2022-Perimeter Trail Restoration @ Ouray

Start Date-End Date: 09/10/2022-09/11/2022 Land Manager Office: City of Ouray Land Manager Contact: Silas Clarke Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Trail Group, Inc of Ouray Summary: Perform critical trail maintenence on a well-loved trail that surrounds Ouray. Description: Photo by Pat Donaho Where You'll Be: Known by many names, such as the "Switzerand of America" and the "Outdoor Recreation Capital of Colorado," Ouray is nestled in the San Juan Mountains in the southwest part of the state. Recreationists flock to the small town of Ouray for hiking, rock climbing, sightseeing, and an international ice climbing festival and competition. The six-mile Perimeter Trail circles the town from above and offers a variety of different landscapes and natural wonders. What You'll Do: Join us for cool temperatures and even cooler views on this fall project in Ouray. Working in partnership with the City of Ouray, Ouray Trail Group, and the U.S. Forest Service Ouray Ranger District, you'll work with approximately 45 volunteers to restore a heavily-used segment to the base of Cascade Falls. This project offers the opportunity to try a variety of technical tasks from short reroutes to building steps and retaining walls, and is open to any volunteer willing to take on some hardy trail work. Campsites will be provided for all along with meals from our volunteerCrew Chefs; camping is available Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. Anyone that attends a VOC volunteer opportunity in August, September, and October will be entered in a drawing for the chance to win a $300 SCHEELS Gift Card. The more opportunities you attend, the more entries you will earn. Good luck! Why It Matters: This portion of the Perimeter Trail is an extremely popular short hike from the trailhead to the base of Cascade Falls. As such, it has significant wear-and-tear including eroded steps, exposed roots, and several unsanctioned "social trails". Your work this weekend will significantly improve the safety and sustainability of this trail. 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 128,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $26 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: 38.024924, -107.666861 Additional Information: To organize carpooling please visithttps://www.groupcarpool.com/t/n9wqtr Please determine the following amongst yourselves: 1. Pick up location 2. When you leave 3. Vaccination status 4. Mask usage VOC suggests coordinating carpooling in the safest way possible and encouraging a mask friendly policy in your cars. If you have any issues finding a rider or a ride, please feel free to reach out to myself. Happy volunteering! Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 40 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 52 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 52 Total Unique Volunteers: 27 Total Volunteer Hours: 418 Staff Hours: 43 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Successes and Challenges: Successes: -Rick (City of Ouray) and Steve (Ouray Trails group) were both really impressed and excited about VOC's work. Steve noted that our volunteers had a great work ethic and lots of knowledge. They're looking forward to hopefully working with us again. -a beautiful area, both where we were working and the town - the city provided pool passes for the Ouray Hot Springs and most everyone went after dinner on Saturday -having rock ordered and staged beforehand, rather than having to source it from the project area, made it possible to install a lot more steps than we would have otherwise. Michael Pelkey, a local and trails group member, also brought some of his own rock chiseling tools and stayed at the staged rock pile to chisel larger slabs into the step sizes we needed. -In-kind contributions from Mouse's Chocolates and Orvis Hot Springs for the volunteer appreciation raffle Challenges: -steep slopes, tight switchbacks, and loose rocks/eroding mountainsides made it a very challenging worksite from a safety perspective -there were so many social trails and access points to the waterfall that it was difficult to shut them all down and keep the public off the trail -low registration numbers, although it ended up that we had the perfect number of people on the trail. Any more would have been a greater safety hazard - had to cancel ASL crew due to scheduling conflict with RMDS gala and low registration numbers on the crew Lessons Learned: -Everyone needs to wear hard hats to protect from rockfall if we go back to this area. At first we weren't requiring volunteers to wear hard hats and we left it up to individuals, but by halfway through the first day I realized we needed to have everyone wearing them at all times just in case -aim for about the same number of people if we go back--17-20 tops on the trail. More people would have been too tight, and was even a little scary as it was - Really, really, really emphasize for crew leaders to manage their crews so that no one is working above or below each other. Emphasize for everyone to be aware of their surroundings, and if you're about to move something (like a tree limb or rock) from a spot above the trail, make sure you station a crew member at the bottom to stop anyone from walking through (other crew members or members of the public) -include in info email to pack a bathing suit so people can go to the hot springs after! -if camping in rotary park again, tell people there is a great climbing wall and to bring gear if they want to climb! - Recruitment was difficult due to a scheduling conflict with the Imogene Pass Run as well as it being the weekend after Labor Day. Many front range volunteers who might have travelled otherwise had just been out of town for Labor Day weekend and so couldn't make the 6-hour drive to Ouray. Many locals were running the race. So we had difficulty recruiting on both fronts Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: