Description
Start Date-End Date: 06/21/2021-06/25/2021
Land Manager Office: USFS - Divide Ranger District
Land Manager Contact: Bryce Hoffman
Funding Partner: National Forest Foundation
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: *DEPOSIT REQUIRED* Clear fallen trees from trails using crosscut saws.
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 must attend all days to participate in this project.
You may only register yourself. Every volunteer must sign our digital COVID-specific forms ahead of time to be able to attend.
You must bring work gloves. Please click here for 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.
Cancellation & Waitlists: Due to this year's limited number of projects and volunteer spots, 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:
Spanning nearly 500,000 acres in southwest Colorado, the Weminuche Wilderness is three-quarters the size of Rhode Island and the state's largest Wilderness area. On this project, you'll be camped out in the backcountry approximately 7 miles and 1,000 vertical feet up a Wilderness trail.
What You'll Do:
Come experience a week of wonder in the wilderness away from it all, with great backcountry cooking like you've never had before from our volunteer Crew Chefs! Volunteers will focus our work on hiking the upper reaches of the Wilderness trails in the area and cutting out fallen trees from the trail using traditional crosscut saws. If all log clearing is completed, volunteers will do some basic trail surface and drain structure maintenance. No experience is necessary to attend this project as a volunteer, but certified sawyers are required to lead sawing operations.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the 15-person limit in Wilderness areas and the duration of this project, even one late cancellation can be detrimental to our volunteer recruitment and outdoor stewardship efforts. As such, a deposit of $80 is required to register. This deposit will be refunded in full upon completion of the project, or upon cancellation more than two weeks prior to the project. Deposits will not be refunded if you cancel less than two weeks before the project. If the deposit causes an undue financial hardship, please contact Kendall Cox at outreach@voc.org or at 303-715-1010 ext. 116.
Why crosscut saws? These are a traditional tool that carry a long history of work on the land in our country, and have made a modern resurgence as the tool of choice for clearing fallen trees on trails in federally designated Wilderness areas, where workers are required to use the minimum possible tool. But it's not just about policy: using traditional tools allows us the opportunity to experience the quiet, solitude and characteristics of more remote areas, as well as become attuned to the characteristics of trees themselves. Crosscut sawyers often talk about how they enjoy the experience of hearing the fibers of trees pop and crack as cuts are made.
We welcome you to give crosscut sawing a try, not only to experience for yourself the use of a fun and powerful traditional tool, but to also allow yourself to spend time in nature in a way that perhaps you have not before. No experience is necessary to attend this project as a volunteer, but certified sawyers are required to lead sawing operations. If you would like to learn more about becoming certified as a Crosscut Sawyer, visit voc.org/training or contact Dan Williams by email or at 303-715-1010 ext. 117. Learn more about crosscut sawing at go.nps.gov/lavocast.
Why It Matters:
Wilderness trails on the Rio Grande National Forest are becoming increasingly inaccessible (and dangerous) to hikers and equestrians due to the falling dead Engelmann spruce trees in the area. The U.S. Forest Service cannot keep up with the demand for keeping the trails clear, making volunteers an increasingly critical asset to assist the Forest Service in keeping these Wilderness trails open and accessible to the public.
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 126,000 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: 37.721417, -107.26042
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 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.
Tools, food and crew chef equipment will be packed in by a pack string. Volunteers will be responsible for hiking in all of their personal gear. First and last days will be pack in and pack out days. Days 2-4 will be trail clearing days.
Your deposit will be refunded in full upon completion of the project, or upon cancellation more than two weeks prior to the project.Deposits will not be refunded if you cancel less than two weeks before the project.
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Difficult
High Altitude Project: Yes
Desired Number of Volunteers: 13
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 75
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 75
Total Unique Volunteers: 15
Total Volunteer Hours: 728
Staff Hours: 70
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Project coordinates: 37.72336127432832, -107.2590138032954 (30 mile campground parking lot)
Wilderness Campsite: 37.6456, -107.2366
Day 1-We met at the 30 mile campground parking lot at 8am and had some breakfastand packed up lunches for the trail. We were on the trail by 9am and headed to the camp site roughly 7 miles out. The group was able to keep pace and stay together with the exception of one volunteer who was having a tough time with the hike/carrying gear. I stayed with that volunteer roughly two hours behind the main group and eventually had to carry her gear so we could try and keep a reasonable pace and make it to the site. We all finally arrived at the camping area around 3:30, still no sign of the pack string. My USFS radio was out of service due to the remote location but I was able to send out a message on the SPOTX device. The response I receivedwas that the pack string was not coming. This was troubling becausethey had all our food, water filters and equipmentto set up camp. Communication on the spot device is limited but I was able to negotiate a half drop with the essentialswe needed till they could make another drop the followingday. People were tired, low on water but in good spirits and not fully aware of the whole situation. Two hours later we were able to get some of the panniers. There had been a horse accident at the trailhead and 4 horses had to be pulled from the string so they only limited options to bring stuff out. We got the water filters going and we were able to make some scrambled eggs and cliff bars for dinner. Not ideal, but at leastwe had food and water now. We didn'tget any equipmentto set up camp, latrine, most of the food or any tools. We used what we could from personal gear to get by for the night and everyone went to bed early.
Day 2-I coordinated groups to start prepping what we could to set up camp that afternoon/scout out the work site and see what would could do without tools. The pack stringwas scheduledto arrive around noon with a second load. We built up the river crossing to make it safer to cross during the week, prepped a kitchen area and gathered materials to build it once equipmentarrived, scoutedout the work site and made a plan based on the number of trees down. We took care of the risk assessment, tool safety, went over the work plan and assigned work groups during the down time. Around noon the pack stringarrived, they ended up cutting all tables and some more tools due to limited carryingcapacity. Cutting additional gear and tools after we had already reduced it significantlymade things difficult but the crew was resourceful! Everyone seemed pretty understanding that some things were out of our control and we would have to make the best of it.We salvaged wood from the washed out bridge and made tables and cooking surfaces for the crew chef. We trimmed up downed trees and gathered large boulders to make a really nice lean-tofor the cook area. Check out the pics if you find yourselfin an area without the typical tree set up we use, you only need one good base tree for this design. It wasn'tideal to spend day 2 doing that but thegroup was really proud of the work we did at camp and it was a boost in morale! Due to limited supplies and the location,setting up camp took most of the second day but we were able to get out for 2 hours of project work.. It was nice to have a slow introductionto the work, groups established a working rapport and got used to working with each other on the first day so we could hit the ground running on day 3.
Day 3- Finally got to some crosscutting! The number of downedtrees kept crews hard at work all day, we left some difficult sections for the followingday but we were able to reach the lake! Food was abundant and we were all happy about that!
Day 4-I had groups doing a few different work tasks since we had made it throughmost of the downedtrees on day 2. I organized trail work the best I could considered we onlyhad one pick and one shovel. We were able to use crosscuts and silkeys to collect materials for some small bridges through boggy sections, close off social trails, build cairns and arrange rocks in some water crossingsfor hikers to hop across. There were plenty of drains to clean out but since we only had 1 pick a group was only able to get to roughly half of them. I would have liked the work to be more efficientand more planned out but we did what we could and even had some time to enjoy hanging at Squaw lake!
Day 5- We packed up everything into the panniers and left them at the pick up site. The group hiked down in the rain and some hail but it went well and we all reached the trailheadby 1:30. I asked the one hiker who had trouble on the way up to skip packing up VOC stuff and get a head start on the hike. She was capable and experienced, so I felt comfortable with her hiking alone she just needed to go at her pace. This helped the group reach the trailheadaround the same time.
Successes and Challenges: A few issue/considerations came up during the planning of this project;
1. The project is early in the season so a site visit wasn't possible until early June due to snowpack. I was able to hike in to the camp spot (7 miles in) but the bridge was washed out and runoff was high so I was not able to cross over to the last 2 miles of the trail where the actual project work would take place. I had to get intel from hikers and employees to try and plan outprojectwork butcouldn'tbe sure what that would look like until we got out there.
2. Bryce, the RGNF POC, was on paternity leave leading up to and during theproject. He is also new to the forest with little knowledge of the trail system. I was able to get in touch with the retired Divide wildernessranger which was helpful.
3. I made theassumption based on notes left thatthe RGNFpack stringwas used in previous VOC backcountryprojectsin the SLV and that they understood theprojectneeds. The meeting I had in April with the RGNF folks indicated the same. A week out from theprojectwe found out that the horsesdon'tpack much, this will be their first trip of the season and they are out of shape. We had to cut 250lbs.ofweightfrom what we intended to bring out on the project, brining only the bare bones of what we needed. Short on tools. This was very tough for our crew chef and he had tocompletelyrework his menu andequipment. I was able to find 2 volunteers who were willing to hike in on day 1 to carry equipmentand then hike back out. An extra 40 lbs doesn'tseem like much but it was a huge help, and they ended up carrying a lotof the cliff bars which came in handy when the food didn'tarrive on day 1.
4. 30 mile campground is run by a concessionaire so we were not able to secure any free campsites for Sunday night. Some volunteers purchased sites but I offered information on dispersed camping near by and there is plenty of it. Lost trail campground is one suggestion to offer. Everyone was able to find a place and be ready to go at the 30 miles parking lot the next morning, which is a short walk from the trailhead.
Lessons Learned: Don't use the RGNF pack string for a VOC project. They are not equipped to pack in everything a VOC project requires and the horses/mules are out of shape because they don't pack much. I would use them for a smaller, local project.
Always pack in a water filter or iodine tablets in personal pack, so if the equipment does arrive you still have water for the group.
Animalsaren'treliable.
?Tim Z is putting together a spread sheet but we should expect any pack stringwe use to be able to carry at least120lbs per animal, minimum! That'sbased on a crosscut projectso tools are light, trail crew would require more.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents: One volunteer rolled his ankle, I wrapped it up for the day to stabilize it and gave him light work. He felt better in the morning.
Description of Work Completed: See accomplishments tab
Details
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