CATS Trail Project Reports

Yes indeed and what a night! Hot and sunny but that did not stop us and the Capitols were playing for the Stanley Cup and that did not stop us. We just finished another quick  trail over at Rossum Drive and now we returned to our first project of the year and finished it. Many thanks to all those that came out this night and to all the others that touched this trail system. Well done! So, we arrived there at  3 pm  and collected our early birds – Kathleen, Leigh, Dean, Lynn and mosey down to the tie in pieces we needed to connect at the western end. We moved all the remaining stone into place and also moved in wheel barrows of crush on the culvert area. Looks so nice and done in about two hours and then we had others arrive and we moved the whole large crew down to the east end. Bob redesigned the trail a bit and everyone got to work on it. We even had a quick little causeway to build in the ditch. We had lots of corridor clearing for the remaining six foot trail an...

CATS went at it again over there at Boise Ave and finished throwing in all the crusher fines for the grassland portion of the trail. Others worked on a splendid culvert and another causeway. Eight of us worked it up until late and then headed off to the food place – McGraff’s. Finishing the crusher fines delivery via the personal use of Scott’s truck was rewarding as that project really was long and tiring. Both crusher piles are mostly depleted. We have some minor tie-ins on the western part and then we have to fall back to the beginning and finish the tie in portions there. This is going to be a beautiful trail next to the river and should hold up – unless the river rises. Members:  Bob V, Navy Bob, Scott, Leigh, Michael Hinte, Denny ​r​ berg, Dean, Brandon, Tim Hours:    4.75 RESULTS:    Installed a new piped culvert lined with stone, one causeway, new trail, crush delivery to grassland trail complete ROSES: ·    ...

What was thought to be another weather bust ended up a great success! Saturday’s weather was bleak and cold.  We woke up to misty rain and 49°F morning and it did not look great for a CATS Saturday. So I sent out a holding email to wait till high noon and see if the weather breaks. Around 845 – I got a call from Scott who was over on site at Boise and wondering if we were coming out. Yikes – he missed the morning email blast. I felt bad and sent him home at least  until noon . Well as it worked out, we all did some chores first, suited up, grabbed Whit again (grandson to neighbor next door), rounded up the CATS van again and headed over to the Boise worksite. Scott was there and the four of us went to work right away with the wheel barrow brigade. We started at the other end of the trail this time and loaded in the crusher fines. It was misty and cool – but we were stripping off layers of clothing within minutes. As we toiled on, others started arriving – Leigh, Monica...

I am in trouble. I said last year if there were ever more than a dozen on the trail for a week night event, I would eat my CATS hat. Last Thursday we fielded 15 volunteers – a record for CATS! I was beside myself. Actually, I am very proud how CATS is taking off and the members are coming out. It is almost like ‘ Field of Dreams ’ movie – “you build it, we will come”. Except we are building and they are coming out up front. The citizens are the ones that enjoy the finish product of the trail as we build it – they will come. What a grunch of members out there….great group – lots of work accomplished. We set about finding the load of stone that the COL dropped for us and used two pickup trucks to relocate the piles into our workspace. Thanks City of Loveland group! Thanks to Scott and Leigh for the loan of their personal vehicles. We picked up on the trail again from last week and moved stone and crush to develop yet another raised trail piece (1/2 causeway). Great job for all those w...

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 ...