Trail building builds community too

The Frontside Trail is now complete and open to the public to enjoy on foot or bike. It’s going to be so fun seeing Salida’s signature backdrop come alive with people exercising, recreating, contemplating and just aimlessly ambling.

The trail on the town-facing flank of  S Mountain is a community benefit to those of us lucky enough to live here and is a be a valuable addition to our recreation-based tourism economy. Now folks will be able to cross the river from the downtown business district and hike, run or bike – safe from motorized vehicle traffic – to the gate and trail kiosk higher up S Mountain. I rode the Frontside trail both directions shortly after it was completed on Saturday and can attest to what fun it is and the stunning views if affords.  I nearly pedaled off the trail when my gaze was drawn to the stunning watercolor tableau created by the changing leaves on the cottonwoods lining the river, the deep green of the grass at riverside park and the bright blue sky.

This trail, in conjunction with new stretches higher up – notably, Li’l Rattler and Backbone – provide a solid foundation for the extensive trail system envisioned by Salida Mountain Trails and supported by the US Bureau of Land Management and other local public land managers, Salida Parks Open Space and Trails, Salida town council, Shawn Gillis/Absolute Bikes, the Southwest Conservation Corps, numerous citizen volunteers, and others I’ve unintentionally forgotten to list, who donated time, money and muscle to bring the dream of this wonderful asset to reality.

If you haven’t yet volunteered for one of the trail building project days I encourage you to consider doing so. It’s better than an ice-cream social. As you walk down the line of volunteers to the next stretch of trail that needs attention, you’re greeted by friends you know and friends you’re about to make through the bond of physical labor for the common good. And no matter the size of the crew and whether you completed a full trail link or just busted through a 10-foot stretch of particularly stubborn rock,, when you look back at the end of that day’s work session,  the sense of accomplishment and giving back is equally rewarding. It’s fun to watch visiting friends and family, and even strangers asking for directions or info along the trail, process the information when you tell them “we” helped build the trail, especially with how much “we” have achieved in one year. Folks marvel that so many miles of trail were built  by hand but it was largely so, with the exception of some stretches that benefited from the aid of the city’s  cool, oversized Tonka toy earth-moving machine.

The happy byproduct of this trail building project has been community building both in terms of physical assets and strengthening the social fabric.  There’s still plenty more trail on the drawing board yet to be built so if you’d like to get involved, donate, learn more, or sign up to receive trail building alerts contact SMT’s media coordinator Eric Tauer at EricTauer@gmail.com.

Happy trails to all of us!