Well, you haven’t heard much from us this spring and early summer but that’s because we’ve been so darn busy. Here’s a brief rundown of what we’ve been doing. Over the winter we purchased some carbide tools made for stone masons. These are hand tools with extremely hard carbide edges. We had an unofficial workday/training session for crew leaders to practice using these tools on May 12. These tools give us the ability to tackle tougher jobs with rock. Our first official workday was on Thursday, May 15 on the Seven Bridges Trail. You might’ve seen pictures from that day if you looked at our Facebook page. Even if you don’t have a Facebook account you can see what we’ve been up to at www.Facebook.com/friendsofthepeak We’ve posted video there too.
The creek was very high, and 6 inches of clear cold water was running over Bridge 1. We didn’t want to spend the whole day in wet shoes so our crew of 6 volunteers took the very easy detour using the Mount Buckhorn Trail. We got back on the Seven Bridges Trail just above Bridge 1. Our task that day was to install some much-needed rock steps above Bridge 2.
The next day, May 16, was our first day working in The Nature Conservancy’s Aiken Canyon Preserve. We fixed lots of rutted trail, installing check dams. We also installed rock steps leading up out of arroyos.
After a rest day we were back to work, this time for our first day on Barr trail, Sunday, May 18. It was a post and rail day, and the four of us worked on finishing up final repairs to the fence damage caused by the 2023 boulder.
On Thursday, May 29 a larger team went up to seven Bridges Trail just above Bridge Seven. It rained and drizzled all day and later the rain became heavier. The heavy rock work that our volunteers did may very well have saved Bridge Seven from further damage when the creek really flooded. That flooding is what undercut and collapsed N. Cheyenne Canyon Rd. and that’s why you couldn’t get to North Cheyenne canyon on the paved road for all of June and half of July. The flooding also did more damage to Bridge One and eroded the banks so that the bridge no longer reached the banks. Since then, the Forest Service closed the Seven Bridges Trail and it only recently reopened. This of course messed up our calendar and we had to change dates so that we could keep working on our other high priority trails. But let’s not forget that all that rain also affected Barr trail, and as many of you know, it caused a good size boulder (we call it the 2025 boulder) to slide down into the trail at a place that is commonly called the “tunnel”. This is where Barr trail passes underneath two huge boulders (you can see them on the Google Maps satellite view). We teamed up with our friends from the Pikes Peak Marathon and removed this obstacle on July 6. We got this done in time that it did not cause problems for the Barr Trail Mountain Race on July 20. There’s lots of pictures and video of this on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofthePeak/videos/1809875143284448 and https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofthePeak/posts/pfbid02wcozhkH2J57D4QiNAwXP3APkAj4 5EnZ8yDuS4GfkrKUMaNkEo78qqkBoGLj3KiNRl https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16tfrpDvce/
Another place we worked was where a boulder slid down onto Barr trail in 2013, about a mile and a quarter from the trailhead. Some of the boulder had been removed, but erosion had made the trail more dangerous. It needed durable rock steps. Over three workdays we installed five rocks making the passage much safer, as demonstrated by these hikers in the “after” picture. We accomplished this with the help of 12 great volunteers from Trane Technologies in Pueblo.
Moving heavy rocks is one of the hardest parts of our work. It took six volunteers to move this step rock up the trail to where we installed it. Video available at https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AdU8BeoGi/
Here one of the Trane volunteers is using a carbide-tipped chisel to adjust the shape of the underlying rock to fit the step rock we would install.
And here’s the Trane team at the end of the day.
Now that the city has reopened Cheyenne canyon, we can finally get to the Saint Mary’s Falls trail. In the next newsletter we’ll update you on our work there.
Well, that’s some of what we did in our first 18 or so workdays this year (I lost count). But don’t feel left out- There are still 7 public workdays on our 2025 schedule. Come on out and join us for one! https://friendsofthepeak.org/volunteerwithus/
Oh, yeah before you go, did you know that King Soopers has a Community Rewards program and you can select Friends Of the Peak as your designated charity? It’s easy, cost you nothing, and really helps us out. More info here: https://www.kingsoopers.com/i/community/community-rewards
