2016-Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks Access Trail Restoration

Start Date-End Date: 09/09/2016-09/11/2016 Land Manager Office: BLM - Grand Junction Field Office Land Manager Contact: Jim Lovelace Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Colorado Fourteeners Initiative Summary: Take in true beauty and solitude as you help restore trails leading to two of Colorado's famous fourteeners. Description: About the Stewardship Site The Silver Creek Trail that volunteers will be working on is located by beautiful Lake City, a small Western Colorado mountain town untouched by time. The trail serves as the main route to the summit of Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks - known as two of the "easier" 14,000-foot peaks to climb in Colorado. While this project site is about a 6-hour drive from Denver, it is situated in one of Colorado's most spectacular and pristine landscapes and offers a truly remote experience. About the Volunteer Experience Volunteers will be divided into three small crews and work on a variety of much-needed maintenance projects along a 3-mile stretch of trail. Much of the project will take place on steep terrain and loose rock, and tasks will be difficult in nature. Volunteers will start all three work days with a delicious breakfast prepared by our spectacular crew chefs. Of course, after a long day of working hard in the outdoors, nothing is more comforting than a hearty meal (in which our crew chefs will also do the cooking!) enjoyed at a top-notch campsite. Camping will be provided Thursday night through Sunday morning. Note: Due to the remote nature of this project location, volunteers must commit to a minimum of two work days. Those signed up for only one day will be removed from the registration list. About the Overall Impact Work done on this project will improve the condition and sustainability of the Silver Creek Trail, making it a much safer and enjoyable experience for hikers. Further, the newly restored trail will encourage users to remain on the trail, preventing harm to the nearby habitat which includes endangered butterfly species. Latitude/Longitude: 37.944209, -107.421831 Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Difficult High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 30 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 61 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 61 Total Unique Volunteers: 24 Total Volunteer Hours: 718 Staff Hours: 54.5 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Incredible weather encouraged volunteers to work overtime on this remote project. The clear blue skies encouraged volunteers after bitter cold mornings that were punctuated by icy tents and cold hands. Volunteer turnout was especially low on this project, with only about 50% of volunteers who had signed up actually showing, even with a dearth of registrations. Coordination with CFI and the VOC project team encountered a few challenges, but overall those issues were well handled and resolved. Both the drive into the campground and the hike to the work site were arduous ordeals. The road leading up to the camping area and trailhead was in poor condition, and at points was single lane along a treacherous drop off. The hike was significant for all of the crews working on the trail, with anywhere from 1.5 miles to 3 miles each way being encountered. This led to less productivity as volunteers took considerable time, between 1-3 hours, to reach the worksite. However once we were actually at the worksite the work was enjoyable and the views were incredible. Without the incredible vistas and scenery the hike in may have sufficiently discouraged volunteers from accomplishing much, but fortunately this was not the case. Because of the weather, free from even the threat of rain, volunteers wanted to stay on the mountain to continue working for an additional hour on both Friday and Saturday to enjoy the weather and make progress. This extended the project day, and volunteers at the end of the weekend were significantly worn out but happy. Successes and Challenges: Successes - Weather was incredible, better than could be expected! Volunteers seemed to enjoy being able to work with CFI in a collaborative role. Food was great and plentiful, as was beer. The area is incredibly beautiful from the drive in to the campground and worksite. Challenges - There were a few challenges that arose with collaboration among the project manager, the project team, and CFI staff. Pre-project communication: While Ben from CFI was available for the conference calls among leadership, Rob who was the point of contact on the actual project was not fully informed of the plan and that led to some confusion. In addition, holding a pre-project meeting, either the night before the first day or the morning of, woudl have helped in laying out commication lines and structure. Mornings: In the morning, rolling out the orientation and crew assignments was rough and quite delayed. This was largely due to the fact that there was no central point person running the timeline, rather the process was a collaboration between Alice as the TA, Steve as the CLM, the PM, and CFI staff. This led to lots of extra communication taking place during the time when all of the volunteers were ready to work. While it is beneficial to have project team leadership and the expertise of Steve and Alice, the amount of leadership for the number of volunteers seemed like significant overkill and hindered, rather than helped, an efficient project roll-out process. Cross-communication regarding work details: There was one encounter between a CFI staff person leading a crew and a VOC CL and their crew. The CFI staff person on day two of the project walked through the work site of the VOC CL and told them they had to re-do all of their work from the previous day because it wasn't good enough. This not surprisingly led to some friction between volunteers and CFI. However, after the incident Steve and Alice worked to smooth things over with the CFI staff person in question, informing them of the chain of communication that VOC expects on it's projct. In addition the PM on the project spoke with the crew in question and let them know that the leadership would discuss this issue, taking it seriously and working to implement steps to reduce instances like this in the future. Lessons Learned: When working with another organization that may have differences of opinion regarding technical specifications or otherwise, communicating how to communicate is essential. By speaking with the members of CFI before the project and outlining the various roles individuals would fill, and who would speak to who regarding these kinds of difference of opinion, much of the friction that occurred could have been avoided. Being aware of the difference in culture between groups is important. Communicating to CFI the priorities of VOC on a project (volunteer experience, quality work, safety, etc) and discovering any differences in those priorities would have been helpful in avoiding difference in approach to the work. Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Jim Lovelace from the BLM invited an ecology student out to the campground on Saturday to give a Q&A session on the Uncompaghre's Frittilary Butterfly, an endangered and endemic species to the area. Volunteers loved it! Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: This project was very far away, and the worksite was very far away from the campground. We probably spent about 50% of working hours either hiking or on breaks/lunch. As the project is so far away, it was less than ideal that the Project Manager, after three long days driving to, setting up, and supervising the project, was required to drive the 6 hour route back solo. Waking up at 5:00am each morning, the PM arrived at the Ops Center on Sunday at approximately 9:00pm and unloaded solo in the dark. In the personal opinion of the PM, this was pushing the boundaries of acceptable workload. Driving with a volunteer would have obviously been preferable to break up the drive and prevent the danger of driving while exhausted, however convincing a volunteer to not get home on Sunday until after 10:00pm is a very tall order. Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: