Adopt-a-Trail program in Grand County

Recreation Adopt-a-Trail Program in Grand County

By Kristen Lodge

22

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.

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

and unusually cold temperatures during April and May; so I waited.

The gate to the Vasquez Wilderness area finally opened at the end of June, and at last I got a chance to see the trail I’d adopted. It was a blue-sky day, and the dirt road to the trailhead was in great shape. It is a two hour easy hike to the trail marker for Vasquez Pass Trail, the start of my adopted trail.

Once I was on the trail everything changed for me. This is not just any trail; this trail was my responsibility for one year. I needed to maintain it and to sign up for a work day, when the Forest Service helps with major repairs such as removal of trees or replacing water bars. That would be the hardest part of adopting the trail. That day, however, I pulled branches and debris off the trail and took photos of what logs would need saws and multiple people to remove. I also scouted a campsite for my next visit when I would stay overnight and hike farther up on the trail to the Continental Divide.

I am so glad I’m doing this. I’m getting the opportunity to explore a new area and know a trail really well. My chosen trail has all the components of a great trail: a creek running through it, a great view of Vasquez Peak at the start of the trail so you know where you’re going, and it’s on the Continental Divide. I can’t wait to come back each week and go farther up the trail and get to know it more each time. P

Adopt a Trail Programs in Colorado:

• http://www.coloradotrail.org/aat.html • http://www.14ers.org/Volunteer_Programs_ Adopt.php • http://www.headwaterstrails.com/adopt.html • http://www.eaglecounty.us/uploadedFiles/ engineering/Permits/Eagle_County_Adopt_ Trail(1).pdf • http://www.lakewood.org/comres/page. cfm?ID=386&Adopt-A-Trail/

Other important links:

• http://www.coloradowilderness.com/wildpages/ vasquez.html • http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/arnf/recreation/wilderness/ vasquezpeak/index.shtml

Kristen Lodge is a freelance writer living in Granby, Colorado. She is an avid hiker, backpacker, skier, and triathlete.

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