Description
Start Date-End Date: 06/03/2017-06/04/2017
Land Manager Office: CPW - Cheyenne Mountain State Park
Land Manager Contact: Mitch Martin
Funding Partner: Colorado Lottery
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Celebrate National Trails Day and soak in the inspiration for "America the Beautiful" while building a trail at this spectacular state park.
Description: About the Stewardship Site:
Situated in an exceptional landscape that inspired "America the Beautiful", the 1,680-acre Cheyenne Mountain State Park is nestled between grandiose mountains and the Colorado Springs skyline. In the park, you'll find 20 miles of hiking and biking trails as well as a diverse population of plants and wildlife. Deer, elk, black bears, bobcats, cougars, coyotes, hawks, eagles, red foxes, and prairie dogs are just some of the animals that reside in the park. The project site is located on the far western edge of Cheyenne Mountain State Park, on the southern face of Cheyenne Mountain.
About the Volunteer Experience:
This project is a continuation from the trail that VOC helped construct in 2016 - the goal this year is to complete the connection! Volunteers will construct roughly 2,600 feet of basic tread and install drainage features along sections as needed. Access to the work site will require a 1- to- 1.5-mile hike, along with a decent amount of elevation gain. Looking for a good workout and remote experience close to the city? This is the project or you!
About the Overall Impact:
With the influx of visitors to Cheyenne Mountain State Park, it's important to minimize disturbances to the park's ecology. Volunteers will continue the construction of a new trail, the Dixon Trail, which will allow visitors to access some of the most spectacular places in the park, while preserving habitat. This project will be a multi-year effort to establish a new sustainable trail to the top of Cheyenne Mountain. The 3-mile trail will link up to the Top of the Mountain Trail, which will continue another 3.6 miles through a meadow covered in colorful wildflowers.
NOTE: MINORS ON VOC PROJECTS
All youth under 18 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on overnight projects.
A Grand Milestone Signature Project
Latitude/Longitude: 38.69810104370117, -104.85050201416015
Additional Information:
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Difficult
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 50
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 111
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 2
Total Volunteer Days: 113
Total Unique Volunteers: 63
Total Volunteer Hours: 1091
Staff Hours: 55
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: The 6th annual pilgrimage to Cheyenne Mountain State Park started off with a bit of rain, some sunshine, and a double rainbow on Friday night. The rest of the weekend brought sunshiny weather, excellent food, and energetic volunteers.
An early start on Saturday morning had volunteers searching for a steamy cup of coffee as the nearby Fort Carson morning Cadence seranaded our breakfast. After greeting volunteers a big white bus shuttled everyone off to the site where volunteers would begin the long steep hke to the project site. Fortunately this route offered a prisitne view of Cheyenne Mountain as well as providing a unique hiking experience while spring was in full bloom.
Working on the Dixon trail volunteers were able to construct new tread on steep hillsides, move heavy rocks to assemble switchbacks, and do a fair bit of stump removal and corridor clearing. The work went well, and weather provided a clear and slightly humid environment for all to work in.
At the end of the day, volunteers piled into the big white bus and headed back to camp, tired, and satisfied.
Volunteers were greeted at camp with a nice table of snacks and cold beverages. A gourmet dinner of Chicken Tikka Masala was served shortly therafter and volunteers were entertained with short talks from a CPW Park Naturalist, a Cheyenne Mt. Endurance race representative, and an official from the CO Lottery.
Sunday started off in much the same way as Saturday except people were a bit slower from the previous days events. That did not stop volunteers from charging up the mountain and getting straight to work. The sun was out, the smiles were abundant, and much work was accomplished.
Once we arrived back at camp we were greeted with a cooler full of popsicles and ice cold water!
Successes and Challenges: Successes: Succesfully arranging the movement of 50 people to a remote location in order to construct a new trail on the side of a historic mountain.
Challenges: Lots of people combined with technical logistical arrangements, injuries, low number of Crew Leaders, no Tool Manager, duration of arriving at the project site took away from work time.
Lessons Learned: To reiterate to the Project Team and Land Managers the "desired number" of volunteers as opposed to the "number of people registered".
Less tools next year.
Bring more medical gear, and incident report forms.
Special Notes: Mitch Martin expressed interest in having VOC back out next year.
Stewardship Education: Volunteers were given a historical talk regarding Cheyenne Mountain Park on Saturday evening by the CPW Park Naturalist. Colin, from the CO Lottery, also talked a bit about the relationship between stewardship, the land agencies, and volunteer organizations around the state of CO.
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: N/A
Description of Accidents/Incidents: One volunteer was hit on the head with a rock bar. He was bleeding and felt a bit dizzy at times. The onsite EMT assessed the situation and we decided that the volunteer shoulk hike out and seek medical attention. At the time of this writing, I have recieved a message from the injured party stating that he was OK.
Another volunteer smashed her finger withrock. Her finger was not bleeding but it was slightly bruised, so she took it easy for the rest of the day. She did not return for work the next day.
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 16 and older |
