Still fixin' trail!

Hello Bloggers!

The Hot Shot Crew Blog has been a way for a while again. Just to show that we haven't been goofing off, we'd like to treat you all to some rad photos of our most recent work!

We wrapped up at Mt. Evans by making improvements to the Chicago Lakes Trail, which ascends towards the summit along a gorgeous cliff face.

Here, the trail is traversing a steep slope. In this section, a gap in the cliff leaves the trail unsupported from beneath, and it is slowly eroding away.

With the help of volunteers, we filled the gap with a retaining wall, which also supports a cribbed step (multiple rocks filled with soil to act as a single step) that widens and raises the tread of the trail.

This vantage point shows the size of the wall (almost 7 feet tall) built to support the trail above and fill the gap in the cliff. We built four of these types of walls on Mt. Evans.

On Mount of the Holy Cross, we've been working on the talus slopes of Half Moon Pass route. Our efforts are focused on defining a sustainable route through the confusing jumble of rocks, where hikers can easily lose the trail and wind up descending the wrong way across alpine tundra.

In this picture, a staircase sits in the background, unsupported over a gap in the trail.

We moved a large boulder into place to fill the gap, define the trail, and provide a step up to the stairs in the background. This is end of a section a ten such rocks placed to define the route.

Shown here is a soil gap between boulders in the Half Moon Pass Route. Hikers have been using this path to ascend through the talus, leading to erosion of the soil and loose rock in the trail.

We built a staircase up the gap that will give hikers a sustainable, stable path up the eroded section. Towards the top of the picture you can see the start of a check-step section holding the soil above the staircase.

The following pictures aren't before-and-afters, but are some of the best from our recent projects.

Here's a good shot of our work site on Holy Cross' talus slopes.

In this picture, Kate is enjoying the snow and 60 mph winds during one of our mornings on Mt. Evans. It was 5 degrees on the mountain's summit and 90-something in Denver.

This is how the weather turned out later that afternoon!

Finally, here's a shot taken of the Hot Shot Crew with all the folks from WRV and RMYC who worked with us on the Summit Lake Trail reroute. project. We're sitting on the wall built with the mini-excavator and filled with dump truck loads of gravel. The trail has been lifted from where the bottom tier sits to the top of the wall in order to bring the grade up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

Early Mornings on Evans

If we're lucky enough to have a clear morning on Mt. Evans, the drive up to Summit Lake can be pretty spectacular. Our mornings lately have been starting at 4am, when everybody rolls out of the tents to make breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Then its a pile into the cars for the 30 minute trip from base camp up to the trailhead. On a good morning, we can see the lights of Denver off in the distance as the sun rises. This past week we were treated to a dual sunrise and full moonset over the summit as we gathered up for our stretch circle with RMYC.

Work wise, we're pretty much finished with our time on the Summit Lake Trail reconstruction project, and we're moving on to some CFI work on the Chicago Lakes Trail. Last week we got in some more time constructing our multi-tiered walls near the lookout, and transported loads more of material from the drop site near the trail head. We'll still be camping with our RMYC co workers, who are putting the finishing touches on all the work we've done throughout July, and we'll be working right around the corner should they need anything! The Chicago Lakes Trail project requires us to build some walls and steps into a steep cliff face where the trail has been rerouted in recent years. We had a full day of wall building today. Moving the big rocks into place on the steep slope was a challenge but made it very rewarding once everything was set. The view from our new worksite is gorgeous. Look for some great pictures soon!

The Hotshot blog is back! We're moving at a pretty good clip on the Summit Lake trail and anticipate much progress this week. Our multi-tiered walls towards the far end of the trail are coming together nicely as we continue to adjust the grade of the steepest section.

One of the biggest reasons for our smooth work has been our ability to use some pretty fun machinery for moving and placing rock and fill material. The size and amount of rock that this project requires makes it practical for us to take advantage of power tools. For instance, we've relied heavily on a Bobcat Skid Steer to move to rocks and fill of all sizes to staging areas for construction. We also used straps and shackles to hook up the Bobcat to large rocks we needed removed from the trail.

Where the grade is too steep or narrow for the skid steer, we have an entertaining little machine called a Dingo. The Dingo is basically a souped up lawnmower with tracked treads and a hydraulic bucket on the front. We've used it to move material around tight spots, and even had the chance to get creative with it last week when we strapped our largest boulders to the bucket and dragged them into place.

Finally, we've got ourselves a mini excavator. This one armed wonder can grab and place our most massive rock, and is pretty awesome to watch!

For all you trail crew purists out there, don't worry. We're still lifting, rolling, carrying and heaving rock around, and enjoying all the cursing and muscle soreness that comes with it. With the help of our machines, we're just able to do it with a lot more rock!

Just a quickie update today! We spent another week on Mt. Evans, polishing up the monowalls and other projects near the trail head started during the first week, and beggining the process of moving material down to the overlook end of the Summit Lake Trail, where our largest structures are going to be installed. This meant a lot of grading of the trail with Mcleods (big metal rakes), shovels and picks, and enough rock removal to ensure that our Bobcat and Mini-Excavator can have a smooth drive down to the drop site. The excavator was also moving large rocks out of the trail and should soon be in position to start building the large walls we'll need to properly grade the trail's far end. Once we can get the machienary down far enough the transporation of material should go faster, but for this week it required the strength of our own backs to move rock up to the overlook. We're widening the trail near the overlook with monowalls and contstructing a multi-tiered wall between two boulders to create a viewpoint of the hanging Chicago Lakes, seen above. The construction of the large walls should make for a great post once it gets underway in earnest. Stay tuned!

A Road Runs Through It...

Hey all!

Sorry about the long hiatus. Your humble author climbed Quandary peak the day after a seven day work week and needed some serious down time! The Hot Shot Crew's been up on Mt. Evans (you know, the one you can drive to the top) beginning work on our biggest project of the season, reconstructing the Summit Lake overlook trail into an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) approved path. Just a quick note here for all you hikers and climbers: this trail is going to be CLOSED weekdays and some weekends through the beginning of September. Since the Summit Lake trail's intersection with the hiking route via Mt. Spalding is a popular approach to Mt. Evan's summit, we had our hands full this week informing hikers who, understandably after paying the toll to drive up the Mt. Evans Highway, responded with varying degrees of cooperation, and in some cases, serious agitation. My personal favorite was a man who complained gruffly that "I've been coming here for 20 years and you just keep making it more civilized!" A word to the wise: If you'd like a primitive, solitary hiking or climbing experience in Colorado, Mt. Evans is not your destination.
What makes this project unique for CFI is its magnitude. To create the 5-6% grade we're going to need for ADA status requires the construction of multiple walls with varying numbers of tiers and sizes, within which we'll fill crush and soil to raise the level of the tread. These walls are going to be especially massive towards the end of the trail, where the path takes a steep dip, and we may be bringing in a mini excavator to help us place the large rocks to create the size of walls needed. (stay tuned!) Among the tools unusual to CFI projects we've had in operation this past week are jack hammers powered by gasoline generators, a contracted blasting crew removing rock from the trail, and a bobcat and a backhoe transporting material around the work site. The project isn't just about access either. High amounts of use in the Summit Lake area have left the original trail in an unsustainable condition. Tundra soils that are tens of thousands of years old are being lost at a high rate. Our other goal for the project is to transplant local forbs and grasses into damaged slopes and build structures that will check erosion on the hillside and help to reestablish the Summit Lake alpine tundra environment.
We were accompanied by a crew from Rocky Mountain Youth Corps. This 12 member crew will be with us for the majority of our time spent on the project. If their work from the first week is any indication, our RMYC co-workers should be a great help in all aspects of the project. We had them quarrying rock, moving materials around the trail, removing broken and blasted rock, transplanting restoration plugs, and pitching in on the construction of our first two walls, a multi tiered wall near the beginning of the trail, and a 75 ft. mono-wall approaching the first climb in the path. We've also had lots of support from the Wildlands Restoration Volunteers who, along with Denver Mountain Parks, are responsible for the design of the new trail. 50+ WRV volunteers came out last friday and stayed through the weekend, working on the first phases of wall construction, restoration, and material transportation.
The only wrench in the gears last week was the weather. On Wednesday and Thursday, afternoon sleet and thunder showers delayed some of our work. To get around this we're moving our wake up time to 4am (yippee!) The project at Summit Lake is an ambitious one, and promises to get more interesting and challenging as it progresses. Check in for more updates soon!

Holy Cross, Batman!

After a few weeks of waiting, we finally got into the meat and potatoes (just potatoes for Kate because she's a vegetarian) of our work season. Hiking, digging, and lugging around rocks above tree line on a backcountry mountain trail! We set out last Saturday for a five day hitch in the Holy Cross wilderness, home to Mt. of The Holy Cross.

Named for the crucifix shaped snowfield that collects on its northeast face, Holy Cross is the norhtern-most fourteener in the Sawatch range and, in my humble opinion, the range's most beautiful peak. As you summit Half Moon pass on the standard approach route and make your way around a rocky ridgeline, the prominent granite spire suddenly appears, dominating the view all the way down to East Creek. The Half Moon Pass route then begins to ascend again, gaining, 5,000 feet from trail head to summit, with a scramble from the mountain's north ridge up to the summit.

Unfortunately, the Half Moon Pass Route is in bad shape, especially above tree line where erosion and numerous braids have led to a confusion of social trails which can lead climbers in the wrong direction off trail, especially on the descent. This is where we concentrated our work efforts.We spent our time building structures to check erosion on the trail and clearly define a sustainable route up the mountain. These included check steps (set across the trail to hold back soil) of various sizes, sets of stairs, water bars for drainage, and rip rap (piled rock to deter hikers) to close out braids and social trails.

We also made contact with close to 2o hikers each day. Some were well prepared (plenty of water and food, solid boots.) Others were not (one water bottle, tennis shoes without socks, dogs off leash.) On our last day, we had a whole train of hikers that followed the leader off trail and accidently cut across the tundra to the area of the trail we were working, instead of following the established route down the ridge line. All this even after our peak steward Kate told almost everyone that passed to take precaution on the descent and watch closely for the FIVE FOOT CAIRNS! that are apparently easy to miss.

We'll be back to Holy Cross later in the season, as will the Adopt-a-Peak crew. We'll most likely continue to work our way up the North Ridge route, making improvements and hopefully diminishing the confusion that led to the tundra stomping we saw this past week!

On a final Leave No Trace note, one of the hikers we talked to told us that he threw a frisbee off the top of the peak and caught it on video. "Dude! It was awesome!" Please don't do these things.

-Hot Shots

Keeping all you hikers informed

What's up everybody! Welcome back to the Hot Shot blog. We've been out in the backcountry for the last five days, but are now happy to report that we're back to the Yurt, showered, feeling good, and ready to fill everyone in on what we've been up to.The first order of business is to go back a little over a week to our Kiosk installation project. These informational booths are installed at fourteener trailheads all over the state of Colorado. They fill hikers in on what they can expect from the trail, wilderness regulations, and Leave No Trace ethics. It might sound fairly straightforward, but installing these puppies turned out to be a small adventure.

To begin, the parts we were sent to install them didn't really fit. We didn't discover this until we'd driven the 4x4 road (see Truckin' post) up to Half Moon trail head on Mt. Massive near Leadville. That meant making a hardware store run to Buena Vista, some 20+ miles away, where there was a limited supply of the screws we needed. We got enough to finish the kiosks on Mt. Massive, and called it a day.

The following day we drove out to Grays and Torreys and the Chicago Lakes trailhead at Mt. Evans. Llyod, our executive director, was kind enough to clean out a number of Denver area hardware stores of the screws and bolts we needed, and the installation at Grays Peak went smoothly.

The trip up to the Chicago Lakes was pretty exciting, and the inspiration for last week's "Truckin'" post. Basically, it was the first time we've had to lock the front axle and engage the compound low 4x4 gear on the job...pretty fun stuff! We were hoping to follow this road all the way the wilderness boundary where we were installing the Kiosks, but found it washed out a ways from our goal. Undeterred, we carried the sign boards the rest of the way and still had enough time to preview our upcoming project on Mt. Evans.

So when you climb a fourteener, please take the time to read these Kiosks. They're informative and, really, we put some work into those things!

-Hot Shots

Truckin'

I'd like to take the opportunity today to write a little about our crew transportation. It's an F-250, 4X4 Super Duty, manual transmission with a V-8 engine we affectionately call Blue. I'm pretty fond of saying that there's nothing that makes you feel like a natural resource employee quite like driving around in a big truck, and this has been no exception. It's like actually living in those Ford commercials where they show you how much punishment their work trucks can take. Just to do kiosk installation we negotiated some gnarly dirt tracks. The most exciting stretch so far was taking a back road to the Mt. Evans Wilderness Boundary to install kiosks for the Chicago Lakes trail. The crux of the road was an extremely steep patch with bare rock exposed. We rolled to the bottom of the hill, engaged the 4X4 (we have to do this by manually locking the front axle, no on-the-fly shifting!) threw it into low gear and took off. The big truck scaled the hill like a nimble mountain goat, or at least a loud, diesel belching mountain goat. The A/C may not work, but we've got a functioning CD player, and all the Hot Shots agree that we've got the best truck in the CFI. Blue always gets us there in style!

Dan

That Long Black Train...

One of the cool things about being on the Hot Shot Crew is the travel. Our small size makes it easy for CFI to send us wherever we're needed. Last week, while we were waiting for the snow to melt on our scheduled project peaks, we drew a quick work detail to Durango.

About 250 miles from our home base near Leadville, Durango is the hub of the San Juan Range, and the home of the CFI Chicago Basin Crew and our Southwest Conservation Corps partners. We drove down Monday to take the Durango-Silverton railroad to the Needleton trailhead and help the Chicago Basin folks start packing in their gear, which I believe measures somewhere in the thousands of pounds in total weight.

Riding the restored, narrow gauge steam train was scenic and fun in a novel way, but it also created an odd dynamic. The thing is packed with tourists, and we're there on work assignment. People were leaning out the windows to watch and take pictures as we scrambled to unload everything from the boxcar, and just about every passenger feels compelled to wave as you sit near the tracks taking a lunch break. It's not that big of a deal, it just made me feel a little bit like I was at an amusement park!

Our campsite was near the tracks along a beautiful stretch of the Animas River, in the most lush forest I've yet seen in Colorado. Tall willows and aspens, 24 in. diameter Ponderosas, and blooming Columbine were all nearby. We tented down in small grassy patch behind an old mining shed.

This was our first crew hitch, and we learned a few good lessons that we'll be able to apply to the rest of the season. The biggest is that if we want to make a bear hang we're going to need to get some stuff sacks to hold our food. This past week, we ran up everything in plastic grocery bags. They lasted the whole hitch, but probably wouldn't have hung there a day longer. Rips and tears were starting to develop and a bottle of hot sauce spilled all over our lunch stuff.

Our work consisted simply of taking the three months worth of gear for the Chicago Basin Crew and getting it all into mule-packable bundles. We

wrapped up ice chests full of food, propane tanks, rope and tent gear, tools and rubbermaid style containers called action packers (just to name a few) into even weight bundles in various types of saddle bags. In the morning Wendell, a laid-back old cowboy who generously offers his time to be our packer, and Shaun, the Chicago Basin project leader, would bring down the mules to get saddled up. The animals do the hardest work, carrying 100 to 200 pounds each, nine miles up the trail to the base camp site, then coming down and doing it all again the next day.

We ended our week with a quick lunch visit to Silverton and a night in Durango, much to Ben's chagrin, watching the Celtics lose to the Lakers in game seven of the NBA finals, before driving back to Twin Lakes on friday. Have a great season Chicago Basin Crew! The Hot Shots were happy to play a small part in your success this year.

-Dan

Need Funding for Trail RPGs

As a team building exercise while in Durango, the Hot Shot Crew went to see a movie. Specifically, we went to see the new A-Team movie. (Go see this film. The non-stop thrill ride will leave you wishing the theater were empty so you'd have no problem screaming "HELL YEAH!" at the top of your lungs.) Since the Hot Shot Crew, much like the A-Team, are an elite, mobile, morally upstanding trail crew of fortune, the movie inspired us take on the roles of the A-Team in our everyday work. Kate is Smith, the cool-headed, elder leader. Ben is B.A., the buff badass with a heart of gold. Dan is Face, the smooth talking playboy.After agreeing on these roles, we still needed a Murdock for air support. Based upon his position in CFI, we naturally chose Greg Seabloom. So Greg, if you're reading this, you're now our crazy air support dude with a death wish. I love it when a plan comes together.

-Hot Shots

Hot Shots headed to Durango

What's up bloggers! Just a quick update to let everyone know that the Hot Shot Crew is headed to Durango on Monday and then going by train to Needleton to help pack in the CFI Chicago Basin Crew. Look for more info towards the end of next week.

Mt. Yale Field Training

Hey All!
We spent the last few days on Mt. Yale with the rest of the CFI Seasonal staff and leaders from Rocky Mountain Youth Corps and Southwest Conservation Corps. We worked on outdoor leadership training, base camp setup and trail and alpine restoration work.
Our crew specific task was to repair a retaining wall on the Mt. Yale reroute set to be completed this year. Hot Shot Supervisor Ben Turati is entering his eleventh season in trail work, and second with CFI, which made this training session a great opportunity to ask lots of questions and learn from his experience before we really get our hands dirty in the coming months.
We also got some training in Alpine Ecology and restoration work from John Giordanengo, a former CFI staffer. We worked with other CFI and SCC leaders, transplanting grasses and forbs into an eroded section of trail and constructing restoration check dams, which I have to say is a nice change of pace from shoving, heaving, and smashing big rocks into place.
In the end, though rock work sometimes leaves me feeling like I'm pounding a massive square peg into a gaping round hole, the great weather, sweeping views, awesome co-workers, and the chance to get some work in on the trail made our short training session on Mt. Yale a great experience.

Season is about to kick off...more posts to come!!