Colorado Mountain Club Western Slope Blue Lake, Late July, Rod Martinez. CMC. CANYON CALL

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1 Colorado Mountain Club Western Slope Blue Lake, Late July, Rod Martinez. CMC. CANYON CALL 7 PM WEDNESDAY May 7, 2014 Vote for new CMC Board members. 7 PM Grand Junction Masonic Lodge Consistory Court. Results from the March CMC Western Slope Survey which members completed will be announced by Golden CMC s Brenda Porter. Telluride and Aspen Hiking Pack Guides on sale at this meeting. See Rod Martinez for your copy. Last meeting before the summer hiking season. UPCOMING May HIKES & CYCLING Sunday May 4. The 18th Annual Rose Hill Rally. Ride: 50K or 100K. Info and rez: Call Friday May 9, Saturday May 10, Sunday May 11: The Great Gallery. At the request of the weatherman, this hike which was originally scheduled for today and tomorrow has been moved from this weekend, when rain and snow were predicted for the Horseshoe Section of Canyonlands. The hike is now scheduled for 5/9/2014-5/11/2014. Temps are forecast to be

2 in the high 80's. / Mid 50's at night. Hike distance is 8 miles. Sunday's hike will be Bell and Little Wild Horse slot canyons, distance 9.5 miles. Leader Stanley Nunnally. Call stanleynunnally@yahoo.com Photos by Ben Ehlert Saturday, May 17: Ute Canyon from Rim Rock Drive. 8 miles. Hikers will meet at the Wildwood TH and form a shuttle. We will leave one car at Wildwood and take the group up to the Ute Canyon TH on Rim Rock Drive. Hike will begin there for those who live in Glade Park, you can meet us at the Rim Rock Drive/ Ute Canyon TH. Leader: Carolyn Emanuel. Call texie08@gmail.com SATURDAY April 12, Big and Little Dominguez Canyons. Hiking the two canyons was the goal of Saturday s Big N Little Hike. Leader Carolyn Emanuel, Doug Underhill, Babs Schmerler, Ben Ehlert, Paulette and Rick Emanuel began by hiking to the confluence of Big and Little Dominguez Creeks. Four hikers elected not to wade the rushing Dominguez Creek and continued on up Big Dominguez Canyon to the torrential waterfall cascading off the canyon walls. After lunch, this Big Dominguez Group hiked on to the petroglyphs. The second set of adventurers Ben Ehlert and Doug Underhill forged their way across the stream and on up into the Little Dominguez Drainage near resident Billy Rambo s house. All felt that this hike would be much more attractive in the late autumn when the cottonwoods turn gold and the creeks aren t raging. The high point of the hike for some was seeing how big the cottonwood trees had

3 grown since CMC planted them alongside the Gunnison River the summer of Photo by Carolyn Emanuel Photos by Rick Emanuel CMC Hikers Doug Underhill, Paulette Schmaltz, Ben Ehlert, Babs Schermler and DH Underhill and Rick Emanuel ready to cross the 2009 Dominguez Canyon bridge. Saturday April 19, 2014 Castle Valley in mist and rain. On the Saturday of the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, six CMC ers hiked the iconic Fisher Towers trail near Castle Valley, Utah. The roaring and whining of gears and engines was nowhere to be heard on this quiet desert hike. Claret Cup in bloom. Raging waters of Dominguez Creek pouring off the Uncompahgre Mesa.

4 In a light drizzle, hikers Ben Ehlert, Babs Schermler, Rick and Carolyn Emanuel plus prospective CMC members Leonie Broomfield and Louis Buescher put on raincoats halfway up the Fisher Towers trail only to get nearly to trail s end and have a small rockslide pour down on the group. Lots of climbing ropes were seen but no climbers on the Titan on that wet April Saturday Photos by Rick Emanuel. Fisher Towers late afternoon. BY RICK EMANUEL

5 THE BEST TELLURIDE HIKES PACK GUIDE by Rod Martinez. The hikes this Telluride pack guide covers range from easy to difficult. Some classics are included such as Alpine Trail, Bilk Creek Basin Trail, Blaine Basin, Blue Lakes, Bridal Veil Falls, The San Miguel River Trail and the incomparable Uncompahgre River Trail. Rod Martinez will have copies for sale at the May 7 CMC meeting: $ tax and no shipping and handling for a total of $11.00, a considerable savings off the rack price at headquarters in Golden. Hike smart with a Pack Guide. Photo by Rod Martinez. The Hike Pack Guides The first and biggest step is to decide what Colorado area would be a good area to hike. The Western Slope Group was first approached to help do a pack guide for our area about 4 years ago. A list of hikes was submitted to the CMC Press Board who then established the hikes to be done. From there the list went back to the Western Slope Group where we had 10 members volunteer to participate. Deadlines were set to accomplish various jobs so the pack guide could go to the publisher in time to be published early spring of The first deadline came and went and a number of hikes were still not done. The second critical date came and went and 4 hikes were still not done. A week before final cut off happened one of the hikers submitted one of her two hikes and then informed she could not do the easier of her two hikes. With a few days to go I volunteered to write and shoot photos for the three remaining hikes. Fortunately, we were able to push back the publishing date by a week. The text and photos were submitted and reviewed one final time before going to the publisher. About two weeks after this we received the initial pack guide with literally hundreds of mark-ups, corrections to fix the descriptions, maps and captions for the photos. The team worked together and submitted the pack guide for the final time. Six weeks later, the initial pack guides were in hand; two weeks after that, members books were collected in Golden and brought back to the CMC Western Slope. That was the Best Grand Junction Hikes timeline. The Western Slope Group shares in the royalties for this pack guide, so far about $55.00 or 3 cents a book has been added

6 to our treasury. The sense of accomplishment though is priceless. The Best Telluride Hikes followed the same timeline as above. The San Juan group was asked if they wanted to do any of the hikes and a few volunteered. The timeline moved along until once again we had past final deadlines and again a couple volunteers backed out of their hikes. In the end, seven hikes were completed. After a similar set of circumstances to The Best Grand Junction Hikes, the Telluride Pack Guide was submitted to the publisher. The manuscript came back with the usual number of corrections, questions and suggestions. Final submission was about two months ago. It will be on sale at the May CMC meeting. The Best Aspen Hikes was similar to the two above except for a couple major differences. I volunteered to compile all for the Pack Guide. A final publisher s mark-up was received three weeks ago with changes. It is now at the publisher. The first books should be received by mid May. See Rod Martinez at the May 7 CMC Meeting if you are interested in buying either The Best Telluride or the Best Aspen Hike Pack Guides. Or rodsuemartinez@bresnan.net ROD MARTINEZ CMC LEADERSHIP CERTIFICATION This course follows a standardized program through the Emergency Care and Safety Institute and consists of 8 hours of lectures, 8 hours of practical training, a written test, and practice scenarios. A comprehensive textbook is included in the fee. People who fully participate and pass the exam earn a 16 hour WFA certification. Saturday, and Sunday, 9 am-5 pm each day Lectures and Practical scenarios. TRIP LEADERSHIP INFORMATION CMC Current Trip Leaders: $40 CMC members: $75.00

7 CMC Western Slope Chapter Officers Ocotillo in bloom, Saguaro National Park, West, Petroglyph Trail. President Stanley Nunnally E: Programs Chair: Allan Conrad Pack Guides & Treasurer: Rod Martinez Canyon Call/ Weekly Eblast: Carolyn Emanuel Conservation Chair: Bill Hamann 235 Arroyo Drive Grand Junction, CO Safety: Carol Butler