Description
Start Date-End Date: 06/06/2015-06/07/2015
Land Manager Office: USFS - Salida Ranger District
Land Manager Contact: Brett Beasley
Funding Partner: Salida Mountain Trails
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Give back this National Trails Day and help restore a section of mountain biking trail near Salida.
Description: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER: http://bit.ly/1Mw06GM
ABOUT THE STEWARDSHIP SITE
The Lower Cottonwood Trail project is located just 4 miles northeast of historic Salida and is part of the Arkansas Hills Trail System, a network of various trails easily accessible from the downtown area. Salida is an active mountain biking community that frequently uses this hub of amazing trails. The Cottonwood Trail area boasts exceptional views of the Sawatch and Sangre de Cristo Mountain Ranges.
ABOUT THE VOLUNTEER WORK
Come celebrate National Trails Day with us! This is an ideal volunteer experience for those who want to intimately experience the outdoors without making a long hauldriving or hiking to remote wilderness areas. In partnership with Salida Mountain Trails, VOC has undertaken a handful of projects in the past few years working on the Arkansas Trail System. On this project, volunteers will complete the rehabilitation of dozer-constructed trail and narrow the trail where it has become too wide. This volunteer project will work on 3.6 miles of new trail added in 2015 to the network of existing trails in the Arkansas Hills to support the increasing recreation demands and needs of the Salida community.
Free meals and camping will be provided.
PARTNERS
USFS - Salida Ranger District
Salida Mountain Trails
Latitude/Longitude: 38.600782, -105.941763
Additional Information:
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Easy, Moderate
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 60
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 72
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 5
Total Volunteer Days: 76
Total Unique Volunteers: 44
Total Volunteer Hours: 899
Staff Hours: 82.5
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Volunteersrehabbed hundreds of square feet of downhill slope, improve the trail corridor, and transforming a 3,200 ft "trail highway" with poor outslope into a well-draining trail. Local musicians played, we celebrated Steve Austin's 90th birthday with cake, and had a dynamic group of volunteers on the project.
Successes and Challenges: Successful amount of trail work completed! Brief beer-mergency whe we realized the beer wasn't brought down from the Denver office, but I was able to contact another volunteer to bring it down fortunately!
Lessons Learned: A few volunteers specifically thanked me for not calling the project early due to rain, as it passed after a few minutes and the sky cleared and people were happy to continue their projects they were invested in.
Special Notes: Cynda Green, a first time volunteer and local photographer, wrote up the following blog article about her volunteer experience. http://salidadailypost.com/2015/06/12/photo-essay-salt-of-the-earth-meets-cottonwood-trail/
Stewardship Education: USFS and Project Manager talked about the benefits to the local community and active mountain biker support for trails in Salida.
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Concern of Steve Austin's leadership with brand new volunteers, that may have a hard time following his passive (non-vocal) leadership style.
Description of Accidents/Incidents: One of the boy scouts wandered off, "was lost," and decided to make his way down the trail toward the vehicles when it started to rain. He was found and no concerns ensued - just a temporary concern from leaders ensuring that nobody was left/lost, especially since some of these boyscouts didn't even speak english or know the area.
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 12 and older |
