CATS Trail Project Reports

CATS Return to Duncan Ridge 27 Sep 18 I missed last week at Pineridge Natural Area and heard all good things from that outing/whack. All the work is done and looks great according to reliable sources. Well Done! So we are back to the climbers trail and we met Joel Schwab out there onsite too. He liked the work from two weeks ago except some bonehead pulled all the red flags from the trail and neatly stacked them in a pile on the opposite side of the road. WHAT? If I were a vandal, why would I do that? Not sure what is the issue here, but Joel stayed long enough to re-pin our step assignments and we went to work with pleasure. Dean and Denny went to the top and worked up there all evening producing some really nice steps (seven in fact). The bottom crew is still working our way up and producing some good steps as well. I am amazed by the ‘rock shopping’ skills of our members to find excellent stone for steps. They can clearly see the rise/run on a...

CATS Attack Duncan Ridge – 13 Sep 2018 Not like Missionary Ridge in during the Civil War, but CATS did lay in a nice attack on stone steps installation on a climbers trail that needed some attention. Larimer County trail crews put in about 30 steps a few years ago and this fall we were asked to add on to their nice work. Some steps needed repairs while the remaining trail requires new stone steps. This is our first whack on the trail and we will most likely be there until it is finished. Lots of available stone and some stone is like cut to order. The vision on putting steps has been fun and all those out there are having a good time becoming ‘rock whisperers’. Not everyone has the ability to see what a black space of dirt will become after throwing in a stone. Tim- our photographer has been having a ‘field day’ with shooting our folks working the stone. These training videos coming out in the future should be a really nice touch for our websit...

CATS Back in mountains at Lory State Park – 7-9 Sep 2018 I missed the other two CPW (Colorado Parks and Wildlife reports) at Cheyenne Mountain and State Forest State Park and decided I better report on this one. Besides I am working on a combo article for all three parks coming out soon. So, this is our 4 th continuous year camping behind the famous Arthurs Rock and whacking trail in the back country to keep it safe and useable for all user groups. This year we were back in our original campsites three years ago (5 and 6) and the place brought back good old memories for sure. Like all years before, we assembled at the maintenance area for unloading and then loading a dump truck full of our personal gear to go up the mountain. So much fun in the parking lot and shuffling around. Finally we were off and going for a spell until Bobcat (me) broke the muley. It just made a loud noise and then thunking or banging thereafter. Very disturbing and nois...