August 26-September 4, 2006 - by Jerome Collins, Executive Director
We left the "Y" between 71 and 290 in Oak Hill about 7:20a.m. with only Jerome Collins, Chris Argyros, Travis Caffee, Terence Donovan and piles of camping equipment in the van. John Shanks and Kathy Costello left earlier in the week to take the cooking equipment. Barbara Martinez drove her car with Dave Schneider for company. Bill Warren drove up earlier and Lin Risner drove directly from Marshall to Raton, NM where we met that evening and ate. We spent the night at Travis Caffee's family place near Cuchara, CO, arriving before midnight. Sunday, we drove into the Moraine Park campground at Rocky Mountain National Park about 3pm to find Lin Risner and Bill Warren pitching the cook tent with John and Kathy.
Thirteen volunteers working in two teams worked on three different trail projects in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). One team, Lin Risner, a forester from Marshall, Bill Warren from Georgetown, Chris Argyros with Americorps in Austin and originally from Troy, NY, Kathy Costello from Austin and Debbie and Ralph Ploeger from Grand Junction, Colorado, completed 92 checks and 6 drains on new trailbed for the Twin Owls trail opening in spring, 2007. And they did it in four days. There was some excitement on the first day due to a short hailstorm and the destruction of Bill's daypack by tooth and claw. A bear was suspected but not spotted.
Jerome Collins, this year's crew leader recruited John Shanks, a retired chef, restaurateur and caterer, as camp cook for a return engagement and bringing Kathy Costello with him. Terence Donovan a veteran of four previous Central Texas Trail Tamers (CTTT) trips to RMNP, Martha Davies, rock wall expert, returned, Barbara Martinez from Austin and fresh from the trip to Leadville, Colorado earlier this summer, Travis Caffee, native Austinite, Americorp member and youngest, and Dave Schneider, a CPA from LaGrange, made up the second crew. Working under Dan Ostrowski, NPS trail crew leader, this team worked on repairs on the "Bear Nymph Dream Emerald Lakes" trail.
The first two days Terence, Travis and Dave spent creating a rock lined drain for a wetland area to dry the trail that had been continually muddy. Travis was the mud diver, Terence was the voice of experience and Dave carried buckets of dry aggregate uphill. Jerome, Martha and Barbara tore out asphalt that had been used in the 1970's to stabilize the heavily used trail (600 visitors a day average in summer). They placed 2 log checks and a drain by tying them to the granite monolith on one side and to an existing rock wall on the downside using a carbide tip chisel, rock hammers and sledges. Dan O did the custom chain saw work and supervised.
Monday, visitors reporting a bear on a carcass up the trail caused Dan O to report it, call in a couple of rangers loaded for bear, and send a crew including Dave Schneider to move the carcass farther off the trail to prevent human-bear contact. The cow elk carcass had a broken neck and was very ripe.
Tuesday we woke to ice on the windshields. There was a communication glitch and the very able Ploegers, Debbie and Ralph, spent the day in camp waiting for the NPS crew leader to arrive. Lin, Bill, Chris and Kathy put in another dozen log checks and a drain on the Twin Owls-Lumpy Ridge project. The Bear Nymph Dream Emerald crew finished the work they started, but Jerome, Martha, Barbara, Travis and Terence came to appreciate the buckets of dirt Dave Schneider had carried all day Monday. We also received some official looking hats, "NPS Volunteer" so we would look official when we directed trail traffic at the worksite.
Wednesday, both full crews were at work, with Jerome swapping places with Kathy for the day. The Bear Nymph Dream Emerald crew moved higher to add a couple of checks to long pads, establish a new tool cache and bring in more logs.
Thursday, work went well with all hands on board and the Lumpy Ridge-Twin Owls crew completed their assigned task by day's end. The Bear Nymph Dream Emerald crew (working with honorary Trail Tamer, Eric the Irishman) started to create a photo opportunity bench using four very large boulders, Jerome, Dave, rock bars, skids and sledges. We tried to close off the worksite to hikers by re-routing the trail, but people found their way anyway. Martha, Barbara, Travis and Terence worked on a tricky set of checks and drains on a curve. That project called for 20 buckets of dirt and we were almost 1000 feet higher than where we had begun. The afternoon was marked by a report of Travis falling during a lunch-break rock climb and the arrival of thunder, rain and lightning as we quit and moved down the mountain.
Friday, since the Lumpy-Twin Owls project was finished, the Ploegers decided to leave instead of working at higher altitude. Bill Warren wanted to get back to meet an expected grand child. He drove with Terence Donovan so he could meet his daughter. Lin Risner left to celebrate his mother's birthday with her back in Marshall. The remainder of the Lumpy-Twin Owls crew, Kathy and Chris, joined the other team on the Bear & Bierstadt Lakes Trail to clean drains in the morning and block "social" trails, shortcuts, in the afternoon under the guidance of Dave Larsen, Chief Crew Leader for RMNP. Lunch and a nap were at the top of the slope looking out over Bierstadt Lake and a beautiful glacial valley.
Saturday was a free day. John, Kathy and Jerome broke camp, loaded the cook's van and the Shanks-Costellos left to see old friends in Colorado Springs. Travis had backpacked into the primitive camping area and arrived in time for supper Saturday. Jerome took pictures of the work the 2005 crew had done on Ypsilon Trail. Martha met her daughter at the Travel Lodge in Estes Park. Barbara went sightseeing. Dave and Chris hiked up Flattop Mountain and sent a picture to her father in NY. That evening Barbara, Chris, Dave, Travis and Jerome enjoyed a dinner in Estes Park. We did not refuel the van in Estes Park.
We left Sunday morning at 7:40 a.m. and arrived about 11:30 p.m. in Childress, Texas. About 9:30 pm, between Perryton and Childress, a deer standing on the opposite side of the highway, jumped between our headlights, breaking the grill. Eager to get back to Austin, we left about 6 a.m. Monday, Labor Day, to arrive in Austin about 3:30 p.m. Jerome and Michele Collins cleaned out the van and turned it in the next morning. Bill for the deer damage was $1056.48.
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