Slowly but surely is the message regarding progress on a new trail up Pikes Peak.

Rocky Mountain Field Institute staff and youth crews camped out on the backside of the 14,115-foot mountain for a fourth season of building a summit path to replace the eroded Devil’s Playground Trail. After two years of contending with COVID-19 complications, the project’s leader said staffing posed challenges this summer.

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“It really varied, which is challenging in itself,” said Carl Woody, interim director of Rocky Mountain Field Institute. He called available workers within the institute and with contracted Rocky Mountain Youth Corps “inconsistent,” with days and weeks short-handed.

The team went into the season with about 2 miles of trail cut out of the total 4 miles planned. Not much more was carved this season, but Woody said the focus was other objectives.

Mileage “is the big metric that everyone wants to see,” he said. “But if you cut tread and you’re not putting structures in place to make sure it’s gonna last a long time, then all of that work was for naught.”

The focus was “hardening” the trail against erosion — building retaining walls and steps out of native rock and timber. Still, Woody recognized initial goals were not being met. (He joined Rocky Mountain Field Institute in 2020, a year after the project broke ground.)

“I would say that the initial goals were really, really ambitious, which I appreciate,” he said. “But the initial goal was to do a mile every season, and obviously we’re not at that point.”

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The project has depended on state trails grants. Paperwork has been submitted to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for another three years of funding, what Woody said would be “critical” for the project.

Asked if the job could be done in three years, “I would say we’ll be really close,” Woody said. “It’s really hard to predict the future.”