8/04: Return to Rocky Mountain

August, 2004 - by Derly Rivera

After an absence of one year, 10 Central Texas Trail Tamers returned to Rocky Mountain National Park for a week of work. Cool days and nights greeted us as we pitched our camp tents and stored our gear. After hiking and acclimating on Labor Day, we made final preparations for the work ahead.

Our orders for the week were to work at two different sites. One at Bierstadt Lake was a horse trail, which had to be rerouted due to new highway construction. The other, at Eugenia Mine trail, was a mile hike from the Long's Peak trailhead. Five team members went to the Eugenia Mine trail which was at 10,000 ft.; the other four members remained at the Bierstadt Lake site at around 9000 ft. Depending on their schedule, five to six park trail crew were assigned to guide and work with us, thus simplifying the task.

The first day was difficult as we adjusted to working and positioning large heavy boulders to solidify and control water runoff on the trails. As the week progressed, we cleared trails, trimmed tree branches, moved and repositioned rocks and boulders on new tread. The remainder of the week was much better as we continued to acclimate and managed to work somewhat at a faster pace.

Working ten hours daily, we were able to complete the Eugenia Mine trail project in three days. On Friday, the last work day, all nine CTTT members worked on the Bierstadt Lake trail, completed it, and then moved and positioned logs and timber check logs for the next week's work project for the park trail crew who would be working at the location. Still, the most difficult and strenuous work was moving big boulders around to different areas along the trail. In all, the team was able to work 207 man-hours on these two projects.

We stayed at Moraine Park campground where we had a full-time cook who prepared great hot meals for us. After dinner, we usually had dessert and coffee by the campfire and told stories that only campers can tell but no one believes.

The elks were in their full rut season and showed up at dusk in the Moraine Park grounds. Later in the evening, we could hear the chorus of coyotes howling their favorite yelps and, of course, the hoot owls were around.

To close out the work week, some of the team went hiking while others visited Estes Park and did some shopping. Good work was completed for the Rocky Mountain Park. Special thanks to the park crew and to the CTTT team consisting of Bo, Terence, Bill, Diane, Wanda, Dan, Earl, Jennifer and Hilary.