Description
Start Date-End Date: 08/28/2021-08/29/2021
Land Manager Office: USFS - Pikes Peak Ranger District
Land Manager Contact: Jamie Goins
Funding Partner: National Forest Foundation
Programmatic Partner: Rocky Mountain Field Institute
Summary: Construct new trail on this collaboration weekend with Rocky Mountain Field Institute.
Description: Read Before You Register! Need-to-Know Details:
We greatly appreciate you volunteering your time and energy to care for Colorado's outdoor places during COVID-19. To help provide a fun and safe experience for all, there are a few temporary changes to be prepared for:
You may sign up for one or all days of this project, though we encourage multi-day registration to limit the number of interactions and potential exposure.
You may only register yourself. Every volunteer must sign our digital COVID-specific forms ahead of time to be able to attend.
You must pack your own lunches. Please see below for more information on meals.
You must bring a face mask and work gloves. Please click here for our full packing list of required and recommended items.
All volunteers must keep a mask within reach at all times.We will ask you to wear a mask when working closely together (within arm's reach) on a task, such as moving a large rock.
If you are not vaccinated,we encourage you to reconsider your participation at this time due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. People who are unvaccinated are more at risk of serious illness, hospitalization, and death. If you choose to volunteer while unvaccinated, you must wear a mask for the duration of the project.
Cancellation & Waitlists: Due to limited spots on this year's projects, we expect projects to fill quickly with waitlists. If you need to cancel, please email outreach@voc.org as soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce. If you are waitlisted for multiple projects, please call us at 303-715-1010 ext. 116 and we can help you find an open project, if available.
Where You'll Be:
Pikes Peak has captured the awe of thousands throughout history, reflected in its many names. The 14,115-foot peak was first called Tava, meaning "Sun Mountain", by the local Ute people, who called themselves Tabeguache, "People of Sun Mountain". In the 1700s, Spanish explorers deemed it El Capitan, "the Captain" or "the Leader", while the Arapaho called it Heey-otoyoo, "the Long Mountain." U.S. explorer Zebulon Pike, for whom the mountain was officially named after in 1890, called it both "the Grand Peak" and "Highest Peak". As an icon of the West and inspiration for America the Beautiful, Pikes Peak has also earned the nickname America's Mountain. On this project, you'll spend the weekend on the west side of this historic mountain to work on the Devils Playground Trail (also known as the Crags Trail), which traverses 7 miles and 4,300 feet from a trailhead near the Crags Campground to the summit of Pikes Peak.
What You'll Do:
Join VOC and the Rocky Mountain Field Institute (RMFI) on America's Mountain for this critical trail reroute project. Throughout the weekend, you will assist in a multi-year trail reroute, completing physically demanding - yet rewarding - tasks ranging from new trail construction to water diversion structures and timber and rock features to properly stabilize the trail. Campsites and meals are provided, making this a fantastic experience for those who enjoy high-alpine environments, small group settings, and hard work.
Camping is available Friday and Saturday night; VOC's volunteer Crew Chefs will provide breakfast on Saturday and Sunday as well as dinner on Saturday night.
Why It Matters:
Sections of the Devils Playground Trail are severely incised, over-widened, and steep, leading to an unsafe experience for hikers and an unsustainable environment for the sensitive high-alpine plants and animals. Your efforts will go a long way in improving this trail for years to come for people and wildlife alike.
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 125,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $25 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: 38.871403, -105.119853
Additional Information: We greatly appreciate you volunteering your time and energy to care for Colorado's outdoor places during COVID-19. To help provide a fun and safe experience for all, there are a few temporary changes to be prepared for:
You must pack your own lunches.Please see below for more information on meals.
You must bring work gloves.Pleaseclick herefor our full packing list of required and recommended items.
If you are fully vaccinated,you may work without a mask. If you are not yet fully vaccinated or if you prefer to wear a mask for any reason, please continue to wear a mask on VOC projects. We will have spare masks available if needed.
Camping is available on both Friday and Saturday night. Please note that VOC doesnotprovide any camping equipment (tents, sleeping bags, etc.) but will providebreakfast on Saturday and Sunday as well as dinner on Saturday night. More information about camping will be sent via email approximately two weeks before the project.
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Difficult
High Altitude Project: Yes
Desired Number of Volunteers: 16
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 30
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 30
Total Unique Volunteers: 17
Total Volunteer Hours: 286
Staff Hours: 0
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary:
Successes and Challenges: Coordinating the start-of-day procedure between the two orgs was difficult. While we had numerous meetings leading up to the event to coordinate how we would run things, the morning start was still disorganized and confusing for volunteers. Suggest appointing one lead from either VOC or RMFI--preferably VOC, since we handle large volunteer groups more regularly--to direct people in the morning, then hand off leadership to RMFI staff to lead crews.
Note--even though RMFI technically has volunteer leaders, they don't serve in the same capacity as VOC volunteer leaders do. RMFI staff fills crew leadership role and the volunteer crew leads are more like assistants. Suggest breaking into crew assignments with all RMFI staff present. We tried to assign crews at the campsite and then meet the RMFI staff on the trail and that made for a lot of confusion because once we met up with the RMFI staff, it became clear we just needed to re-do the assignments. No one understood which group they were supposed to go with, the crews were not defined, and there was a lot of back and forth between RMFI staff trying to get people in the right place.
Lessons Learned:
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
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Details
| 16 and older |
