Friends of the Peak Board Meeting Minutes, August 14, 2012 Attending: Carol Beckman, Mike Cotter, Jim Strub, Eric Swab, Brian VanValkenburg. Meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m. Minutes from the previous meeting were approved. Financial report: A question was asked at the previous meeting about spending on Barr Trail. Carol got a report on transactions from 2002 to the current date, and e-mailed it to the board. Direct spending on Barr Trail is $46,045.19. Other spending not directly recorded for Barr Trail, such as t-shirts and food for work days, also went to Barr Trail. General spending, like the newsletter, also benefits Barr Trail, although it is not directly for it. A point made in the past is that the money donated through the races to support Friends of the Peak, just as donations support El Paso County Search and Rescue presumably with no expectation that the donations will be used only for rescues on Barr Trail. Work on other trails, like work on the Crags route to the summit, takes some of the load off Barr Trail, so helps Barr Trail in that way. Barr Trail 18 people signed up for the work on Barr Trail Sunday, but only 7 people showed up. Mike met with the group of people concerned with Barr Trail on July 30. Mike went to the Manitou city council meeting and made the request for $10,000 seed money. The request was approved. Rocky Mountain Field Institute can use that to analyze what needs to be done. The longer term plan expects the parking fees to generate $120,000 per year. The plan is to go back in early spring and request $40,000 for RMFI to hold a 4 week session with students camping and earning a stipend while working on Barr Trail. That work would be on the area from the Incline social trail down. The upper part of the trail is in reasonable shape. The alternate route was discussed. The time frame is 5 to 6 years for a trail on the north side. It will require a NEPA. Forest Service will be focused on Waldo Canyon for the next couple years. Some people are concerned that Incline planning has not considered the impact on Barr Trail. The trail is damaged from water which is on the trail because of the compaction from foot traffic. Brian had a work day Thursday, from the spur trail up to turn 9, from turn 6 to turn 9. They focused on trip hazards. On Sunday, Mike s group worked on turn 9 to turn 24. Mike believes they missed one section for taking out roots. Brian s team skipped one root with a gap underneath. A runner in the group said that it was not a problem. But on Sunday another runner took it out. Brian had 8 people. Mike s group fixed the fencing at the top and fixed some posts that had slipped into the trail. They also used some fell trees to build a small retaining wall to address some water damage. RMFI might address this problem area. The conservation plan might change the look and feel of the trail. Forest Service will need to approve the plan. The alignment would be the same. But it might have more steps, for example. Mike believes the major safety issues have been
addressed. Brian s group broke off the top of many rocks sticking up in the trail, using a pick mattock or rock bar. Some of the rocks came out, so they filled the holes. As for volunteer hours for Barr Trail, since 2008, there have been 10 work days, with 59 volunteers, and about 472 hours. Those numbers do not include the work that Spencer and Bob Bunch put in. They were there every week, with about 4 volunteers. The numbers also do not include this year. The Barr Trail group asked for someone to attend the packet pick ups for the race. Hours are Friday, August 17, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, August 18, 12 noon to 7 p.m. Friends of the Peak will have a table set up with Incline Friends, to give people information and talk about what we have done on the trail. It is at Memorial Park in Manitou Springs. People want to give money rather than time. We could talk about giving time. There will be tents with tables. The race is giving a table to Incline Friends. We re sharing. We had brochures in past years. For a similar day, Brian printed up the most recent newsletter. Eric can print newsletters. We should also have a sign up sheet. A copy of the Pikes Peak Atlas is also useful. Mike will produce talking points. We can talk about money and volunteer time for Barr Trail. We can also say that we re partnering with RMFI and hiring work. RMFI is not planning to be at the event. Brian has photos from the South Slope project. Upcoming Projects Mike noted that when he was scouting for Barr Trail, he twisted his ankle and fractured his foot. So he doesn t know if he will be able to do much for upcoming work days. 2 Thursdays remain. Elk Park is on the schedule. Last Thursday, no one objected that the day moved to Barr Trail instead of Elk Park. Elk Park needs work. But a section on Seven Bridges needs work. Most people are responsive when we move work days. Some of the work days have only 4 people. If we change to Seven Bridges, we should change the web site. We could also send out e-mail. Or it could just go with the newsletter. August 25 is the Crags to the summit day. Mike will send e-mail to Jack Glavan about access to the highway for the volunteers. Carol sent out a proposed info sheet for the work day to the board. AdAmAn is scheduled for September 22. Mike has contacted the AdAmAn lead for that. Mike has a potential conflict. But Brian can lead the day. The people have worked with Friends of the Peak before. It will be a standard work day. AdAmAn will bring about 8 to 10 people. They like to hike and like to do the high altitude work. They were thinking of the top of the 3 mile section, where the connecting trail comes in and has rutted out the area. Several things need to be addressed, so that snow runoff does not damage the trail more. Cross slopes are steep there. Mike will contact Bob. Brian asked about planning notes. Mike does not believe he can do it. Part of the money from Manitou city council is to replace rails and posts. Rails are deteriorating fast. Every time Mike goes up, 5 or 6 more posts are broken, and more appear rotten. Brian hiked up before the Incline day and found 2 broken rails, and many degraded trails. As the weeks progressed, the rails that were degraded are now broken. Someone might be intentionally breaking the rails. Mike wondered about recruiting an Eagle candidate to run a project there. We could recruit volunteers to carry the rails up. The candidate would contact the people to organize it. Carol can
contact her troop and other troops she knows. Scouts need approval from the organization, from their troop, and from the district, so the paperwork process takes some time. It might not be possible to do it in October. Mike believes May would be fine. Some posts need to be replaced, also. Brian pulled on the posts to check them. He found some that need to be replaced. On the VOC project, the main trail is done to stake 45. It is done from the bridge to the peninsula. The peninsula is a good destination. It is a good place for lunch, and has spur trails to the beach. The rest of the trail to Boehmer is planned to be build by contractor. The return trail is not routed yet. The trail is completed to a destination point. Brian recommends that we contact TOSC and suggest that they shift their guided tours from the road to the trail. A complaint about the guided hikes is that they are too long. The trail is about 1 mile. TOSC curtailed the tours this year, as they did not have many people sign up. The road to McReynolds is started. Paul has routed a trail to the parking. It is designed to be ADA accessible. VOC has experience with ADA trails. Work on facilities is started. Another advantage of having TOSC hikes on the trail is to keep plants from encroaching. We gave t-shirts to the volunteers on Sunday. CS Parks and Rec gave volunteers knit hats on Saturday. Mike noted that people on the Barr Trail project took more whistles than t-shirts. Newsletter Mike has some things to give to Jim. Jim asked about the format for the newsletter. It is currently pages, which is harder to do rather than a continuous format. Many newsletters have a table of contents that readers can click on to go to items. Jim noted that it would be easier for him, and probably for the reader, to have a continuous format with links to click. We ve used pages to be able to print it for people who want paper copies. Brian wondered how it would print if it wasn t paginated. If it prints reasonably, it should be fine. Brian frequently prints it. 2 people want paper copies. A one column format, rather than two columns, would be easier to read online and on paper. Gail Allen was at the July South Slope day, and noted that her name was not in the list of volunteers last year. Steve also was at the Section 16 work day, but was not in the list. Friends of the Peak did not receive a list of participants for that. Jim asked about having an article on the CS Parks Friends group initiative. Brian will contact Sarah and Deb about their perspective. Mike has photos from Barr Trail on Sunday. Surveying Members Mike suggested sending a survey to members in September or October. Jim noted that elite e-mail can handle that. Mike suggested soliciting ideas for work days, trails that need work, etc. It will give a larger perspective. Also, people are more likely to volunteer on the trails they like. Mike wondered what kind of priority Ring the Peak is for people. We could give people a couple weeks to fill it out. We can use the results at the annual planning meeting. Mike asked people to think of questions and send them to him. Survey Monkey is free. Brian noted that responses seem limited with Survey Monkey. Mike might contact TOSC about what they use for surveys.
Year End Meeting The date is published. Mike asked who we might want as a speaker. We could talk about the survey. Jim suggested Eric Billmeyer talking about hiring trail workers and Barr Trail. For Barr Trail, Friends of the Peak will contract with RMFI for a conservation plan. Manitou city council believes they would have to take bids and could not contract with RMFI. But RMFI is a nonprofit. Forest Service manages Barr Trail. RMFI could talk about Barr Trail. Incline Friends to talk about the state of the Incline is another possibility. Bill Beagle might be good for that. The Incline has had more progress. The Senate must pass the abandonment bill before Forest Service can grant a permit. Mike will talk to the potential speakers. Next time we will need to talk about invitations, food, etc., for the dinner. Year End Planning Meeting It is currently scheduled for November 3. Mike will check for rooms. If it s at a library, start time is 10:00. Round Table Eric asked if Jim wanted an article on the Incline for the newsletter. Jim said yes. Bill Koerner contacted Eric about Ring the Peak. Mike wondered what he wanted to talk about. He might have a particular point or might want an update. Eric noted that John Murphy is satisfied with how Saint Mary s Falls turned out. Eric talked to Dick Bratton. He decided not to attend this meeting. Dick has been building trails without permission. He was working on a Mount Rebecca trail. Utilities and Forest Service noticed. Utilities put up a trail closed sign at the Crystal Creek end. Mike sent an answer to Dick s e-mail. A short portion of the trail is exposed. Mostly, the trail is an improvement over the road. Board meetings are open to people who want to attend. Listening does not imply approval. We can wait to see what happens. Eric checked on changes for the web site. Jim asked that Eric send him any changes so that the newsletter is correct. A hiker sent an e-mail to Eric about the bighorn sheep count. Eric used to see elk about Bison reservoir, and they are still there. The hiker s impression is that DOW does not want any trail anywhere near Sheep Mountain. The Paul route probably will not work. It is on Sheep Mountain, and close to the sheep ovals. Eric wondered if he should survey Paul s route. He could not obtain access from South Slope. Checking it out doesn t hurt anything. Jim is leaning toward avoiding private property, and talking to CS Utilities about using roads which go almost to Wilson reservoir, then go on Forest Service land. Eric doubted that we could get into the western part of South Slope, because of bighorn sheep. Cheyenne Mountain State Park has a long term plan to connect to Mueller. The survey could find out what the priority is. Eric wondered about asking Bill about easements and private property. Carol and Eric went on a motorized signing run, and installed 10 Ring signs, 4 between Forest Service 379 and 376, 2 on the Crags road, 1 behind the Mennonite camp, 2 on North Slope, and 1 on the Ute Pass trail. Carol attended the open house for the draft plan for Cheyenne Mountain State Park. The draft plan still includes connecting CMSP to Mueller. It includes a list of
organizations that CMSP wants to work with, but it does not include Friends of the Peak. The plan bans bikes from the top of the mountain and allows horses. Carol asked about the CS Parks and Rec draft agreement. Brian said tomorrow is the last day for comments. Carol checked PayPal, and the most recent activity was February. Mike noted that that is the typical pattern, that we receive donations more November through February there. Brian noted that the Missing Link trail is on hold. The web site is in production. Mike will check on where things are. We ll need to add content. Meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.