Description
Start Date-End Date: 08/17/2019-08/18/2019
Land Manager Office: USFS - Sulphur Ranger District
Land Manager Contact: Kendra Fortin
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Enjoy a weekend in the mountains as you restore this scenic trail near Silverthorne.
Description: Project photo by Sharon Menard
Where You'll Be:
Located just over Ute Pass, the South Fork Trail is a true hidden gem that sits between Summit County and Grand County. Although it is easily accessible from the popular towns of Silverthorne and Dillon, this multi-use trail offers a remote, wilderness-type feel as its 24-mile loop meanders through dense forest, beautiful meadows, and high alpine environments.
What You'll Do:
Join us for our second year in a row working to restore the South Fork Trail, located just over Ute Pass from Silverthorne. You'll spend the weekend with 60-80 volunteers aged 14+ to complete a variety of tasks from building a new turnpike to installing drainage structures and general trail restoration. Campsites and meals will be provided for all volunteers, and you may even get an early peek at Colorado's stunning fall colors! As an easy-to-access yet uncrowded area, this is the perfect project for a weekend getaway in the mountains.
Click here to learn more about the importance of trail maintenance.
Why It Matters:
As a multi-use trail within easy access of popular Summit County recreation hubs, the U.S. Forest Service Sulphur Ranger District expects the South Fork Trail to see increased use in the coming years. With limited resources and 24 miles of trail to maintain, your efforts will significantly help the Sulphur Ranger District provide important maintenance to the trail and make it more sustainable for years to come.
Need-to-Know Details:
Minors under 18 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on overnight projects. Minors under 16 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on single-day projects.
Volunteers are responsible for providing their own camping equipment.VOC will provide meals, tools, and work gloves.
Cancellation:Our partners rely on VOC volunteers to accomplish critical stewardship needs, and our projects often have wait lists. If you need to cancel, pleasecontact Emily Schaeferat 303-715-1010 ext. 116 as soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce.
About Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC)
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) is the state's oldest, largest, and leading outdoor stewardship nonprofit organization. Founded in 1984 to motivate and enable people to become active stewards of Colorado's natural resources, VOC has engaged nearly 120,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $24 million. Through award-winning youth and volunteer programs, leadership training, capacity-building programs, and collaborative efforts with nonprofits and land management agencies, VOC is an invaluable resource in Colorado, especially as our outdoor stewardship needs are approaching near-crisis levels. For more information, visit www.voc.org or call 303-715-1010.
Latitude/Longitude: 39.784639, -106.013889
Additional Information:
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult
High Altitude Project: Yes
Desired Number of Volunteers: 50
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 81
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 1
Total Volunteer Days: 82
Total Unique Volunteers: 45
Total Volunteer Hours: 697
Staff Hours: 41.5
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: 40 volunteers attended. We had bad weather Friday night which may have scared some people away, but had great weather the rest of the weekend. We split up into 2 groups. Glenn Scadden's crew (1/3 of the whole group) was accompanied by Kendra Fortin with the Forest Service. they worked on a section with a 15 foot turnpike and a couple of waterbars. Glenn is experienced in this kind of work and Kendra was there for final quality control. The rest of the crew was with Jake and Joe Chastain at the larger of the two turnpikes. Amy Sullivan with the Forest Service was at this site and was able to give insight and direction to this crew. I think this model worked out very well. The crew leaders all knew what they were doing and we had the Forest Service reps there for questions. Steve west had to cancel leading up to the project due to illness, but we had Robin donner on the project as an assistant TA and she was able to take over for Steve. With the Forest Service presence and the experience levels of our crew leaders, there wasn't a huge need for Robin but she was still helpful. She ran the crew leader meeting and spent time with both crews on both days.
We finished the work that we had set out to do from the beginning. Kendra was very pleased with what got done and was glad that we laid out a project scope that could easily be completed. she has more for next year and will likely be putting in another applicaiton.
Successes and Challenges: successes: good number of people for the work we had laid out. we initially were shooting for 65 volunteers, but after a site visit we lowered our target to 50 and got 40. we got all the work done that the agency was expecting and finished early on Sunday.
challenges: this project was funded in part by The Summit Foundation. I had to return the banner after the project on Sunday which was about 25 miles round trip out of the way. This meant that I hit a ton of I70 traffic and was not able to help unload the tool truck since it took it took me so long to get back to ops. If we have Summit County projects that they fund next year, i would suggest working with them sooner to see if they can get a rep out to bring out a banner and spend some time on the project.
Lessons Learned: We grabbed propane from the "full" side of the shed out at ops that was indeed not full. We had three chefs on the project so one of them was able to head into town Saturday during the day to refill the near empty tanks.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed: One 15 foot turnpike
One 35 foot turnpike
2 waterbars
Details
| 14 and older |
