2016-Sangre De Cristo Wilderness Trail Restoration

Start Date-End Date: 06/27/2016-07/01/2016 Land Manager Office: USFS - Saguache Ranger District Land Manager Contact: Funding Partner: Crestone Wilderness Stewards Programmatic Partner: Summary: On this 5-day volunteer "vacation", work and camp in the heart of the wilderness amidst striking scenery. Description: About the Stewardship Site The Sangre de Cristo Wilderness, located in south-central Colorado and bordered by the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve to the west, offers a rugged, isolated, and authentic wilderness experience to all that visit. Dozens of alpine lakes, countless cascading waterfalls, an impressive network of trails, and four fourteeners lie nestled in the 220,803-acre Sangre de Cristo Wilderness - making it home to abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation. About the Volunteer Experience Volunteers will help maintain and restore parts of a loop made by connecting the San Isabel Trail and the North Crestone Trail. Tasks will include improving drainage, replacing broken or missing signs, installing cairns (carefully constructed stone trail markers), and removing fallen trees and other obstacles. The campsite that volunteers will backpack to is approximately 5 miles from the trailhead, and travel from the campsite to the worksite each day may require hikes of an additional 4- to- 5 miles. The Saguache Ranger District will provide pack support with horses and mules to carry in food, tools, and group gear, but volunteers should be prepared to hike in with all personal camp gear and equipment needed for the week. The first and last days of the project are solely reserved for hiking in or out and camp setup and tear down, and volunteers will be able to hike at their own pace while enjoying the lush aspen groves and towering peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. If the breathtaking scenery doesn't leave you breathless, the altitude will! Note: Due to the remote backcountry nature of this project, volunteers are required to register for all five days of the project. Volunteers not registered for the entirety of the project will be removed from the registration list. About the Overall Impact The remoteness of wild places that attract us to them also create natural barriers that make maintenance to the trails we use to experience these places difficult and often infrequent. Volunteers will make improvements on these trails that have seen little or no maintenance for more than a decade. A common occurrence to these high alpine trail systems is the encroachment of willow and other vegetation that can overtake a trail if not cut back. When this happens, trail users often make their own reroutes which erode into water sources and cause other types of resource damage. By maintaining and reestablishing the original route, we are minimizing this overall impact. Latitude/Longitude: 38.034329, -105.717241 Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 14 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 60 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 61 Total Unique Volunteers: 12 Total Volunteer Hours: 540 Staff Hours: 100 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: The project location was changed last minute due to mosquitos, see successes and challenges for more info. Despite last minute logistical changes and extended travel time this project was very successful and we accomplished a ton of work that would have otherwise not been done. The project was well supported by the Saguache Ranger district who coordinated with neighboring districts toprovide pack support. 12 Volunteers ventured to the San Luis Valley to restore a wilderness trail in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains for 5 days but were turned away by waves and waves of freshly hatched and thirsty mosquitos. However these dedicated volunteers were ready to work in the woods and elected to assist the Saguache Ranger District with another trail restoration project in an area that offered sanctuary from the relentless blood suckers. Volunteers worked extremely hard to maintain and restore the East Middle Creek Trail by improving an equestrian creek crossing and closing an unsafe crossing, replacing an unstable water crossing with a very stable 3 log wilderness bridge, cut out 16 trees that blocked the trail, closed over ? of a mile of user created trails, reconstructed over 120' of trail, installed 2 signs, 3 trail confidence markers and 13 cairns. The East Middle Creek Trail connects to the Indian Creek Trail that VOC restored several weeks ago creating a loop that provides access to spectacular vistas, towering aspen groves and pristine wildlife habitat. The tasks performed by these 12 volunteers were at the outer reaches of the loop, beyond the feasibility of a days work leaving from the trailhead. By backpacking in for 5 days volunteers were able to connect to the recently improved Indian Creek which improved the safety, followability, and user experience. Successes and Challenges: The project was moved from the San Isabel in the Sangre De Cristo Wilderness to the East Middle Creek Trial near the Continental Divide in the La Garita Hills. The reason was mosquitos. Brink went into the project site on Sunday before volunteers arived and could not find refuge from the swarms, even above tree line. Volunteers arriving at the trailhead were very vocal about their concerns and were cleary distracted and effected by the unnusually ravenous bugs. We sent a scout to the alternate trailhead to recon the bug situation before moving. The alternate site was way less buggy both at the work sites and camp site. Volunteers were very grateful for the decision to move. Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: