CATS Trail Project Reports

Yes – I mean the crusher fines (mostly sand) were hauled into the trail bed by muscle power of the members and determination to get it done. The wheel barrow group delivered over 50 loads to the trail. With sore arms and happy faces they pushed on up to 715 pm with 175’ of crush properly placed and crowned. Nice job! On the other end of the trail – we had yet another group (not gaggle) working on a neat bowed up monowall with rubble reinforcement to keep the trail out of the depression under the direction of Dean. That gang (not gaggle) did a superior job tying in the trail with last week’s work and pushing us around the bend in the river. Connie did some great solo restoration work which is ongoing and will be needed again next week. There is an art to that function of our work too – check it out. Lots of energy spent out there on such a great cool day/eve in the spring here in Loveland. Again the birds graced us with appearances from the Eagle, Osprey, Herons and this time we actual...

Last Thursday was action packed as our organization hosted the Front Range Community College (FRCC) – Outdoor Recreation Club (students actually on the clock) to come out and work with CATS. We met up with Derek and seven other students at our parking lot area. Before that – brilliant Navy Bob accidentally locked the van keys inside. What a mess! Frantically we called the wife, Brandon, Ghost Busters, anyone with a key to get in. Fortunately for me, Brandon was getting off work about  noon  and had the van key on his keyring. His arrival on the scene was like an ice cream sundae on a hot summer day. Thank you sir! Back to work – our newest crew leader graduates from the recent Crew Leadership Class took over and provided a real good safety talk and tool brief. We then busted up into two crews and wander over the project site for more overview and vision layout. FRCC folks took over with great enthusiasm constructing the first two causeways. Crews were out in the river bank ...

Our second whack of the season and it was not shabby at all. We had a visit from a gaggle of turkeys just walking on through our project with no real concerns about 11 volunteers on the trail. Amazing – this place is starting to become Dr. Doolittles animal ranch. What a night! Big crew – lots of hard work and we made it all the way to fallen tree. That means we are out of the field work for next week and into the woods by the river. We will start on the construction of causeways. We used the wheel barrows last night and that made a big difference getting rid of the cuttings. We actually filled in the bad truck ruts. The landscape out there is really going to benefit from some of these rearrangements of soil. Members:  Dean, Brandon, Hans, Bob V, Navy Bob, Connie, Kathleen, Andy, Michael, Denny, Scott    Hours:    4.5 RESULTS:   462.5 feet of finished/prepped trail base at 36” wide ROSES: ·      ...

Perfect timing is everything and we managed to get off on a great start this year with the rain and snow coming in late Thursday night. At  3:00 pm  it was about 64°F and warm with cloudy skies. Perfect weather for trailbuilding and that is what we did. What the sign-up said and those that came out was a big surprise! We had twelve volunteers on the trail last night and three were brand new to CATS. Welcome aboard to Hans Peter, Kathleen Ziff, and Michael Auciello (does that name sound familiar?) – it should – that’s Denny’s son. What a great mix of folks – welcome back our regulars also – Mr. Scott, the Professor – Dean, Andy, Michael Hinterberg, Dave, Connie, Monica and me. We are working on a special trail project in the city limits at a place that was somewhat discarded and trashed by the flood of 2013. This 6 acre plot of land next to the Big Thompson is unique as the trees in the area host an array of nesting birds. This trail loop we are building will be an ide...