2017-Rutherford & Anna Mule Trails Restoration

Start Date-End Date: 07/15/2017-07/16/2017 Land Manager Office: Clear Creek County Open Space Commission Land Manager Contact: Martha Tableman Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Repair historic mining wagon and mule roads in this scenic Front Range project. Description: About the Stewardship Site: Located just outside of the Victorian mining town of Georgetown, the Rutherford and Anna Mule Trails are hidden gems accessed from the historic site of Silver Dale. As the trails' namesakes would indicate, the trails follow old mining wagon and mule roads that once connected Georgetown to nearby Silver Mines. About the Volunteer Experience: About a third of the volunteers will focus on needed trail maintenance and reroutes on the Anna Mule Trail, constructing new trail in sections and performing moderate- to- heavy erosion control in others. The rest of the volunteers will continue work on the Rutherford Trail started by VOC in 2013 and 2015. This will include creating elevated tread structures such as boardwalk and turnpikes to carry the trail through a wetland area. The tasks on this project are moderate or difficult in nature, and worksite access requires a short and scenic hike from the trailhead. There will be a maximum of 80 volunteers, so it is a great opportunity to meet lots of new people from around the state. In addition, VOC will provide free breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. About the Overall Impact: This project will address sustainability issues on these well-used trails, dealing with the soggy and oftentimes muddy hillside that covers much of the Rutherford Trail; and rerouting and repairing damaged, eroded sections of the Anna Mule Trail. Once efforts are complete, the improved trails will expand recreational access in the area and make for a safer, more sustainable experience for many years to come! NOTE: MINORS ON VOC PROJECTS All youth under 18 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on overnight projects. Latitude/Longitude: 39.706098, -105.697504 Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 60 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 99 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 5 Total Volunteer Days: 104 Total Unique Volunteers: 61 Total Volunteer Hours: 907 Staff Hours: 42 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: The planning stages of this project were unique for me in terms of the expectations set out by TA Dave Gebhardt and the understanding that I had of VOC project planning, so I will start there. We met at the Anna Mule trailhead for the site visit about a month prior to the project. I brought along our tool managers who asked to be involved in the site visit with the expectation that it would be an hour or two, go over logistics and check out the trial to do a brief overview of the work. Dave and Susan were eager to get the project work planned and nail down every detail, and I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding in what we each set out to accomplish at the site visit. Dave expected to spend the entire day on the trail to get all his TA work done, and after about 4 hours of this I had to excuse myself as the tool managers had been waiting in the parking lot for over two hours. While I would have loved to be a part of the entire TA process my schedule simply didn't allow it. Similarly, Dave spent the 2 weeks prior to the project working on the trail, accomplishing many of the tasks we laid out for the volunteers to accomplish at the site visit, which was a bit odd. While the trail creek supervisor appreciated his motivation and dedication to the project he did say they had some issue with Dave being headstrong and advising the clear creek crew to do tasks not within the scope of what James instructed. In my conversation with Dave regarding the preproject work he also emphasized the fact he would like me to be out there and be a part of the work as well. Due to my schedule and projects I had to manage prior to the Anna Mule project I was simply not able to do so. While the level of detail and technical knowledge Dave provided to the project were incredible valuable, the preproject experience I had with him was the first indication that I perhaps needed to have a conversation with him about our expectations for each other and what my limitations are. He may have the time to get that invested in the 3 projects he's working on all summer but I have to consider the entire slate of project I have going on. Anyways, working with Martha, James, Smokey and Frank from Clear Creek was very helpful and they were happy to assist with logistics, suggest parking alternatives and be there day of to help out on the project. My first concern in visiting the project site was the limited amount of parking, there were 22 spaces and we were expecting 60 volunteers. Martha let me know about a public lot in town that could accommodate many more volunteers so I made sure to encourage single day volunteers to meet there and shuttle up. We ended up being able to cram 33 cars into the lot at the trailhead, but having those single day Volunteers Park in town was a big help. The morning of the project started off without a hitch, the forecasted rain even managed to hold off for both work days. It was helpful to have Dave and Susan working together as TA and CL managers as Susan was very knowledgeable of the work and who was best suited for which sections so lining out crews went really well. The crews had to hike about a mile in, with the last section being relatively steep. James from clear creek had offered to ATV the tools to the work site, which sounded like a good idea when we laid it out at the site visit. However, when time came to do it he wasn't able to cross one section of the river and it resulted in the tool managers and I having to lug all the tools down the trail and across a bridge, then take multiple 45 minute trips up and unload all the tools. The whole processes took around 3-4 hours so I don't know that It was the best use of our time. James also let us know he wouldn't be able to transport the tools back down via ATV, so now we had all the tool boxes and an excess of tools up there which we would have to all carry back down. While it was doable, it wasn't that efficient and in retrospect I would have preferred volunteers to carry their tools up and back down rather than the shuttle. However, volunteers were happy to have a light load to carry up Saturday morning and were able to get to work quicker. There was a lot of rock work and a few sections we needed to carefully place groups to avoid working above other groups since the slope was very steep. In terms of the project work, it went really well and the crew leaders were great. The switchbacks did take us longer than anticipated due to the amount of rock work required. One issue that came up was with Dave Gephardt's interactions with the volunteers, he sets very high standards and is very concerned with finishing the entire projects no matter what it takes. He had more than one interaction that left volunteers feeling underappreciated, as he would come by and demand more without acknowledging the amount of work they had put in that day, or tell a group what they did wrong but not how to correct it. I tried my best to counteract these interactions by spending time with each group, inquiring about their work and making sure they felt appreciated. He was also insulting to a crew leader on one instance, speaking to another group that Dave and his group did a poor job on their rock wall and he would like this other group to break it down and redo it. Dave Riter made a comment to me regarding the incident, and I can't imagine it made Dave's group feel appreciated after hearing that. I understand if work has not been done to spec we need to redo it, but the way he went about dealing with the situation was less than desirable. I myself had multiple negative interactions with Dave throughout the work weekend, he is a bit abrasive to work with and very possessive of the projects he TAs on. I got the impression that he is a bit sexist, as he made multiple comments to me which were very condescending and honestly, just rude. While I did not enjoy working with him, he did provide TA knowledge which I could not, so it was unfortunately a moot point. I will however, make sure to have a conversation with him prior to our next project to try and mitigate some of these frustrations. Ultimately, we ended up finishing our number 1 priority which was the switchbacks to connect the Anna Mule trail to the Sporting Time trail. We also had time to do 75% of the maintenance one the Anna Mule trail, but weren't able to finish it all off. The clear creek county trail crew followed up the project with 2 days' work and it was completed. Successes and Challenges: Successes: We finished our #1 priority, connecting the two trails with 800 ft of switchbacks We had a fun Saturday evening camping and even got a Georgetown history lesson from Frank Smokey managed to convince TommyKnocker to donate 4 cases of beer to the project The food from our fabulous crew chefs was top notch! Challenges: Working with Dave Gebhardt was very challenging, as outlined in the summary Parking was a bit tight, I had to make sure I caught every car coming into the lot to park them really close It was a bit rainy and cold on Saturday, having a fire would have really made for a nice hangout spot as most people were too cold to hang by the time it got dark Lessons Learned: When working with TA Dave, lay out my expectation before hand and be firm in my conversations with him moving forward. Special Notes: N/A Stewardship Education: Frank gave the group a history lesson on the area and its mining history. It was neat to hear about the initial creation of the Anna Mule trail as a mining road, and to think were continuing that work so many years later! Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: N/A Description of Accidents/Incidents: N/A Description of Work Completed: