As some of you know, the Mt. Evans Clean and Climb was scheduled for this past weekend. I'm proud to report that despite being pushed back a day (to Sunday due to conditions) and an unfavorable forecast, several dedicated stewards showed up and accomplished an impressive number of projects!
The hike in gave us all a chance to discuss different ideas we had for the day and get to know the rangers a little better. We also picked up small pieces of trash along the way which I'm happy to report were minuscule. It was amazing how easy this hike is with no pad / pack. Thank you to Patti for driving our stuff up!
Aside from trail maintenance, the rangers noticed a few things in the area that were not quite on par with the wilderness rules and we helped to fix the issues. Just after crossing the stream that runs through the canyon, the rangers had us dismantle the fire pit (too close to the stream). They were impressed with the blocked off social trail as you cross the stream as well as the efforts of someone to plant willows back in that section of the trail. Whoever you are, thank you for the help!
They also noticed a sort of lean-to that was probably just some bored camper messing around and we scattered that all over the area! Here is Amy making her "I'm having fun with constructive destruction" face.
One of the main projects for the day was to place rocks between the ladder and the Seurat boulder where the trail gets boggy and muddy to keep people from walking on the foliage next to the trail. Here, Alex finds a perfect shim to help steady one of the bigger rocks.
We all took turns moving stone, digging holes to place rocks in, and trenching drainage away from the trail Here, Dave and Will are piecing together a path in the super boggy section just leading away from the warm-up / ladder boulder.
The Forest Service Rangers were completely hands on throughout the entire process and gave much needed direction to our efforts. This is Marshall placing more of the path up to the makers mark area.
I believe this to be the work of Le Baron Von Choss Crush -aka- Sir Hands of Soxley -aka- Jaegervitch -aka- JJ. He went up on Saturday despite terrible weather and worked his butt off placing stones and improving the boggy areas. He was unable to attend on Sunday due to prior obligations but made sure to do his part as best he could. A BIG-TIME thank you to such a dedicated climber!
After fixing most of the boggy sections, we focused on cutting down on the social trails that exist between Seurat and the Dali wall. Don't worry, no trails that lead to our precious stones were marked for extinction. Just the weird meandering ones that made no sense. As you can see here, the "Real" trail has been pruned and marked off a little better (top left) whereas trails that went off with no particular destination have been covered and hidden with shrubbery and marked off with logs (lower right). I guarantee you will notice a difference on your next trip.
I'm very proud to report that the rangers repeatedly stated that the Area A bouldering area looked substantially better than it had in their visits the year before. They commented that the trail had been much better cared for, social trails are becoming less of an issue, there was little to NO micro trash lying around under the boulders (tape, wrappers, etc.) and NOT A SINGLE STASHED PAD COULD BE FOUND in almost an hour of looking! That is truly incredible! Let's all do our part to keep that trend alive!
Thank you to everyone who showed up to help keep the Mt. Evans bouldering area a user friendly destination and everyone who works to keep climber / land manager relations strong everywhere. Your efforts are not in vain and go a long way towards establishing Boulderers as a responsible and respectful user group.
THE CREW:
Also a special thank you to the Forest Service Rangers (Patti, Ralph, and Marshall) who gave their time and effort to help! See you all next season!
