by Gabe Etengoff
It’s a new year, which means it’s time to look back on 2018 and reflect on the accomplishments of our amazing volunteers during the field season. Volunteer projects are an integral part of how we build the CDT community, and they offer a unique way for CDT supporters to experience the Trail.
In 2018, a total of 679 volunteers participated in the stewardship of the CDT. Volunteers helped to scout, maintain, or inventory nearly 2 million feet of the Continental Divide Trail and contributed over 17,000 volunteer hours valued at $456,860. Our volunteers gave back to the Trail in a variety of ways, from installing new blazes to driving our southern terminus shuttle to providing information about the CDT in our Gateway Communities.
Last year, CDTC hosted ten volunteer trail maintenance, construction, or rehabilitation projects from Silver City, New Mexico, to Helena, Montana. These projects are becoming increasingly important to maintaining the Continental Divide Trail, as our agency partners’ capacity for trail upkeep wanes due to shrinking federal land management budgets.
In addition to contributing valuable work to the Trail, volunteers on these projects got to forge new relationships with each other and enjoy delicious food and Colorado Native beer. We believe the most valuable part of our field programs is the opportunity volunteers get to participate in hands-on land stewardship, where they can leave a lasting impact on the Trail they love.
In addition to the ten projects we completed in the field, we hosted six Trail Adopter trainings in New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana. This program trains dedicated Trail supporters how to scout the CDT in their area, helping land managers and partner organizations stay abreast of trail conditions. Trail Adopters also perform basic maintenance of their adopted section of the Trail, helping us get boots on the ground where our volunteer crews can’t make it.
Last year, we recruited and trained 42 new Adopters, who together will maintain 265 miles of the CDT. That means that now, over half of the CDT has been adopted!
And finally, we finished an exciting and historic project in 2018 – Blaze the CDT. After partners from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, youth corps, and other trail organizations marked hundreds of miles of the CDT in 2017, CDTC volunteers stepped up last summer to install over 1,200 blazes on the remaining 345 previously unmarked miles of the CDT! For the first time in history, the entirety of the Trail is now marked, helping users from New Mexico to Montana find their way.
Blaze the CDT was exciting because of the diversity of the 50 volunteers who participated. From thru-hikers to corporate groups and individuals hailing from places as far as Oregon and Wisconsin, the volunteers who helped blaze the Trail represented many geographic areas and walks of life.
A big shout out to all the volunteers who helped us to maintain, construct, and blaze the CDT last year! With your continued support, we can ensure that the Trail will be around for future generations to experience and enjoy.
Gabe Etengoff is CDTC’s Field Programs Coordinator. When not leading volunteer trips along the Divide, he can be found hiking, taking his labrador retriever to the dog park, or playing video games at his house in Denver.
