Trailheads By Road Difficulty

Here is a link that rates the difficulty and type of vehicle that should be able to make it up a road to the trail heads. http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/trailheads5.php I went with a friend to climb Grays and found the road to be rather trashed. We made it with a frontwheel drive vehicle with decent clearance, but it was not pleasant. If you are going to Beirstadt, Georgetown to Guanella Pass has construction on it and is closed at various times for up to 2 hrs during the day (9-11AM and 1-3PM)and all night until 6am on weekdays (as best as I can decipher from the random trip reports). From Grant, 285 route, the road is supposed to be open and in better condition. The trip reports on 14ers.com have some good up to date info on road conditions of the trailheads.

Byron
29 June 2009

Summer Reads

Hello All,

I was so intrigued by everyone's book suggestions at the training that I thought it might be fun to create a Peak Steward Summer Reads list for the blog. Especially since I know everyone will be doing some camping in addition to Stewarding this summer. Below is a list of my favorite outdoors books so please feel free to add on and happy reading! :-)

Shannon's Summer Reads

1. "Touching the Void" by Joe Simpson
2. "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
3. "Explorers of the Infinite" by Maria Coffey
4. "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortensen & David Oliver Relin

Warm Regards,
Shannon Crockett

A Very Successful Peak Steward Training

Let me first note that this post is about a week over due but some free time has finally been found at the office so here goes:

The June 13th and 14th 2009 Peak Steward Training was a great success. 35 individuals attended including 8 returning Peak Stewards. Saturday's training took place at Alma's town hall and included an introduction to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (Brian Wallace, CFI), a lecture on the history of modern outdoor recreation and a discussion on the condition of Colorado's fourteen thousand foot mountains (Brian Wallace, CFI), a lecture on the history and hazards of Colorado mining (Craig Bissonnette, Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety), and a presentation on Leave-No-Trace principles and practices (Steve Bonowski, LNT).

Sunday's training took place at the base of Mts. Lincoln and Democrat and included a presentation and exercises on alpine ecology and botony (Anya Byers, Colorado Mountain Club), a presentation on the United States Forest Service and their relationship with CFI (Loretta McEllhiney, USFS) and a very intuitive lesson on "Wisdom", using the "Authority of the Resource", and interacting with the general public while on the peaks (Loretta McEllhiney, USFS). Around noon some storms started to move as we were eating lunch. We decided to go back to Alma town hall for the remainder of the training and proceeded to role play and practice interacting with and educating hikers.

Every Peak Steward is asked to volunteer at least 4 days per year, with one (or more) of them being on Mts. Lincoln, Democrat, and Bross (the summit of Bross is still closed however). If every Peak Steward stays committed (and maybe we can recruit some more along the way) we will more then triple the amount of Peak Steward days from any previous year!!!!

We are off to a great start...stay tuned for more updates!!!

-Brian Wallace

Education and Outreach Coordinator

Colorado Fourteeners Initiative

Peak Steward Training

Peak Steward Training is this Saturday and Sunday (June 13th and 14th) in Alma, Colorado and on Mts. Lincoln, Democrat, and Bross. CFI will be training 30+ individuals to become Peak Stewards. Once trained, they will educate and monitor individuals who explore Colorado's 14,000 ft. peaks. An estimated 750,000 individuals will be climbing these 54 popular peaks throughout the next 4 months. Most of the traffic will be isolated to 10 (or so) of the most popular peaks.

Peak Stewards, along with the information provided at each trailhead, are the only means of education that the Forest Service or CFI can provide on specific issues concerning the 14,000 ft peaks of Colorado. Their presence is crucial to the preservation of these peaks. This training is double the size of any other historic Peak Steward Training. If all of this years Peak Stewards stay committed to their requested 4 days of volunteering, we will almost triple the number of Peak Steward days from last year or any previous year.

Greetings!

Greetings and thanks for visiting the Peak Stewards Blog. This is the first blog that the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative has used and will be utilized as an education, outreach, and communication tool between Peak Stewards and the public.

The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and preserve the natural integrity of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks through active stewardship and public education. The Peak Steward Program is CFI's main education and outreach tool. Peak Stewards are individual volunteers who monitor these areas to advocate for Leave No Trace practices and ethical hiking. This blog has been established to provide a space for their experiences and stories.

To learn more about CFI visit our website @ www.14ers.org .