The Martin D. Papendick award started in 2010 providing recognition for the outstanding Trail Angel(s) of the year.  The award is named for Martin who was the first person to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 1952.  When Martin came back from WWII, he wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail (AT) and completed that in 1951. Realizing that a few others had hiked the AT before him, he desired to do something no one had done before and heard about the fledgling efforts by Clinton Churchill Clark to establish the PCT. On July 4th, 1952 he left the Canadian border and reached the Mexican border on Dec 1st, 1952. The story of his hike was never fully recognized. Only one article ever appeared in Appalachia Magazine called "Pacific Crest Trails", and the story was nearly lost until the late 1990’s when Dave Porter tracked down Martin and confirmed the story with him and his brother.

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Every year ALDHA-West asks our members and wider community to nominate trail angels--active or from years past--that are supporting hikers on long-distance trails of the West. This includes, but is not limited, to the PCT, CDT, PNT, AZT, GET, JMT, Hayduke Trail, etc.​​​