2016-Wonderland Glider Access Trail Restoration

Start Date-End Date: 10/07/2016-10/07/2016 Land Manager Office: City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Land Manager Contact: Beau Clark Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Enjoy peak fall foliage as you restore a trail in beautiful Boulder! Description: About the Stewardship Site Located in beautiful North Boulder and adjacent to the Foothills Nature Center, the Wonderland Lake Trailhead offers access to excellent fishing and mountain biking. The Wonderland Hill, located just west of the trail, serves as a premier hang glider and paraglider launch site with three walk-up launch zones. About the Volunteer Experience In an effort to avoid rerouting the Wonderland Lake Trail and disrupting sensitive wildlife habitat, volunteers will work to improve the gliding access trail, which began as an undesignated social trail (an unofficial, undesignated, user-created trail). Tasks on this project will include constructing steps on the steep access trail. The work itself will be moderate- to- difficult in nature, and will begin just a short hike from the trailhead. About the Overall Impact Thanks to their prime location between the city of Boulder and the foothills, Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks see thousands of visitors each year. The existence of social trails encourages shortcutting and the creation of more undesignated trails, which in turn threatens wildlife habitat. Improving the glider access trail at Wonderland Lake will help keep users on the trail. Latitude/Longitude: 40.050833, -105.282806 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 40 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 44 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 43 Total Unique Volunteers: 44 Total Volunteer Hours: 378 Staff Hours: 34 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: North Boulder's Wonderland Lake area is a popular spot for paragliders, and the trails leading to their favorite take-off spots are naturally very steep. On Friday, October 7, 42 volunteers headed to the Wonderland Glider Access Trail, which had eroded badly after the 2013 floods. The original trail had become rutted, and new social trails had started to spring up. Volunteers spent the day essentially putting together a giant rock puzzle: they used rocks quarried from the hillside around the trail to armor 350 feet of trail. Around lunchtime, gliders started heading up the trail, then paragliding down, which provided afternoon entertainment. Successes and Challenges: Parking situation was a little tight, but volunteers had been instructed to leave ample time and all managed to find parking nearby in the neighborhood. Land manager was happy with the work. He wanted no more than 40 volunteers and with our usual padding (and not calling folks on the waitlist to replace cancellations) we ended up with 42. Definitely would have been tight with additional volunteers, so that's something to keep in mind for future Boulder projects; they typically don't want to exceed the "max" number they've given us. Lessons Learned: It was a short, fairly steep hike to the work site, and between the hike and the rock work, future projects like this one might be better suited to a "difficult" rating. Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: