Description
Start Date-End Date: 05/30/2015-05/31/2015
Land Manager Office: CPW - Cheyenne Mountain State Park
Land Manager Contact: Mitch Martin
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Build a new trail that will help minimize impacts to local habitat in this beautiful and unique landscape.
Description: ABOUT THE STEWARDSHIP SITE
Situated in an incredible landscape that inspired "America the Beautiful", the 1,680-acre Cheyenne Mountain State Park is nestled between towering mountains and the Colorado Springs skyline. In the park you'll find 20 miles of hiking and biking trails as well as a diverse population of plants and wildlife. Deer, elk, black bears, bobcats, cougars, coyotes, hawks, eagles, red foxes, and prairie dogs are just some of the animals that reside in the park.
ABOUT THE VOLUNTEER WORK
With the influx of visitors to Cheyenne Mountain State Park, it's important to minimize disturbances to the park's ecology. Volunteers will construct a new trail, the Dixon Trail, which will allow visitors to access some of the most spectacular places in the park, while preserving habitat. This project will be a multi-year effort to establish a new sustainable trail to the top of Cheyenne Mountain. The 3-mile trail will link up to the Top of the Mountain Trail which will continue another 3.6 miles through a meadow covered in wildflowers. The trail layout follows portions of the existing historic Dixon Homestead Trail. The project site is located on the far western edge of Cheyenne Mountain State Park, on the southern face of Cheyenne Mountain. Despite its proximity to Colorado Springs, this project will be a remote experience. Access to the work site will require a1-mile hike.
Free meals and camping provided.
PARTNERS
Colorado Parks and Wildlife - Cheyenne Mountain State Park
Latitude/Longitude: 38.69810104370117, -104.85050201416015
Additional Information:
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Difficult
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 50
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 105
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 105
Total Unique Volunteers: 65
Total Volunteer Hours: 889
Staff Hours: 56.5
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: After a year hiatus and three consecutive projects canceled by weather, VOC returned to Cheyenne Mountain State Park to continue to work the Dixon trail. Fifty-seven volunteers came out on the weekend on May 30 - 31st to take part in the physically challenging project. Volunteers endured a steep 45 minute hike to the worksite. Saturday morning began with thick cloud cover that eventually gave way to a beautiful sun-filled afternoon. Sunday started out sunny and warm but the project ended about an hour early due to thunder and lightning in the area. Throughout the weekend volunteers worked the steep and rocky terrain to carve out 1000 feet of new trail. This project was a significant step forward in completing the highly anticipated Dixon trail. When completed the trail system will connect a with an upper loop trail that is currently being constructed. This will provide users (hikers and bikers) with an opportunity to camp at backcountry locations within minutes from Colorado Springs, and trail runners an opportunity to have a long challenging run.
Successes and Challenges: High winds and rain on Friday made it difficult to set up camp.
Lightning at the end of the day on Sunday cut our project short about an hour.
This project provided the opportunity to develop a great new partnership with Front Range Backcountry Horsemen. The group organized 8 volunteers to help VOC pack tools into the worksite on the Wednesday prior to the project. This made the long and steep 45 minute hike in for volunteer more enjoyable and resulted in more trail constriction during the weekend project.
Lessons Learned:
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
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