2017-Hanging Lake Trail Restoration

Start Date-End Date: 09/09/2017-09/10/2017 Land Manager Office: USFS - Eagle-Holy Cross Ranger District Land Manager Contact: Mike Beach Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers Summary: Help one of Colorado's most beloved places on this Grand Milestone project! Description: About the Stewardship Site: Hanging Lake Trail is a 1.2 mile heavily trafficked out-and-back trail located near Glenwood Springs, with easy access from I-70. This National Natural Landmark is a popular place for good reason: it rewards hikers with two cascading waterfalls that spill into one of Colorado's most beautiful turquoise-colored lakes. About the Volunteer Experience: Work on this project will span the length of 1.2 miles of trail. Volunteers are needed to perform moderate-to-heavy rock work, and will install structures such as check steps, water bars, staircases and retaining walls along the length of Hanging Lake Trail and as far as Spouting Rock - a lovely spot to take a break and watch the waterfall cascade from a hole in the limestone rock above. Meals will be provided to volunteers throughout the weekend. Pit stops at Glenwood Springs Hot Springs are encouraged on the drive home Sunday - a treat for sore muscles! There will be up to 45 peolpe on this project, so it is a great opportunity to meet people from all over the state! Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch will be provided on Sunday. About the Overall Impact: Hanging Lake Trail attracts upwards of 160,000 locals and tourists alike on summer weekends. As a result, hardening the trail with natural materials and ensuring proper drainage is extremely important to the sustainability of the site. 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: 39.601369, -107.191784 Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 30 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 133 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 11 Total Volunteer Days: 144 Total Unique Volunteers: 77 Total Volunteer Hours: 1371 Staff Hours: 63 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: The Hanging Lake project was a bit more high profile than most other projects because of the media attention the lake has received this summer as well as it being one of our Grand Milestone projects. Furthermore, it required coordination with Roaring Fork Volunteers, the USFS and CDOT so there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen so to speak. That being said, all the logistical prep paid off and the project turned out really well with only a few small issues. I was able to coordinate a site visit with Dave Hamilton and Carl Nelson from FROV, Mike from the USFS and our TA Dave to meet at the lake and go over logistics and the trial work. It proved much easier than trying to coordinate everything via phone/ email. We decided on when and how the I70 ramp would be closed and how we would be able to get volunteers into the project site during a short window of time when the ramp would be monitored. We chatted about numbers and established what role FROV would play as opposed to VOC, which was basically they would show up with some volunteers and have Carl assist with TAing. VOC would be responsible for creating volunteer communications, providing food and tools and all the accomplishment reporting. Aside from the rock work there were a number of side projects (refinishing bridges, benches, installing signs etc.) so we established that Mike would provide all the extra equipment required to take on those tasks. Up until this point VOC was under the impression that all the work would be difficult rock work so it was nice to know we had some easier tasks for volunteers to take on. It also allowed us to restructure a plan for the whopping 16 CLs we had on the roster for the project. Post site visit I felt a lot better about the game plan but stayed in close contact with the USFS and FROV to ensure everything was moving along as planned. Mike was great at keeping in touch and sending along updates but it was pretty difficult to get a hold of Dave Hamilton. The main issue was that he didn't seem quite sure of his volunteer count, so I was trying to nail that down. VOC had a waitlist of over 60 volunteers and would have loved to pull more volunteers on the project if RVOF couldn't hit their numbers, we were also proving food and the crew chefs were very worried about preparing for the group. He eventually estimated he would hit the 35-40 volunteers he committed to bring out, but I got the sense his guess wasn't based on a registration system so I wasn't quite sure what the turnout would be. It was a little frustrating to work with him in this regard because he expected us to basically run the entire project but did very little to provide me with the details I needed from his end to do so. VOC definitely has a more structured and efficient approach to rolling out a project, which David seemed to struggle with. When we arrived at the project site Friday the public was still able to access the area, CDOT didn't want to close the ramp until midnight. Being a little later in the season it wasn't crazy busy and we were able to make set up work despite the crowds. Project set up was a bit different as we had to set up the 20x20 on concrete with no place to stake it out. Luckily our tool manager Jim Jacobson had been on the previous project and provided me with great insights into how the 2011 project was worked out. We ended up brining the big blue water barrels and filling them to anchor the tent down, and the crew chefs really appreciated having access to power and water. Camping space turned out to be sufficient which I was worried about, there were plenty of grassy areas to go around. FROVs didn't camp with us so we had about 50 VOC volunteers overnight with most arriving from the Front Range Friday evening. Come project day we didn't end up with any issues at the gate, volunteers arriving late or forgetting to bring their volunteer parking pass. I didn't actually get to speak with CDOT or see the closure but no one mentioned any issues, I do know that once it was closed there was no way for late arrivals to get through as the cones were right up against the lane of traffic. Anticipating this I really emphasized the need to arrive on time and everyone seemed to do so. One issue we had with timing was with Roaring Fork volunteers arriving late, for some reason David Hamilton had sent out a different schedule than I asked him to, so both mornings we had a bit of a delay to wait the extra 30 minutes for his volunteers to arrive. Additionally, the volunteer running their registration table slept in and didn't show up until the project start so it was difficult to get a real sense of how many volunteers they were bringing out. Turns out they also had quite a few half day volunteers, which would have been helpful to know as we could have pulled more VOC volunteers of the waitlist. In the future I would suggest requesting that VOC run the registration completely. I'm not sure quite how FROV marketed the project but most of the volunteers they committed were not interested in doing rock work and were expecting lighter tasks, some volunteers were under the age limit we set for the project as well. We were able to accommodate everyone but it definitely left us short on numbers for rock work, which is where we really needed the help. Despite those issue the work went off really well, and we were able to get 95% of the tasks accomplished by day 2. Volunteers seemed to really enjoy the work and the project, and we made sure to give everyone the opportunity to hike up to the lake and enjoy the views. Successes and Challenges: Successes; Beautiful work site, had the place all to ourselves since the I70 ramp was closed We accomplished a whole lot of work, most of it difficult rock work! We had some really great rock work veterans on the project team which allowed 4 new CLs to mentee and learn rock skills We got some great footage for a VOC fundraising video Jim brought some homebrew to share with the crew J Challenges; Partnering with RFOV was a bit frustrating as outlined in the summary but basically comes down to a lack of communication/organization on their end With much of the work being difficult rock work we ended up with a few finger injuries Ran out of dinner due to issues nailing down the number of volunteers, some project team didn't get to eat but all volunteers did Lessons Learned: FROV operates on a different wave length Special Notes: Stewardship Education: The USFS just released a new management plan for Hanging Lake so Paula spoke about the details of that and did a Q and A Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: One broken finger (crew leader) due to a rock falling on it 3 other finger injuries due to rocks but did not need much medical attention. Description of Work Completed: we were able to install 23 stepping stones, 55 stairs, 40 feet of post and chain fencing, 1 bench installed, 7 benches painted, 7 bridges painted, 1 set of bridge handrails replaced, 90 feet of rip rap wall, 14 water bars rehabbed, 28 feet of retaining wall three tiers high, 30 feet of drainage channel rehabbed, 30 feet of tread regraded and 40 stairs cleaned.