2018-Eagle-Vail Trail Construction @ Minturn: Mike O'Brien Memorial Project (Everkrisp Trail)

Start Date-End Date: 08/25/2018-08/26/2018 Land Manager Office: USFS - Eagle-Holy Cross Ranger District Land Manager Contact: Mike Beach Funding Partner: Mike O'Brien Memorial Trail Fund Programmatic Partner: Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance Summary: Build a new mountain biking trail with beautiful views! Description: About the Stewardship Site: The Meadow Mountain Trailhead is located just outside of the town of charming town of Minturn, nestled in the Vail Valley between the ski resorts of Beaver Creek and Vail. The trail offers a variety of views from meadows to mountains, and volunteers will work to construct a new segment that will help connect communities across the Vail Valley. About the Volunteer Experience: Volunteers ages 14+ will use the small mountain town of Minturn as their basecamp for this two-day trail-building project, in which you'll work with up to 65 volunteers to create a new trail connection that will ultimately link from Vail Pass to Basalt, touching the towns of Eagle, Edwards, Avon, Minturn, and Vail along the way. VOC will provide campsites in town and volunteers will take a short drive to begin work at the Meadow Mountain Trailhead, with project sites ranging from meadow to forest. This trail is sure to be popular with mountain bikers, so bring your bike for some post-project fun! Volunteers may sign up for one or both days of this project; all volunteers will be treated to meals from our volunteer Crew Chefs! This project is in partnership with the Vail Valley Mountain Bike Association. About the Overall Impact: Volunteers will play a critical part in creating a new, 4-mile segment that will link into existing trails to connect the towns of Eagle, Edwards, Avon, Minturn, and Vail, bringing communities closer together and offering new recreation opportunities for visitors and residents alike. In the long-term, the trail system volunteers help create will connect all the way from Vail Pass to Basalt! Need-to-Know Details: Minors:All youth under 16mustbe accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on single-day projects.Youth under 18mustbe accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on overnight projects. Cancellation:Our land manager partners rely on VOC volunteers to accomplish critical stewardship needs, and our projects often have wait lists. If you need to cancel, pleasecontact Jamie Burkeat 303-715-1010 ext. 116 as soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce. Latitude/Longitude: 39.607188, -106.445491 Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 50 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 89 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 12 Total Volunteer Days: 101 Total Unique Volunteers: 63 Total Volunteer Hours: 941.5 Staff Hours: 45 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Project was a great success once put into action. There were several cancellations on the project team's end before the project that really threw a monkey wrench into plans and logistics. Unfortunately, both our crew chef helper and crew chef had to cancel just only a few days before the project. Thankfully we were able to recruit Wes Go as the crew chef for Saturday, and Rob Piotti as the helper for both days. Mike and Jamie were both very helpful and a pleasure to work with. They even helped aid in the recruitment for this project. They really helped make this project a breeze. Many volunteers showed up to the campsite (USFS compound) on Friday night to find camping and settle in before project day. We also held a crew leader meeting Friday evening at 5:30 PM to meet each other and assign sections. The FS was extremely helpful and took all the tools back to their office and shed at the bottom of the trailhead to save us a trip there in the morning. They also managed to lay all the tools out on Project morning before we even showed up to the trailhead. Not only this, the 6 or seven of them came out on the trail to work with us the whole day. Their help on this project certainly did not go unnoticed. Volunteers moved at an incredible pace on Saturday. They made it all the way to the top of the meadow to the green gate. They managed to complete about 2400 feet of trail just on Saturday! On Sunday, we had 2 crews travel to the other side of the trail. From the that end, they hiked about 2 miles in to reach the highest section of where VVMBA left off with the excavator and worked their way back down the trail. Saturday night Wes cooked us a great dish of fried rice, bok choy, eggplant, and braised chicken. We raffled a few items that included: two VOC hats, and a patch. And, 3 volunteers signed up for VOC memberships! At the compound the FS is home to two charming llamas, Dominguez and Powell. They help the FS pack heavier items up trails and in the backcountry. Volunteers had the opportunity to see them and feed them during dinner festivities. Successes and Challenges: Successes: Recruiting two great crew chefs and helpers at the last minute to get us through the weekend. Wes and Rob are fantastic! Wes is a long time VOC crew chef and Rob is a chef at a restaurant in Golden, CO. Both their skill sets were extremely helpful and made things go so smoothly. The shear amount of work that was completed in one weekend with less volunteers than we anticipated Challenges: Learning a month prior to the project that USFS and VVMBA had the expectation of 200+ volunteers being present for the project Recruitment of VOC leaders, and overall volunteer numbers was challenging on this project Having both the crew chef and crew chef helper cancel only just a few days before the project Lessons Learned: The crew leaders that Jamie Malin had recruited for this project were incredibly knowledgeable and were great with the volunteers. It was difficult to recruit VOC crew leaders for this project, but Jamie and his crew really provided excellent leadership. The USFS was extremely helpful in transporting and stashing tools away for us. When we unloaded the truck Friday evening, they took all our tools to the office to save us a trip in the morning, and also had all the tools laid out for us Saturday and Sunday mornings before the volunteers arrived at the trailhead. Special Notes: Most volunteers are used to building hiking trails, this one was bit different because we built a mountain bike trail. Mountain bike trails are built just a little differently, made with special climbing turns that twist across the trail. Many of our crew leaders are in the Vail Valley Mountain Bike Association. These men are already out on the site 1-2 times a week for at least 5 hours making progress on the Everkrisp Trail. Our volunteers were able to work with these leaders that have already put in so much work into this trail system and were able to take in their knowledge of trail building from a mountain biking perspective. This trail system at its completion is going to connect the towns of Eagle and Vail, totaling at about 4 miles of trail altogether. Stewardship Education: In memory of Mike O'Brien, Clint once again gave a speech and story regarding Mike, his time with VOC, and how he has contributed to not only VOC, but the projects like this one that we were able to hold because of his passion for the outdoors and mountain biking. Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: We lucked out with the weather on this project, it didn't rain once! However; clouds began to roll in pretty early in the afternoon on Sunday. Description of Accidents/Incidents: No accidents or incidents occurred on this project Description of Work Completed: