Colorado Fourteeners Initiative

Mt. Massive 2009: Slideshow of the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps

17 August 2009

Here is a slide show of my time with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps.

| Posted by NITRO | Categories: Trail Work, Videos | Tagged: Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, RMYC, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps |

Mt. Massive 2009: Overland Summers Group

8 July 2009

Mt. Massive 2009: Overland Summers Group


Avery, Me and Riley the last night of the Overland Summers Project



On June 25^th, another group arrived, the Overland Summers group.  I had worked with a group from this camp before and it was a good project last year.  But every year brings new kids and new leaders so you are never quite sure what you are going to get.  
The group got to base camp around 12:45, lead by Drew and Hilary from the CFI Adopt-a-Peak program.  The group consisted of Overland Leaders Liz and Jake and campers Avery, Riley, Matt, Jack, Zach B. (Lumber Zach), Zach H., Ben A., and Ben D.  That day we let them set up camp, hiked up to the lower end of the Willow Resto area and showed them the bad weather meeting spot and practiced lightning position.  We also found out that Michael Jackson died.
Day 2 with the group we hiked up tools to the higher end of the Willow Restoration (Resto) area.  Hilary and I led the group while Joe and Drew went up to the high site to lay out some work.  We worked on planning plugs and re-contouring the old trail.  The day went well and we ate lunch as the rains came in.  I boogied down the hill as I had a plane to catch that evening and left the group in the capable hands of Drew and Hilary.  
I flew to Baltimore to visit with my best friend, Maura.  We had details to go over for her upcoming wedding.  Since this is an outdoor blog I won’t go into more details but I had a nice time and it was great to see her and her parents (my East Coast Parents).
Tuesday June 30^th I arrived back in Leadville and by 10:20 I was at the Mt. Massive trailhead getting gear together for the hike in.  We were to meet the Overland Summers group at 10:30.  Around 11:30, after some chatting, reacquainting ourselves with each other, and listening to Billie Jean we were heading up the trail back into the Mt. Massive Wilderness, back home.   The hike was relatively uneventful but warm…I think I even got to wear shorts on the hike in, a rarity since I don’t think it’s been warmer than about 60 degrees yet.  But the sun was shining and the conversation was good.  
Up until this hike in, I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet a group, work with them, have days off and then meet up with them again.  It was nice.  It was a good feeling to know what we were going to get in terms of the group.  It was also nice to have a group to look forward to meeting up with.  
We arrived at camp, did some chores and got ready for the morning.  



Stone steps built the the Overland Summers Group.



July 1^st-5^th went by very quickly and before I knew it our time with Overland Summers had come to an end.  We got some great work done.  We built stone staircases, moved huge rocks, built retaining walls, rearranged rocks so that they can be walked over more easily.  We got some quality structures built and got a good amount of work done.  
Joe (my Co-Leader) and I also had time to relax with the group in the evenings, played spoons, Apples to Apples, and chatted.  We were invited to participate in their nightly ritual Desser-cle (Dessert Circle but we mash the word together).  They all have dessert together and give their “Highs, Lows and Cheers” for the day.  It’s a great practice and when someone gives you “Cheers” it really does make you feel good.  It’s kind of funny, I didn’t think that getting recognized by someone half my age would have such a positive impact on my mental status but it does feel really good.  I think in life, most people want to do something right and be recognized in some sense.  So thanks for the “Cheers” guys.  Thanks for reminding me, first hand, the importance of praise.  I hope our paths cross again, maybe a trail work project in the future.  Thanks for everything and congratulations on making the summit on your last day!

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| Posted by NITRO | Categories: Trail Work | Tagged: CFI, Colorado, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, Mt. Massive, Overland Summers |

Mt. Massive: Staff Training and Preview

6 July 2009

Mt. Massive: Staff Training and Preview 2009 CFI Staff
So after a few days off relaxing with my sister and ordering my Maid of Honor Dress for her wedding, I returned to the Yurt near Twin Lakes for staff training. Here I got to meet the rest of the staff which comprised of the Windom Crew and Hilary from the Adopt-a-Peak Program. The Windom Crew is working in a very remote area near Windom Peak in the San Juan Mountains and will be staying back there, even on most of their off days. It’s pretty neat actually, they have to take a narrow gage train to a stop in the middle of nowhere and then hike in 7 miles or so to their base camp. Unfortunately, that means that I won’t get to see Shawn, Kenzie, Frances and Ben to frequently as we are pretty spread apart.

Never the less, getting to know them a little bit was great and we engaged in a highly competitive game of Pict-o-nary. We also went on a trail “walk and talk” to point out trail structures and building do’s and don’ts. Over all, staff training was short. After the Windom Crew got on their way down to Durango, we did 2 more days of trail work/training with Joe, Drew, Hilary and I. Asa, a former CFI staff member also gave us some pointers as he went hiking while we were working.

After another weekend off, I went back to work on Monday, June 15th. I ran errands picking up various items at our storage sheds, picking up re-bar, bear wire, lids to our gravity filters and other such necessary objects. I managed to get almost everything to camp in 2 loads including my food, sleeping bag, some clothes and a book. I also spent about an hour and a half bailing water off our tarp as it had collected and sagged to the ground. It was so laden with water; I couldn’t lift it to dump it off so I resorted to a pan to get water off the tarp. I saved some of the water for boiling for dinner and hot chocolate and the rest was put back into the natural world to be absorbed, returned to the atmosphere and then dropped back to the earth as precipitation.

Greg and Joe made it to camp that night just as I was getting worried and the last bit of light was fading from the evening sky. I retired to my tent, my new home away from home.

Totals for the day include about 10.5 miles of hiking and 6 personal contacts on the mountain or in the parking lot. Glad to see some responsible people out enjoying the early season on the mountain.

Tuesday the 16th was to be a preview day with Loretta but car trouble pushed her arrival back so Greg, Joe and I went for a walk up the mountain to get to know it before we hiked it with Loretta. We also checked out some the restoration work that one of my camp groups did last year. So far the transplants that the 2008 Overland Summers group did for us are looking great. We returned to camp, fixed the tarp, Loretta arrived and we made an excellent Curry dinner. The four of us chatted late into the evening by trail crew standards, about 9:45 pm.

Wednesday I was primed for a butt whooping. We were hiking with Loretta. Loretta is a kind hearted, experienced outdoors woman. She is in charge of managing, contracting and monitoring the working going on the all of the 14,000 foot peaks in the state, amongst other things. She hikes frequently, she lives at elevation and she says she is out of shape. She killed me in hiking today. I keep reminding myself that I am built for hiking long distances a bit slower, but it barely makes me feel better about the shellacking I took today. She did hunker down for a bit and let Greg and I catch up (Joe keep up with her very well) so we could preview together, the reroute that Joe and I will be constructing with the help of our volunteers and the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps.
We hiked up to about 13,500 feet to the saddle before the ridgeline but, covered in snow, the ridgeline was impossible to preview so we returned back to camp, deciding that we’ll have to preview that section later, when we can see the trail.
Loretta and Greg hiked out the night when we got back to camp.

The next two days were spent in preparation for upcoming groups, getting an idea of what we want the groups to do, getting an idea of how long it will take to hike to the work site with the groups, etc. We also did some willow transplants, dismantled a fire ring, filled in old holes left by those who did restoration before us but didn’t fill in their holes from transplants, cached emergency gear and shuttled tools.

We hiked down from camp with the realization that we have a lot of work to do this summer to fulfill the contract that CFI has with the Forest Service. We are going to have to ask a lot of our groups and push them hard. Joe and I are going to have to be focused and prepared, forceful but fair, realistic but setting loft standards and goals. It will be an interesting balancing act and I hope we don’t disappoint.