Recreation
Adopt-a-Trail Program in Grand County By Kristen Lodge Fast-forward. I have lived in Colorado and the Rocky Mountains now for four years. Because I live in Granby, I hike trails in Grand and Routt County daily. I hike, snowshoe, run, and bike on some of the best trails in Colorado. Recently, I decided it was time; I was going to give back. I frequent a trail down the road from my house, the Fraser to Granby Trail. Online research about the trail brought the Headwaters Trail Alliance (HTA) in Grand County to my attention. The organization is a nonprofit advocacy group named for the streams that become the Colorado River whose goals are to provide quality trails that link the towns in Grand County to recreational areas. HTA Executive Director Lucinda Elicker partners with each community to “plan, build, preserve, and maintain multi-use trails in Grand County.” This year they are trying to raise funds for a tunnel under Route 40, and they need volunteers to help finish the Fraser to Granby Trail. In January 2008, the Headwaters Trail Alliance advertised in the local newspaper for volunteers to adopt a trail. I respond and choose a five-mile segment of the Vasquez Pass Trail. The Vasquez Pass Trail is in the Vasquez Wilderness west of Winter Park and Berthoud Pass. I’d never been to that area or hiked any of the trails near it, and I was excited to try something I’d never done and to explore an area above treeline. By May, I was anxious to get on the trail. The gate to the wilderness area was not yet open due to the snowy winter
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When I first started hiking in 1988 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, before heading to the trail, I read every hiking guide available. I read the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) Guide and Best Hikes in New Hampshire to learn about the trail I planned to hike. I also started reading monthly newsletters the AMC sent. From these I learned that anyone could “adopt” a trail. Each newsletter contained pictures of people holding gardening tools and wearing hard hats and big smiles. The work looked hard, but I was encouraged by the smiles. During those years, I spent many summer weekends hiking and backpacking in the White Mountains. While I wanted to “give back,” I couldn’t do trail work because I lived two hours away from the mountains. Hiking was my escape from the crowds of seacoast New Hampshire; I found solitude and was able to relax on those trails. It wasn’t time.
