Nearly 50 volunteers showed up Saturday morning to help with the construction of the Backbone Trail east of Tenderfoot Hill. One thousand feet of new trail was built! Special thanks to members of the Chaffee County Running Club and Arkansas Valley Velo.
Volunteers get orientation from Andrew Mesesan
The morning was chilly, which probably made it difficult for volunteers to show up, but within minutes the extra clothing was not needed. The consensus was that the day’s temperature was perfect for trail-building.
Workers buffing out a nice section of trail
This addition to Salida’s local trail network will be usable right away since we were able to connect to an existing trail in two places. The trail we connected to is quite steep and this new section gives trail users a longer, more meandering option.
Another view of Salida and Ouray & Chipeta
This section of the Backbone Trail gives trail users a view of the Tenderfoot Trail, completed by Salida Mountain Trails with the help of volunteers in April of 2006. Also visible is the top of Tenderfoot Hill, much of Salida, and the Sawatch Range to the west.
We hope the community will get out and start enjoying the new trail section right away. Thanks again to our volunteers. We’ll be publishing the dates of our monthly volunteer days soon so that everyone who wants can be involved.
Bob V and I got up there today to look around. The progress is unbelievable!? THAT is an amazing new section. I hope whoever has been making the fall line trails (even recently) gets on board with your efforts. Nice work as always.
Salida Mountain Trails is my new favorite organization. Has any thought been given to a trails register and/or a photoelectric setup to count users? Kudos to the running club and ark velo for actively participating.
I am happy to report that all the new trails are of the highest quality and clearly a huge benefit to Salida. Huge kudos to everyone involved, but especially those with the vision and patience to follow it through from beginning to fruition.
I haven’t been this psyched to ride off “S-Hill” in a long time.
Thanks SMT,
see you up there