The season of hiking Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains also comes with tending to their trails. 

June began with Rocky Mountain Field Institute staff and volunteers hauling equipment up the backside of Pikes Peak ー the site of an effort that launched in 2019 to build a new Devils Playground trail toward the summit. 

The effort has been riddled with logistical challenges going back to the COVID-19 pandemic. The start of the month presented a new challenge following an unusually dry winter. 

“The water source we typically use at our high-elevation base camp was completely dry,” said Carl Woody, who has overseen the project with Rocky Mountain Field Institute. “So we are actually having to camp down lower, close to the trailhead, and our folks are having to hike up every single day to the work site, about 2 ½ miles one way. So that’s going to probably slow down our productivity this year unfortunately.” 

About 4 miles of new trail are blueprinted, trending south of a heavily eroded hillside and tying into the existing trail close to a mile shy of the Pikes Peak Highway. About 3 miles of new trail have been built, Woody said, complete with timber steps and rock retaining walls. He said the goal is to add close to another half-mile this summer, starting where work left off last year around tree line.

“We’re looking to get into the talus slope above tree line and really start with pretty intensive rock work,” Woody said. 

Along with a 12-person crew, the work will depend on volunteers. At rmfi.org, they can sign up for scheduled work days July 11, July 25 and Aug. 8. 

Finishing the trail in 2028 would be “our optimistic goal,” Woody said. “It’s a lot more technical than I think a lot of folks might understand. That’s why we encourage folks to learn more about what we do and come out and see what it’s like to build a trail.” 

Meanwhile, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative expects to wrap up trail construction on Mount Shavano since starting in 2022 on what the organization called its “most massive project” ever.

The project called for new sections of trail totaling 3 miles on lower and upper parts of Shavano, replacing sections deemed damaged and hazardous. Lower “bypasses” opened in 2023 and 2024 while construction in the alpine pushed near 14,000 feet. That’s where work is continuing, said Lloyd Athearn, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative’s executive director.

“Every day, they’re basically climbing a fourteener and then going to work,” he said. 

But they should indeed finish by the end of summer, he said. “And we’ll have a new route going up the summit.” 

The work was possible after the nonprofit initiative in 2016 purchased privately owned parcels of Shavano where rerouting had long been sought. A land acquisition is also making work possible this summer on Mount Democrat ー along the popular Decalibron loop that had been closed to hiking on and off over the years before The Conservation Fund bought nearly 300 acres of mining claims in 2023. 

Crews worked to stabilize grades and install erosion-mitigating structures last summer. They will continue to do so this summer along a 1.2-mile stretch of “deferred maintenance,” as Athearn sees it ー but one of many stretches along Decalibron in need. Some parts of the loop can be tended to now under public ownership, while other parts remain privately held.

“Really, we could be up there for about a decade working on all the stuff that it needs,” Athearn said.