the math. Long has said that he, Dam and Leatherbarrow were doing informal trail outings together starting in 2020, two years after Cowgill existed only as an Instagram account, and before they had many trail running friends to bring along. The organized group runs Cowgill is now known for did not begin until spring 2021, a year confirmed independently by both the collective&#x27;s own site and a 2024 Seattle magazine profile. Nothing in the record places Dam or Leatherbarrow on the account back in 2018. The founding story is really two stories. A solo bit ran for three years, then a friendship turned it into a group.</p> <h2>Cowgill Trail Collective Runs Four Routes a Week</h2> <p>The current schedule, posted on the group&#x27;s own site, fills a Seattle running week without repeating a single spot. Monday evenings send Womxn Run The Herd to Brooks Trailhead at 6pm. Wednesday mornings belong to Werkout Wednesday, a 6:30am session on the track at Lower Woodland Park. Thursday splits in two: an early trail run out of Issaquah at 6:30am, then an evening road run and social called Thirsty Seconds at the North Transfer Station Playground. Tuesday stays quieter, with a monthly potluck called Graze &amp; Chill and a biweekly morning edition of Womxn Run The Herd. Weekends carry the rest: Smooth Mooves camping trips, Silky &amp; Filthy trail maintenance days, and beginner-focused, no-drop intro runs for people new to the sport.</p> <h2>The Name Came From Two Twins in Ohio</h2> <p>The name itself has nothing to do with Seattle. Long borrowed it from Jarrett and Kyler Cowgill, twins he ran with at Wittenberg University in Ohio, years before the account or the group existed. It&#x27;s the one piece of the origin story set somewhere else, and Long is the only founder on record explaining it.</p> <h2>Membership Counts Shift by the Year</h2> <p>How many people belong to Cowgill Trail Collective depends on the source, and on when it&#x27;s checked. RUN, published by Outside, reported in May 2023 that the group had grown to more than 500 members, including a Slack channel of over 500 people. Territory Run Co&#x27;s account of the same group, undated, put the Slack channel at just over 300. Neither figure has been updated since. The collective&#x27;s own site publishes no member count at all. Its Strava club page, which would show a live total, wasn&#x27;t viewable when checked. What both figures agree on is the model underneath them: the group&#x27;s own site states plainly that every event is free and open to the public and that members pay no dues, a line one co-founder has put more bluntly. Making money was never the point.</p> <h2>Two More Cities Now Claim a Cowgill Herd</h2> <p>Cowgill&#x27;s own site currently states that two more cities now have their own herd: Boise, Idaho and Portland, Oregon, alongside the original in Seattle. Territory Run Co tells a narrower story. It describes only the Portland herd as actually formed, after Portland runners reached out and asked to start one, and it names Bend and Boulder as cities that inquired but never got a herd of their own. Boise isn&#x27;t mentioned at all. Whichever version is current, the expansion says something about the original: a schedule built around a handful of Seattle trailheads and one city park track turned out portable enough that runners elsewhere wanted a version of their own.</p> <h2>Long on Why Members Keep Showing Up</h2> <p>Only Long is quoted on record. He explains why it keeps working, too. He has said the group deliberately avoids repeating routes: &quot;Groups often stick to the same routes, and while that&#x27;s great, we wanted a little more novelty.&quot; He has described a typical week from inside the group: &quot;Members often attend and see each other at numerous events each week, from local runs and socials to weekends filled with camping and spending all day in the mountains together.&quot; Asked about the point of it, he was direct: &quot;We are always working on ways to be more inclusive and make trail running a more accessible sport.&quot; The group posts routes and RSVPs on Instagram at @cowgilltrailcollective, keeps a public Strava club, and takes questions at cowgill.trail@gmail.com. A joke account named for two Ohio twins is, eight years on, mostly about who actually shows up on a Wednesday morning at the Lower Woodland Park track.</p>

Aaron Long Started Cowgill as an Instagram Joke

Aaron Long started an Instagram account called Cowgill in 2018, posting silly, deliberately non-elite trail running content out of Seattle: in-jokes, shenanigans, nothing that resembled a training log. For a few years, that's all it was. In the spring of 2021, Long and two friends, Rachel Dam and Brad Leatherbarrow, turned the account into actual trail runs, meeting up on trails around the city instead of just posting about them. The result, now called Cowgill Trail Collective, has grown into a free trail running group with no fee attached.

The Account Predates the Group by Three Years

The joke and the club run on different clocks. Separating them fixes the math. Long has said that he, Dam and Leatherbarrow were doing informal trail outings together starting in 2020, two years after Cowgill existed only as an Instagram account, and before they had many trail running friends to bring along. The organized group runs Cowgill is now known for did not begin until spring 2021, a year confirmed independently by both the collective's own site and a 2024 Seattle magazine profile. Nothing in the record places Dam or Leatherbarrow on the account back in 2018. The founding story is really two stories. A solo bit ran for three years, then a friendship turned it into a group.

Cowgill Trail Collective Runs Four Routes a Week

The current schedule, posted on the group's own site, fills a Seattle running week without repeating a single spot. Monday evenings send Womxn Run The Herd to Brooks Trailhead at 6pm. Wednesday mornings belong to Werkout Wednesday, a 6:30am session on the track at Lower Woodland Park. Thursday splits in two: an early trail run out of Issaquah at 6:30am, then an evening road run and social called Thirsty Seconds at the North Transfer Station Playground. Tuesday stays quieter, with a monthly potluck called Graze & Chill and a biweekly morning edition of Womxn Run The Herd. Weekends carry the rest: Smooth Mooves camping trips, Silky & Filthy trail maintenance days, and beginner-focused, no-drop intro runs for people new to the sport.

The Name Came From Two Twins in Ohio

The name itself has nothing to do with Seattle. Long borrowed it from Jarrett and Kyler Cowgill, twins he ran with at Wittenberg University in Ohio, years before the account or the group existed. It's the one piece of the origin story set somewhere else, and Long is the only founder on record explaining it.

Membership Counts Shift by the Year

How many people belong to Cowgill Trail Collective depends on the source, and on when it's checked. RUN, published by Outside, reported in May 2023 that the group had grown to more than 500 members, including a Slack channel of over 500 people. Territory Run Co's account of the same group, undated, put the Slack channel at just over 300. Neither figure has been updated since. The collective's own site publishes no member count at all. Its Strava club page, which would show a live total, wasn't viewable when checked. What both figures agree on is the model underneath them: the group's own site states plainly that every event is free and open to the public and that members pay no dues, a line one co-founder has put more bluntly. Making money was never the point.

Two More Cities Now Claim a Cowgill Herd

Cowgill's own site currently states that two more cities now have their own herd: Boise, Idaho and Portland, Oregon, alongside the original in Seattle. Territory Run Co tells a narrower story. It describes only the Portland herd as actually formed, after Portland runners reached out and asked to start one, and it names Bend and Boulder as cities that inquired but never got a herd of their own. Boise isn't mentioned at all. Whichever version is current, the expansion says something about the original: a schedule built around a handful of Seattle trailheads and one city park track turned out portable enough that runners elsewhere wanted a version of their own.

Long on Why Members Keep Showing Up

Only Long is quoted on record. He explains why it keeps working, too. He has said the group deliberately avoids repeating routes: "Groups often stick to the same routes, and while that's great, we wanted a little more novelty." He has described a typical week from inside the group: "Members often attend and see each other at numerous events each week, from local runs and socials to weekends filled with camping and spending all day in the mountains together." Asked about the point of it, he was direct: "We are always working on ways to be more inclusive and make trail running a more accessible sport." The group posts routes and RSVPs on Instagram at @cowgilltrailcollective, keeps a public Strava club, and takes questions at cowgill.trail@gmail.com. A joke account named for two Ohio twins is, eight years on, mostly about who actually shows up on a Wednesday morning at the Lower Woodland Park track.

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