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!
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!
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