Upper Ark Crew Cranks into High Gear

The upper Arkansas Technical crew’s initial hitch was sponsored by Salida Mountain Trails, a group primarily composed of hikers, trail runners, and mountain bikers committed to improve and build a series of trails easily accessible from the town of Salida, Colorado.  After a brief training period and introduction to SMT and the existing trails that were either volunteer built or user created, we began building a new trail called Backbone.  Backbone is intended to be just that, the backbone of the proposed trail system.  It is essentially a re-route of an existing user created trail that was designed using the principles of sustainable trail design and geared more towards mountain bikers, no pun intended.  The terrain that we worked in was the most challenging part of the project.  Adversity came in the name of a variety of soil types more diverse than a jumbo box of Crayola.  A forty foot section of trail could either take an hour or a week depending on its composition.  Some sections were literally carved out of the steep hillside one dime sized chunk at a time, taking a toll on tools and hands alike.  Although one of the concepts of sustainable trail building is to eliminate the need of structures such as water bars, because of loose sandy soil, we became proficient in constructing crib walls and armoring to sustain the bench.  One of the things that made the whole project worthwhile was the support from the community that we received.  Because of our proximity to Salida, we were constantly thanked and cheered on by the community users of the trails.  Local businesses gave us gratuities and discounts; the Mayor was a frequenter of the project site offering thanks and encouragement, all instilling a sense of pride and accomplishment in each member of the crew.

-Brink Messick

Crew Leader, Upper Arkansas Tech