Description
Start Date-End Date: 08/04/2017-08/06/2017
Land Manager Office: BLM - Gunnison Field Office
Land Manager Contact: Jim Lovelace
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner: Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
Summary: Discover a place of beauty and solitude as you help restore trails leading to two famous fourteeners.
Description: About the Stewardship Site:
The Silver Creek Trail is located by beautiful Lake City, a small Western Colorado mountain town hardly touched by time. The trail serves as the main route to the summit of both Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks-known as two of the "easier" 14,000-foot peaks to climb in Colorado. This project is a 6-hour drive from Denver, situated in one of Colorado's most magnificent and pristine landscapes. It offers a truly remote experience.
About the Volunteer Experience:
This moderately sized project of no more than 40 people will allow volunteers to get to know fellow stewards over the course of the three day project. 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. Volunteers will start all three work days with a hearty breakfast prepared by our spectacular crew chefs, and end each long work day with another delicious meal at a first-rate campsite. Camping will be provided Thursday night through Sunday morning.
About the Overall Impact:
This project will improve the condition and sustainability of the Silver Creek Trail, making it a safer and more enjoyable experience for hikers. Further, the restoration will encourage users to remain on the trail, preventing harm to the nearby habitat which includes endangered butterfly species.
NOTE: MINORS ON VOC PROJECTS
All youth under 18 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on overnight projects.
Latitude/Longitude: 37.944209, -107.421831
Additional Information:
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Difficult
High Altitude Project: Yes
Desired Number of Volunteers: 35
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 85
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 85
Total Unique Volunteers: 42
Total Volunteer Hours: 850
Staff Hours: 64
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: The project site for the Redcloud and Sunshine trial restoration was beautiful and worth the long drive from Denver. The road to access the site was not the worst, but scary none the less. Cars could make it up without 4x4 if they took their time and were very aware but high clearance is recommended. Mostly it was just a bit scary because of how narrow it was, in many area only wide enough for one car with a terrifying drop off on the far side. But the pull outs allowed for vehicles to back up and pull over to let cars pass, it did require communications amongst road users.
Once our two trucks full of equipment finally made it to the Silver Creek Trailhead we only had a few hours until dark so we got to setting everything up. Jim had done a great job of staking out the area to ensure there was enough room for the tent and all the volunteers, as the area can be busy on the weekends. Most volunteers arrived Thursday night but by the time they rolled in it was dark so I didn't meet many until the next morning. CFI and I had planned to go over the project work on Thursday, their boss said they would arrive early to flag it all out. There was a miscommunication and they were under the impression that Jim (BLM) was going to do the flagging, and they were a bit confused by the old flagging left up there so we waited to chat with Jim about it in the morning.
We had a great turn out to get the project started Friday morning, Jim had put an emphasis on recruiting locals from the community but it seemed most people made the trek from the front range. We did get some Western volunteers out and some BLM employees to join which was nice. In an attempt to recruit locals we allowed volunteers to sign up for 1,2 or all 3 days so we did have some volunteers signing up 1 or 2 days to leave a 3rd day for hiking. Which was fine by me, we did a morning orientation every day anyways so it was fine to have new volunteers coming on. CFI, the VOC CLs and I made a work plan to get everyone started on the Check steps since the reroute wasn't flagged and Jim didn't arrive until just about 8 am when we were about to get started. It was no biggie though, he quickly flagged the reroute in the morning and we were able to get a few crews working on that by the afternoon. It was nice having project work below tree line, there were a few storms that rolled in forcing crews to move down low and this way no one was ever waiting around to work.
Overall, the project went off without any issues. The volunteers were awesome, and seemed to have a fun time getting to know everyone in the smaller sized group. The work went really well and the communication amongst CFI BLM and VOC seemed to go over much smoother than last year. We accomplished all the work we set out too, which is always rewarding. The drive home was pretty exhausting, after working such long hours to have to arrive at ops around 9pm and unload by myself was pretty taxing. Mostly though, it was uncomfortable being there so late at night by myself. So figuring out a way for a volunteer or CL to meet me would have been preferable, but with such a long drive it was difficult to make that happen.
*One thing Jim noted during his mining presentation was that the rivers around there aren't ideal for human consumption due to the minerals left behind during the mining era. We boiled some and used it for dish washing and hand washing (as we were short on water and had to make a run down to the campground for more once) but it would be good to note for future projects that this is the case.
Successes and Challenges: Success;
Got the 580 ft. reroute (#1 priority) completed and it looked fabulous
Beautiful work site, volunteers were super excited to be there
Allowing single day registrations helped boost our numbers from last year and didn't pose much of a problem in terms of daily work assignments
Jim is great to work with, provided a really neat mining history presentation
challenges;
The road to get there is scary, especially in a very large truck (we rented a 250 since we were short on trucks) but still had to pack the 2 trucks to the brim! On the way out a vehicle slid half off the shelf road, luckily they were able to pull the vehicle back on but did create a delay of cars backed up for a while.
It was very helpful to meet up with CFI and Jim for a site visit, although there was still a gap in communication and the project didn't get flagged the day before as planned. Jim did it morning of though so no biggie.
It was a bit cold and rainy, having firewood and hotwater on at all times helped make volunteers more comfortable
Some volunteers signed up for all 3 days, when they realized others had signed up for 1 or 2 days only to save time for hiking we lost a few to that. But ultimately our numbers and work accomplishments were fine.
Lessons Learned: John Stidman was my crew chef, love him but it was hard trying to predict his shortcomings. Staff warned me he isn't always prepared and on top of it so I expected to help out quite a bit. Even so, he forgot to pack most of what I asked him to (I packed 75% of the kitchen equipment and only asked him to pack a few things), needed reminding to get water boiling, buy enough food, and had to be woken up one morning. Particularly on these 14ner projects I felt it was important to have enough hardy food so I made sure to wake up every morning at 5 to assist. In the future I will double check what is packed to ensure we have everything.
Special Notes: N/a
Stewardship Education: Mining history of the area presented by Jim and Sally (a teacher from Western volunteering with a group of students on the project)
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: N/a
Description of Accidents/Incidents: N/a
Description of Work Completed: Refer to the accomplishments tab
Details
| 16 and older |
