2023-Trail Construction @ Ridgway State Park

Start Date-End Date: 06/03/2023-06/04/2023 Land Manager Office: Land Manager Contact: Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: PLACEHOLDER Description: PLACEHOLDER Latitude/Longitude: Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 48 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: Total Youth Volunteers Attended: Total Volunteer Days: Total Unique Volunteers: Total Volunteer Hours: 0 Staff Hours: 0 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Overview: Excellent and productive 2-day project in Ridgway State Park building rock walls and expanding out climbing turns along a steep trail so that the trail could more easily serve the larger number of mountain bikers visiting the park. We had great weather all weekend despite torrential rain in Denver. Only rained on Friday night a bit, otherwise clear skies and great temps Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, packed tools in Denver 8-10am, and left at 10 to begin our 6-hour drive to Ridgway. There was construction on US 50 and 550, so some delays getting there. Arrived around 5pm to a few vols who already arrived. We scoped out the sites and unloaded the kitchen equipment on Friday night. Then TMs, CLs, and VOC staff visited the worksite to read through the construction notes and determine who would take which sections. Saturday morning, vols walked/drove to worksite check-in area, and we got started at 8am. A Rep from the State Park and the TA joined for the welcome talk. TMs drove tools to the top of the trail, closest to the worksite so crews didn't need to hike with tools. We broke into 3 crews of 6 members each, and crews hiked to the worksite (top of the trail). Hannah ended up co-leading Whit's crew for the day because Whit didn't feel like he had the technical skills to build the rock walls, since he's a newly certified CL. Each crew basically had a few members constantly bringing rocks to the sections via the rock slings, while other crew members worked on drains or placing the rocks. TA checked in frequently with all crews and provided helpful guidance. It seemed like everyone got a little taste of all the tasks throughout the weekend, switching roles to keep fresh. We cleaned up around 3:30pm and walked back to campsite by 4pm. Chefs provided excellent happy hour snacks and bbq chicken sandwiches for dinner (delicious!). More great bonding with s'mores around the campfire after dark. Sunday got started a little late, breakfast was served at 7:40am. However, since the group was pretty small, we were able to get everyone together and arriving at their sections by 9am. We kept the 3 crew as they were, and had Whit led 2 crews and Hannah led Eric's crew from Saturday (Dave the CL's back was hurting quite a bit, so he did not join us for Sunday, and Eric focused on loading the kitchen stuff in the morning). All the crews had great direction, knew what they needed to get done, and were able to finish their tasks so there were fully finished sections when we left. The TA brought a dolly to move rocks to the sections faster than the rock slings, which was a great addition. The State Park employee checked in again with us this afternoon to see the work and thank volunteers. All crews finished up by 1:30pm, and tool truck was on the road by 2pm. Arrived at Ops center at 7:15pm, and were unpacked by 8:30pm or so. Accomplishments (by my estimates, not sure if randy will measure separately) 150 ft of rock wall 6 rolling grade dips (drainage structures) 300 ft of trail maintained Successes and Challenges: Successes: Got a huge amount of rock work done despite only having 23 vols on the trail! Our volunteer leaders are awesome - Eric served as both a TM and CL on Saturday. Whit stepped up to lead 15 people on Sunday (2 crews at once). Project partner prepwork - Randall the TA had a few loads of large rocks delivered to the worksite so that crews didn't need to do digging for good rocks. This helped enormously because crews could pick and choose which rocks would work best easily. Tool suggestion for future projects: Dolly - The TA used a dolly to transport rocks and it was fantastic, much more stable than a wheel barrow (two wheels vs. one). I'd suggest as a potential tool list addition if the tread is well established. The rock would sit on the base, and it had a strap to secure the rock around the dolly, and another strap at the top to act as a "break". Two people would work together, one steering and one holding the break. Crews learned quickly - half the group was completely new to VOC (on their first project), and they picked up the rock skills quickly and were able to work mostly independently on Sunday. We had some great crew bonding and creative crew names - "Take a Rock on the Wild Side", "The Dark Stranglers", and "The Rock Farm" Campsite - a lot of vols took advantage of the amenities of the campground with free, hot showers and fishing nearby One crew leader wasn't comfortable with rock work and reached out pre-project to ask for resources to learn. Ben sent over some videos and training materials, which was super helpful Challenges: Tools - Only packed 2 of the orange nylon rock slings, should have packed 1 per crew. The chain austin that was packed was too small for the rocks we were moving. All other tool amounts were perfect. Lack of crew leaders - none were signed up until the week of the project. On Sunday, we only had 1 crew leader so VOC staff and TM had to play multiple roles. Additionally the one crew leader we had both days was not comfortable with rock work. I recommend providing more resources or training opportunities for CLs to learn rock skills, especially when it's essential to the project's success Morning schedule/late breakfast - Because our worksite was in a separate area from our campsite, I attempted to change the morning schedule so that breakfast was scheduled for 7-7:30am, and then registration/check-in 7:30-8am over by the project site (typically check-in at campsite, and then commute as group to worksite site at 8am). I did this based on the Crank and Hammer project doing the same and thought it could get us a jumpstart on the morning/work since we had a lot ahead of us. However, I would not recommend this for projects with Barb as the crew chef. She and her 3 helpers cooked delicious food, but it was ready at 7:15am on Saturday, and 7:40am on Sunday. This meant we had a bit of a late start on Sunday waiting for everyone to eat and head over to the project site. Something to keep in mind if anyone else wants to attempt this. Campsite - Ridgway reserved a few campsites in a nearby campground for us to use, and overall, it worked out but probably could have had some improvements. Vols had to share sites, which they were mostly willing to do, but a few people were annoyed with these logistics. The pavilion we used as a cooking tent was great, but I wish we had reserved the site closest to the pavilion on the uphill side so that the tool truck could have had easier unloading and loading. Chef + helpers had to cart the coolers up and down a hill each day because the closest site we had to the pavilion was down a steep hill. Also, because we have a person on the project in a wheelchair, they had a difficult time getting between the kitchen and bathroom since none of our sites had a direct and flat path between kitchen-bathroom-campsite. Personally, felt a bit of sexism from the TA. He would only call over men to help move rocks, and he commented on how I was using the pick mattock at one point that was pretty condensing. He seems like a nice guy, but to me this was worth noting because it's a pattern I've personally felt when there's rock work projects on the western slope and, as a volunteer, I am going to think twice about signing up for projects in this area (Fruita to Ridgway). Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Feedback from volunteers: Golden automated emails - I recommend turning off all these automated emails from Golden because I got A LOT of comments/questions from vols with confusion about the emails on both Roxborough and this project. Also, I changed the location in Golden to the coordinates of the campsite, and Golden set an automated email to vols that the location changed and had language about saying they should cancel if the location doesn't work for them. The email didn't note the coordinates I chose, but took a random label off the map, so the text in the email was also confusing. Wiwiek wants all VOC project staff to know that she only wants to be a chef helper if we don't have someone else to help. I had 3 helpers, and she said she would have prefered to do trailwork had she known there was already so much help. Additional notes: Cathie Lucas gave a $20 cash donation (in clipboard) Mike Winter is interested in finding additional ways to help VOC for projects on the Western Slope. I believe he lives in Montrose or nearby? He's a retiring civil engineer, so I recommended to him the TA role, and that got him excited but I think he could be a great and helpful resource in other ways too. Please email him to get more info on what he wants to do (maybe Abby or Aimee?). His business card is in the clipboard. michael.winter@arcadis.com Safety hazard at Ops center - the wood floor by the shed door is rotting and someone tripped on the developing hole. Tool truck - the lift gate switch was glitchy and Eric/Jim ended up pulling out the wires to get it to work (maybe ask Eric about this?). Wanted to note to keep other TMs aware to avoid this truck if they can or tell Enterprise to fix this issue - Isuzu, plate #AHE-G54 Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: