Mancos Spur Trail Work Recap

Just before the monsoon rains began in mid-August, five MTG volunteers backpacked up into the La Platas to set up a spike camp in upper Bear Creek Basin. It was a nearly three mile hike to camp, but it was worth it! Despite rain in the forecast, there wasn’t much rain and the wildflowers were spectacular!

Over the next two days, we got a lot of trail work done and the Sharkstooth Trail is looking good! We put in six new grade reversals/drains on the West headwall and switchbacks of upper Bear Creek Basin. We also conducted maintenance on about 30 existing drainage structures over three miles between the two passes, and mitigated a small landslide across the trail.

Overall our 2023 spike camp was a big success! We all had a lot of fun, enjoyed great camaraderie, and got some important work done, all in one of the most scenic areas in SW Colorado. Thanks, MTG volunteers! Special thanks goes to Robert Meyer for organizing this special volunteer event.

Also a big shout out goes to the Dolores Ranger District (DRD) for funding the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) crews during the summer of 2021. Several crews spent over two weeks camped in Upper Bear Creek Basin. They installed a couple dozen rock lined drain structures, rerouted the trail away from wetlands, and built the trail up onto a causeway through another wetland. All these improvements set MTG trail adopters up to be able to take care of this scenic segment with relative ease. Thanks DRD and SCC!