The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Building trails, removing poop
By Mary Chandler, CBMBA
As the last leaves fall and snow starts to blanket the peaks, we can’t help but look back with such gratitude for another stellar season on the trails and in the backcountry. Every year we think that it can’t get any better, and then the next year it does! This community has proven time and time again how they support and inspire us.
The end of September proved to be as busy as midsummer: “Is the last weekend in September the new Fourth of July?” It’s hard to argue with the beautiful weather and vibrant fall colors that have held on for several weeks. Luckily our CBCC crews are still out there working on trails, cutting out fallen trees, picking up trash, putting out fires and educating folks about keeping our backcountry beautiful and accessible. Our crews this year are experienced trail veterans and have done amazing work out there. Have you been out on the Dyke Trail lately? Amazing! Combine it with the new Lake Irwin Trail and the spruced-up Wagon Trail, and you have a terrific loop you can ride from town.
Speaking of the new Lake Irwin Trail, what an amazing amenity that is for all of us. Instead of trudging up the dusty road with hundreds of speeding cars, you can wind through the forest up to the lake. And what an impressive show of support by the community our Lake Irwin Trail workdays were. Almost 200 people came out on our Lake Irwin Trail workdays, the Wednesday workday on July 30 and the Annual Overnight on August 16-17, to help build two miles of new trail, proving that this community always rallies when we send out the call for help. Thank you to everyone who took part in the Lake Irwin Trail workdays and all of our workdays throughout the season. This year we had 225 people contribute 2,178 hours of volunteer trail work! In addition to the Lake Irwin Trail, we built a new connector from Tent City (The Sideshow Trail), rerouted the start of the Baxter Gulch Trail, built a connector from Slate River Road down to Gunsight Bridge with the CB Land Trust, cleaned up the Wagon Trail and put in important work on the Dyke Trail.
And let’s not forget about the amazing Reggae show out at the Budd Barn! It’s always great to have a big celebration, and what better way than having a party with world class Reggae bands? Kabaka Pyramid and Third World did not disappoint! A huge thank you goes out to Dorothy and Russell Budd—without them, this fundraiser would not happen. And thank you to all of you who came out to celebrate, party with and support CBMBA! Those Zuni beers, and margaritas courtesy of Mountain Spirits really hit the spot as we were all dancing under the stars to the amazing vibes of those bands. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year.
The trail professionals on our CBCC crew continued to do high quality work on the 480+ miles of trails around Crested Butte. This year we had nine crew members working five days a week at the height of the summer. We also welcomed back our Backcountry Outreach Crew (BOC), who set up informational tents at the busiest trailheads and parking areas during the craziest weekends to help people with parking, trail and camping information, proper backcountry ethics and any other questions they might have had.
In addition to the trail work, every Friday and Monday our crews went out and monitored and maintained over 1,700 designated campsites. They picked up 2,654 lbs. of trash, including 68 dog waste bags, 68 piles of human waste (gross! And weird that those numbers are the same!), a bong, three camp chairs, 17 tennis balls, 39 tent stakes, a toilet and two abandoned camps complete with tents, sleeping bags and other various camp equipment. They fixed broken signs and damaged fire rings. They decommissioned 48 illegal fire rings and put out six unattended fires.
CBCC crews also worked alongside the Gunnison Ranger District to help complete projects that the Forest Service did not have the staffing for. These included: tree removal at some backcountry campsites up Taylor Canyon, building a retaining wall on Deadmans and decommissioning an old trail up around the Hammer Trail. We are always excited to support our local ranger district and are grateful for the partnership we have had with them for over 40 years.
With support from STOR, GC MetRec, the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, HCCA, Gunnison Trails, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and Crested Butte Nordic, CBMBA was also able to help administer a Recreation Stewards Crew of three to work under the auspices of the Gunnison Ranger District. In order to support the Forest Service’s recreation goals, the community stepped up to help finance this crew who did stewardship work in areas across the greater reach of the Gunnison Ranger District. The work of the Recreation Stewards crew helped keep vital recreation amenities open and maintained. The crews continued working right on through the government shutdown and were out there until October 15.
We continue to be so humbled and grateful for the support of this community: to our volunteers, our donors, our sponsors, our grantors and our partners—you all make it happen. To GC MetRec, CPW, STOR, the Land Trust, the towns of CB and Mt. CB, 1% for Open Space, the Gunnison Ranger District, the BLM—we can’t do any of this without you. Thank You!
