Guadalupe Mountains National Park, October 21-28, 2006

During the last week of October 2006, the CTTT returned eight volunteers to the highest mountains in Texas to volunteer at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. As always we had some challenging projects and great support from the National Park Service.

The rebuilding of the visitor center pedestrian bridge was the major project worked on by the crew. The bridge decking had failed due to the use of faulting composite decking material The trail tamers worked with two NPS carpenters to rebuild the bridge. Significant progress was made by completing two-thirds of the bridge during the week. Over 100 hours of time was spent working on the pedestrian bridge into the visitor center. The trail tamers removed the old decking material, rebuilt the supporting joists, pre-positioned new materials, and cut and installed new recycled decking materials.

The crew also worked on several trails during the week. On Monday, four members worked on trails in McKittrick Canyon by removing a large bolder from a canyon trail and by performing maintenance on the trails around the Pratt Canyon. On Tuesday, four members cleaned water bars on the Smith Spring trail. On Wednesday and Thursday, 5 members worked on the McKittrick Canyon Nature Trail to clear the trail of overgrown cedar, cat claw, and overgrown native grasses on the trail.