THE WINTER OF 2018-2019 WAS ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS - at least in its impact on The Colorado Trail. The above-average snowpack and historic avalanche cycle led to the largest melt-off in memory by two to three weeks, which affected travelers, trail crews and Adopters alike.
    Several massive avalanches buried significant stretches of the Trail with downed trees, rocks and other debris. Access roads were also affected, impeding access to the CT.
    "I've never seen anything like it in my 14 years with The Colorado Trail Foundation," said CT F Executive Director Bill Manning.
    It wasn't until Aug. 6 that the CTF declared the entire CT "passable" for hikers and cyclists, saying that enough snow had melted "to no longer be overly arduous or hazardous and without snow-related navigation challenges." A week later, it made the same declaration for horses and llamas.
    Field Operations Manager Brent Adams, who oversees trail crews and the Adopt- a-Trail program, talked about challenges. "Many Adopters had to adjust their section visit dates while waiting for the snowpack to melt and roads to be cleared," he noted.
    Adopters are usually among the first on the Trail each season, tasked with removing downed trees obstructing the Trail, cleaning out water diversions to improve runoff, checking that proper signage is still in place, and performing other basic maintenance.
    Trail crews were affected as well. "We had to delay our first crew of the season and relocate another because of lingering snow and saturated soil conditions," Adams said. "In addition, a late-june crew experienced snow and cold temperatures on both days of the crew - on the second and third days of summer!" Fortunately, he said, all of the crews worked our well in the end.
    "Although most sections of the Trail avoided significant impact from the snow and avalanches, several sections were not so lucky," Adams said. "While most have been cleared with help from Forest Service staff, trail crew volunteers, and Adopters and their helpers, some of the larger and more remote debris fields in wilderness areas have yet to be completely cleared, although all have been improved for Trail user passage."
    "Depending on Forest Service and Adopter resources, some debris may still remain at the end of this season and the CTF will evaluate then how we will complete the clearing of the Trail," he added.
    Back at the CTF office in Golden, Manning and Office Manager Amy Nelson were kept busy keeping Trail users apprised of conditions. Relying on eyewitness reports from the Forest Service, trail crews, CT Adopters, early trail users, and others, they compiled detailed reports that they posted on the CTF website, the CTF and Colorado Thru-Hike 2019 Facebook pages, and other social media outlets. They also fielded dozens of calls.
    "People reported spots where the Trail was buried by broken trees, rocks and hard-packed snow as deep as 60 feet," Manning said. The most impacted segments were 7, 13, 21, 24 and Collegiate West 02, including a couple of areas west of Buena Vista, a broad swath near Copper Mountain resort, and along Elk Creek near Silverton.
    In an article in The Chaffee County Times in late April described the scene near Cottonwood Pass above Buena Vista:
    Segment 13 of the CT crosses County Road 306 around the Avalanche Trailhead parking lot, where in March three naturally-triggered slides came down (the northwest face of Sheep Mountain) roughly 2,500 feet, crossing the road up Cottonwood Pass and covering it with 8 feet of snow and debris.
    The Colorado Avalanche Information Center ranked two of the avalanches at R5, meaning that they were the largest possible relative to their paths."
    Further south, Jerry Brown, of Durango, a longtime Adopter and CTF Board member, reported in late July about the devastation along Elk Creek in the San Juan Mountains:
    "I just got back from Elk Creek with Connie Wian's Segment 24 Adopter crew. There are four gnarly avalanche debris fields. Hikers have been making social trails all over the place to get through or around them. We cut, carried and threw debris to make rustic routes across all of them. It is our hope that everyone will follow these. They are still difficult, but they are a lot easier than they were.
    "I have never been more awed and amazed at what Mother Nature can do," Brown wrote. "I have been working up there on Adopter crews for 20 years and have never witnessed an act of nature like this. It is humbling."
    Wian and her support crew, who have to hike in five miles just to reach her nine-mile Adopter section, were among a number CTF volunteers who went above and beyond to get the Trail reopened. She led several scouting trips through deep snow and river water to bring back photos and reports essential to the CTF and Forest Service.
    Fully repairing Wian's section, as well as other spots along the Trail, will likely take multiple Trail seasons, Manning said.
    When it became evident that deep snowpack in early July would make it impossible for an eight-day Trail crew to perform its assigned trail-building work in the Collegiate West, leaders Scott Smith and Laura Brieser-Smith and their 25 volunteers shifted gears and moved to an area opposite the Copper Mountain resort at the base of the Tenmile Range, where the Trail was heavily damaged by avalanche debris. By the end of the week the crew had "unearthed" hundreds of feet of rhe CT, replaced and repaired two damaged bridges, built a retaining wall to preserve the tread, and rebuilt a 50-foot boardwalk to improve safety.
    That type of effort was seen up and down the Trail. Manning, for one, is not surprised. "It's what we do," he said, referring to the mission of the CTF to build and maintain the Trail.
    He admitted, however, that "this season has been uniquely challenging."

Colorado Trail Foundation, Treadlines, Fall 2019