Out and About!

Its early in the season but CFI Peak Stewards are out and about!! Here's a brief recap of the last few days...

Field Trainings are underway! In order to boost the numbers of participants in the Peak Steward Program we had to break away from the traditional 2-day training that would take place on the second weekend of June. So, as mentioned in previous posts, I've been hard at work recruiting and training Peak Stewards throughout the winter months. Then, last Thursday (6/10), last Monday (6/21...not a bad way to spend the solstice), and today I met with some of them on Mount Evans to complete their second day of training in the field. Three really great groups came out in order to identify some alpine plants and the differences in their integrity, check out some braided areas of trail and how to identify areas where people may want to leave it, and obtain a further understanding of how to educate and interact with visitors and hikers on the 14ers.

It was WINDY last Thursday and there was a lot of snow left from the previous weekends storm. In the photo above you can see Steve and Chris (both new recruits this year) flashing their 14er specific LNT cards with Bierstadt in the background. We were right to the west of Spaulding's summit at around 13,700 ft. As you can see, it was difficult to find some tundra to look at but we managed to check some out lower down.

Over the course of the last week the snow has melted considerably. Over the course of the weeks time frame that I was up there, more and more blooms were visible (Sky Pilots, Alpine Phlox, Alpine Avens and Spring Blossom just to name a few) today we were even able to identify some alpine Forget-Me-Nots!! (I think the smell like scratch and sniff Blueberries!) The blooms seem to be blooming slightly late this year in this part of the high-country but with these warm temps, they will all be out in no time. Stay tuned for more Peak Steward Updates!!

-BW

A Classic Weather Weekend in the High-Country but None-the-Less...the Season Begins!

About half way through last week I started watching the weather forecasts for the weekend. The Final Peak Steward Training was scheduled to take place on Saturday in Alma and on Sunday on Mounts Lincoln, Democrat, and at the base of Bross. Sure enough, following our brutally and uncharacteristically hot weather last week, came a cold front that dropped quite a few inches of snow in the high-country (and even a funnel cloud in "Cloud City").

Forecast for Saturday: 40's in Alma with consistent rain and snow in the mix...Forecast for Sunday: snow all day in town (10,800 feet) and highs in the 30's; not to mention the fact that the training on Sunday would have started at the Kite Lake trailhead and most of it would have taken place around 12,500 feet.

Needless to say, I became anxious that part of this training could potentially be weathered out. But then I started thinking: I have basically conducted the 7 previous trainings this year with the intent of meeting up with the new recruits toward the end of this month in the field to cover alpine ecology, erosion identification, and reiterate important criteria from the first day of training. So if the new recruits from this weekend had to do the same...so be it. The Peak Steward Training in Alma was designed to be similar to our traditional 2-day training with the field day on Sunday immediately following Saturday's classroom sessions. Unfortunately, due to the weather, we did cancel Sunday's sessions and those new recruits will now have to make up that field day in the next couple weeks.

26 folks total showed up for the training on Saturday. 15 of these individuals were completely new to CFI's Peak Steward Program (bringing our total number of NEW recruits to 79 for 2010), 4 were CFI crew members that will be acting as education specialists and 7 were returning Peak Stewards - An outstanding and very fun group to interact with!!

Besides the typical portions of the training such as reviewing the history of outdoor recreation and adventure tourism, teaching 14er specific Leave No Trace, and learning how to use the "Authority of the Resource", representatives were also present from the Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety to cover mine hazards and terminology and the United States Forest Service to talk about land management and the relationship between non-profits like CFI and the Federal Agency. We were very luck to have Craig (mining) and Kim (USFS) attend and share their knowledge to the Peak Stewards. We also had members from MRHI (Mosquito Range Heritage Initiative) to chat with us about specific private property issues concerning Alma's local peaks (Lincoln Democrat Bross and Cameron).

Today also marks our first official Peak Steward day for 2010. Dan Haskell drove out the Maroon Bells this morning and will be camped out through Saturday counting and educating visitors on LNT and informing them on CFI and ways that they can become involved!

- BW