Description
Start Date-End Date: 10/09/2021-10/09/2021
Land Manager Office: Town of Castle Rock Parks & Recreation Department
Land Manager Contact: Barbara Spagnuolo
Funding Partner: Town of Castle Rock Parks & Recreation Department
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Help complete the final section of the Legacy Trail at Gateway Mesa Open Space.
Description: Project photo by Morgann Dulle
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 only register yourself. Every volunteer must sign our digital COVID-specific forms ahead of time to be able to attend.
You must provide your own food. VOC will not be providing meals at this time.
You must bring a face mask and work gloves. Pleaseclick 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 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:
Nestled between the towns of Castle Rock and Franktown, the Gateway Mesa Open Space is an easily accessible gem on the Front Range offering scenic overlooks, stunning views of the Rocky Mountains, and 275 acres of diverse terrain ranging from open scrub brush to dense mixed pine and steep cliffs.
What You'll Do:
Join us for our third annual Women's Only project, and the second of two projects at Gateway Mesa Open Space this year!Created for women, by women, this project is exclusively reserved for women and girls ages 16+. You'll be led by our fantastic women Crew Leaders as you break ground on the remaining section of the new Legacy Trail, connecting VOC's work from 2019 and 2020 to the existing Chuck's Loop Trail on the eastern edge of the property. Work will be moderate to difficult in nature and likely include bench cuts, timber or stone steps, and several small crossings of narrow drainages.
Why It Matters:
The current loop system in Gateway Mesa Open Space is 1.6 miles and travels around the flat, exposed mesa through open grassland. The trail you help build will create a secondary, hikers-only loop extension that will provide access to a forested environment completely different from the rest of the park.As a women-only project, volunteers will also help contribute to creating a supportive community of women in the outdoors!
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: 39.389074, -104.801723
Additional Information: To help provide a fun and safe experience for all, there are a few temporary changes to be prepared for:
You must provide your own food and, if desired, overnight accommodations.VOC will not be providing meals or campsites at this time.
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 Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 55
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 32
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 2
Total Volunteer Days: 33
Total Unique Volunteers: 34
Total Volunteer Hours: 305
Staff Hours: 12.5
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Crew leads and project team all arrived at the trail head at 6:30 to help stage tools closer to the area on where volunteers would be working.
Volunteers began arriving at 7:30 via trolley, got checked in, and spent some time chatting while waiting for more folks to arrive. The last trolley drop off arrived at just after 8 and the introduction talk began soon after. Marcy from the City of Castle Rock was out at the trail helping the tool truck get closer to the unload location so the volunteers broke out into 6 small crews of 4 or 5 before Marcy returned and was able to give them a back story of the location and trail system as well as be introduced. Crews were then allowed to trek to the tool location, but were asked to slightly stagger themselves to keep from getting mixed up with crews in order to stick together more easily. Talks were done at the tool staging location and the crews headed toward the trail from there landing in there assigned sections around 9 or just after.
Most of the day was spent working on sections that had been roughed out earlier in the year on a different VOC project. Crews worked to widen and perfect over 1600 ft of trail. After lunch a few crews were able to move to new sections where they spent the end of the day roughing in about 150 ft of trail in a very steep area.
Successes and Challenges: Successes:
Everyone who came seemed to have a really good time
The parts of trail that were completed are stellar
Everyone had a good attitude throughout the day and worked really hard
Challenges:
Steep slope where the new trail needed to be constructed
Several parts of the roughed in trail needed a lot of work because of their location
10 people either cancelled fairly last minute or did not show up
TA was very anxious because past projects had had issues, had a hard time listening to the advice from those from the City of Castle Rock, and spent over an hour taking the tools the wrong way in (got to the right location, just hiked further than necessary) as a result before deciding to change course.
Lessons Learned: I tried to overfill this project, but it was hard to wrangle enough folks to actually show up on the project. Another issue was the difficulty with getting United Airlines to fill their volunteers slots. I think perhaps spending more time hyping up the project to our volunteers throughout the season to generate more interest would have helped.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 16 and older |
