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Our mission
to promote trail stewardship and etiquette for all trail users in the Mancos Valley. |
 The final Mancos Trails work day for the 2018 season is coming right up, followed by food, refreshments, and a board meeting!
Join us on Saturday, September 22 for beautiful fall colors and crisp mountain air. We’ll be working on a variety of projects along the Mancos Spur Trail: hanging some more of the new Mancos Spur trail signs, working on drainage features, and brushing out the trail. All of the projects will require some hiking, ranging from 2-5 miles round trip. Where, when and what: We will be meeting at Mancos State Park on Jackson Lake at 9am. The park entry fee is waived for all MTG volunteers! Meet at the group site near the entrance station. MTG will provide all tools for trail work. What to wear and bring: Long pants, boots, work gloves, and eye protection (sunglasses are fine). Your typical day pack with the 10 essentials. Plenty of water as well as snacks or a lunch to eat around noon & get you through till the burgers! Picnic and Board Meeting: We’ll aim to be back at the group site at Mancos State Park by 2pm. Mancos Trails will provide burgers & refreshments. After the picnic, Mancos Trails Group will be holding a board meeting that will commence around 4pm. Everyone is welcome to attend the board meeting and voice your opinion regarding trails in the Mancos Valley. The agenda will be posted soon. Invite your friends! Looking forward to seeing you there!
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 Almost all the closures around the Burro Fire in Bear Creek Canyon have been lifted! The only parts that remain closed are a section of the Aspen Loop, the Grindstone Trail and a section of the main Bear Creek Trail where Polly Creek had a debris flow that washed out the trail. The Dolores Ranger District will be working on this section and hopes to have the trail passable within a week or so.
In addition, closures in the area of the 416 fire are slowly changing. See the link below for more information. For more information see: San Juan National Forest Burro Fire Closure update San Juan National Forest 416 Fire Closure update  The next Mancos Trails work day is coming right up! This Saturday, August 4 we will be setting 7 posts for new signage in the Golconda area of the Mancos Spur. All are welcome to attend.
Where, when and what: We are meeting at 8:00am at Boyle Park in Mancos with USFS Trail Crew member(s) for a safety briefing. We’ll then caravan up the Echo Basin road #566 to the #566A road. The end of #566A is the the trailhead for Trail #173. There is limited parking space at this trailhead so please carpool. The tool trailer and Mancos Trails banners will be at the trailhead. Trail #173 is motorized for vehicles up to 50” wide and we will be making use of a volunteer’s OHV to help ferry in tools and posts about half of the distance we need to travel. Volunteers can expect to hike a total of 4 or 5 miles depending on which intersections they work at. We will work in groups of 3-4. If you show up late, please hike down trail #173 and check in with a crew leader. We will have some tools from the USFS and SWCCA, but if anyone has digging bars, post hole diggers, loppers, or any other various trail tools, feel free to bring those as well! There are some limited opportunities for other trail work. There is one 4” tree down and several short sections that would benefit from loose rocks removed from the trail. What to wear and bring: Be sure to wear sunscreen, sturdy shoes, work clothes, and bring gloves. Bring bug spray as there may be flies. And pack plenty of water as well as snacks or a lunch to eat around noon & get you through till the burgers! We’ll aim to be back at the tool trailer by 2pm. Mancos Trails will provide burgers & refreshments. Invite your friends! Looking forward to seeing you there!  Hello Mancos Trails Group Volunteers and Supporters!
Thank you all for such a wonderful year thus far. We have seen a huge rise in the support and fundraising efforts put into the Mancos Valley trail systems.
Thank you again for all your support!  The next Mancos Trails work day is coming right up - this Saturday, July 7. We'll be setting the first posts for the Mancos Spur signing project.
We'll meet at 8:00am at Boyle park in Mancos, in the south parking lot near Hamburger Haven. We'll figure out carpooling up to the Transfer area from there. We will provide the posts and some digging tools: digging bars, post hole diggers, and hole shooter shovels. If any of you have similar tools, please bring them! Post hole digging can be hard, but many hands make for light work. There will be some opportunities for some brushing if some volunteers are limited to light duty work. If you don't make it at 8am, just drive up to the Transfer area (about 15 minutes up County Road 42 from the intersection with Hwy. 184 in Mancos) and look for the Mancos Trails banners and the SWCCA tool trailer. Be sure to wear boots, work clothes and bring gloves. And a lunch or heavy snacks to eat around noon if you'll be hungry before we are finished working. We should be back at the vehicles by 2. We'll provide burgers & refreshments. Looking forward to seeing you there! https://www.facebook.com/events/1669242909838034/ The 2nd Annual Mancos Valley River Film Festival is this weekend and Mancos Trails is one of the beneficiaries of this fundraising event. Come on out on tomorrow and Saturday nights to support Mancos Trails! This event is sponsored by Alpacka Rafts and Mancos Valley Resources. From their Facebook event page: Friday, June 29th at 6pm is a FREE Local’s Night at Outlier Cellars Saurday, June 30th at 6pm is the Main Film Night at Mancos Opera House The Event: Mancos Valley Resources, in partnership with Founding Sponsor Alpacka Raft, Class V Sponsor Specialized Bicycles and Class IV Sponsor Osprey Packs, is holding the 2nd Annual Mancos Valley River Film Festival June 29-30, 2018. One hundred percent of the proceeds of this fest will support local nonprofits in Montezuma County, Colo. Last year’s event raised $9600 to benefit the 100 Excelsior Plant fire victims who lost their jobs when the Mancos-based plant burned down May 2017. This year, funds will be split between MVR and the Mancos Trails Group, an organization that seeks to enhance the hiking, biking, and river trails in Mancos. The Presentations: This year’s Friday night schedule includes a multi-media show by Ashley Carruth on “Bikepacking Through the Bears Ears National Monument.” On Saturday night, a variety of short films will be featured on urban bikerafting in Portland, 2 fly fishing films featuring Wyoming and Alaska, mountain biking in British Columbia, packrafting in India, and more. Also, Mancos Trails Group will do a presentation on their local projects, and American Rivers' Sinjin Eberle will talk about the 5000 Miles of Wild Campaign, an effort to preserve 5000 river miles and gather 5000 river stories. Conservation films will include “Blue Heart: The Fight to Save Europe’s Last Wild Rivers,” along with a short film about Dolores River conservation efforts. Other generous sponsors include Revelate Designs, Durango Cyclery, The Wells Group Real Estate Brokerage, First Southwest Bank, KSUT, Adventure Pro, The Gulch, Bedrock Bags and Packs, Guy Drew Vineyards, Mancos Brewing Company, Absolute Bakery & Cafe, Outdoor Research, Patagonia, Painted Turtle Studio & Gallery, Kleen Kanteen, The Journal, Aqua-Bound, Werner Paddles, Julbo Eyewear, SolGear, P & D Grocery/Mancos Pizza, Zuma Natural Foods, Check out all the details and watch trailers of the films here View the film lineup here Want to get involved? Join fellow trail lovers on Tuesday June 26 at 7pm for our next business meeting.
As of Thursday, June 21 at 3pm the San Juan National Forest has reopened! That means that we can again recreate on many area trails. However there are a few things to keep in mind.
Thank you to all of our responsible forest users for keeping our forest safe!  Due to the 416 Fire and the Burro Fire currently burning in the La Plata Mountains, many trails and recreation areas have been closed in the Mancos area. These include the entire San Juan National Forest, many state-managed Colorado Parks and Wildlife areas, BLM land around Durango, and Durango City and La Plata County managed open space.
It may seem like there's not much left to do outdoors in the Mancos area, but here's a partial list of open areas (thanks to the Durango Herald for putting together this list): In Durango All hard-surface trails including: Animas River Trail Florida Road Trail Goeglein Road Trail Jenkins Ranch Road Trail. Other open amenities in the city of Durango: Animas River and all city river access points. Lions Den All irrigated city parks Greater La Plata County Pastorius State Wildlife Area Vallecito Reservoir Cortez Phil’s World trail system Mesa Verde National Park Canyons of the Ancients National Monument McPhee Recreation Area Complex boat ramp and marina, and boating on the lake is permitted. Mancos and Dolores South and east areas of Mancos State Park are open. The park offers camping, fishing and non-motorized boating. County Road 31 from Dolores to Norwood. Aztec and Farmington Alien Run trails Glade Run Recreation Area Piñon Mesa Silverton Molas Lake is open to recreation and camping. Alpine Loop, Ophir Pass US Basin Most land to the east of Silverton is open because it is managed by the BLM, which has not enacted a closure. Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County Reservoir Hill Park is open. Piedra Road (County Road 600) is open to the Sportsman Campground. Navajo State Park Echo Canyon State Wildlife Area Telluride Trails around the town of Telluride are open. Telluride Ski Resort has a bike park that will open in late June. Most land around Telluride is managed by the Uncompahgre National Forest and remains open.  Join Mancos Trails for our first volunteer work day of the summer, this Saturday June 2nd! We will be brushing out about 2 miles of the Mancos Spur trail corridor along the West Mancos Trail. This will end up being an approximately 5-mile hike with some work along the way. We will shuttle from Transfer up to the the Aspen Loop trailhead in Beef Pasture and then hike the West Mancos Trail back to Transfer. All are welcome to attend, each participant will need to sign USFS waiver prior to participation.
When? Saturday June 2 9:00am-3:00pm Where? Meet at 9:00am at Transfer Trailhead, east of the campground. Look for Mancos Trails banner and SWCCA tool trailer. What to bring? Wear long pants, boots, sunglassesor safety glasses & work gloves. Bring loppers if you have them - we have several to loan out if you don't have any. Bring a daypack with 2 liters water, snacks or lunch to eat at noon, sun protection, and the 10 essentials. Workday schedule (times are approximate): 9:00 Meet at Transfer Trailhead, east of the campground. Look for Mancos Trails banner and SWCCA tool trailer 9:15 Orientation/safety briefing/gear up with tools. 9:30 Shuttle to Aspen Loop TH in Beef Pasture 9:45 Hike down Aspen Loop to Junction with the Spur (West Mancos Trail) 10:15 Deploy into work zone. Brush out trail corridor from Aspen Loop Junction to Crystal Creek. Lop and scatter 1” and smaller brush. Use pruning saws on saplings up to 3” diameter w/in corridor. 12:00 Snacks/lunch 1:00 hike out to Transfer TH 2:00 Volunteer appreciation burgers and refreshments at vehicles/Retrieve shuttle vehicles. 3:00 Return to Mancos |
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