Description
Start Date-End Date: 10/10/2015-10/11/2015
Land Manager Office: BLM - San Luis Valley
Land Manager Contact: Sean Noonan
Funding Partner: 12 Hours of Penitence Endurance Mountain Bike Race
Programmatic Partner: San Luis Valley Great Outdoors - SLVGO
Summary: Work - and PLAY - in the hidden Penitente Canyon that is a hiker's, mountain biker's and climber's paradise.
Description: ABOUT THE STEWARDSHIP SITE
The Penitente Canyon Recreation Area offers diverse recreational opportunities with a truly exceptional and historically significant backdrop. Despite being tucked away and off the beaten path, the area has been a premier rock climbing destination for decades. Just recently, the Bureau of Land Management made many improvements to the area trail system which will host an inaugural 12-hour mountain bike race in 2015. Evidence of Penitente's rich history is recorded in the Native American rock art, Spanish murals, and wagon tracks forever etched into the bedrock.
ABOUT THE VOLUNTEER WORK
Several sections of this popular trail system have been severely damaged by consecutive years of intense monsoon cycles, completely decimating the trail in some places. Often, when trails are damaged to a point that negatively effects the user's experience, user-created reroutes are made that potentially cause severe erosion and other types of resource damage.
The goal of this project is to both improve the quality of the user experience and preserve the unique resources of the Penitente Canyon Recreation Area. Volunteers will construct intentionally designed sustainable reroutes around washed out unsustainable sections, close user-created reroutes, and preserve existing sections of the trail by installing erosion control structures.
This project is unique in that Sunday is meant to be a "play day". Volunteers are encouraged to bring their mountain bike, trail shoes and/or climbing gear to take advantage of Penitente's incredible recreation resources and enjoy the fruits of their labor!
Free meals and camping will be provided.Camping will be conveniently located within the Penitente Canyon Camp Ground.
PARTNERS
BLM - San Luis Valley
12 Hours of Penitence Bike Race
San Luis Valley Great Outdoors (SLVGO)
San Luis Valley Federal Bank
Latitude/Longitude: 37.840711, -106.280532
Additional Information:
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Moderate
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 50
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 66
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 39
Total Unique Volunteers: 39
Total Volunteer Hours: 378
Staff Hours: 66
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Ths opportinity combined one day of volunteer project work with one day reserved for outdoor recreation. Volunteers built 2,200' of new trail in the Penitente Canyon Recreation Area on Saturday then stuck around to hike,mtn bike and/or trail run. This was the last section of the last trail that needed to be constructed to complete the race lap for the 12 Hours of Penitnence Mtn Bike Race.
Successes and Challenges: The one day of recreation mixed with a one day volunteer project worked very well and seemed to bring down first time volunteers.
One volunteer did not read the pre project emails or the project description and was a little upset that we did not work on sunday.
A crew leader, Dan Murray was not a very experienced with trails, some of his crew seemed to be frustrated with his leadership.
Lessons Learned:
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education: The race director for the 12 hours of penitnence spoke about the race, community involvement, and why she is donating the proceeds to VOC.
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents: none
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 14 and older |
