Pole Mountain Trail Project
For 2018, we moved on to Phase 2 of the Pole Mountain Trail Project. The project successfully concluded on 8/3/2018.
The project completed nearly 10,000 lineal feet of new rerouted trail. So far, feedback from trail users and project partners has been very positive.
For the latest project updates, click here. For information about the initial phase of the project, please check out our Pole Mountain Trail Project Phase 1 archive. If you would like to donate to support this trail project, please use our donation form below.
Phase 2 of the Pole Mountain Trail Project has been scheduled and funded. We are happy to announce that we have selected Adam Buck and Pathfinder Trail Building as our professional trail consultant. Work will begin on the project around the middle of July, but no later than July 21, 2018. Once again, the WCC will be helping with this project and considering the amazing progress these two groups made on our recent Brewer’s Trail Extension Project, we are expecting great things.
We hope to have two major community “Dig Days”, the first of which is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, July 29th. We also hope to hold a dig day on Saturday, September 29th (National Public Lands Day). Check our calendar for the latest information. There may also be opportunities to join Laramie’s new volunteer trail work group Common Outdoor Ground (COG) for some additional trail days throughout the summer).
Project Summary
Location: Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, Pole Mountain area
Project Partners: Laramie Ranger District, University of Wyoming, Laramie and Cheyenne trail user groups
Project Description: Pole Mountain is a 55,000 area square of public land located in the Sherman Mountains between Laramie and Cheyenne. Wyoming Pathways will help the Forest Service continue the progress made in Phase 1 of the Pole Mountain Trail Project continuing to work with partners to address the backlog of much needed trail maintenance to the system trails at Pole Mountain.
Wyoming Pathways Participation: Wyoming Pathways procured a second $50,000 Wyoming Recreational Trails Program Grant that will be used to bring in additional professional trail building resources and to once again hire Wyoming Conservation Corps crews to perform trail maintenance at Pole Mountain in the summer of 2018.
Next Actions: Phase 2 of the Pole Mountain Trail Project will commence on around mid-July of 2018, with WCC crews performing trail maintenance at Pole Mountain over the course of the following four weeks. Multiple community trail work days will be also be planned to involve the community in the process.
080118 UPDATE: We hit a milestone in Phase 2 of the Pole Mountain Trail Project, with our work crews from the Wyoming Conservation Corps (WCC) completing their portion of the project. The WCC crews worked behind the machine building crews and contributed to the nearly 2 miles of rerouted trail through some difficult terrain. Here is a summary of the work completed to date:
Headquarters East – 2120 feet of reroute completed and old unsustainable trail rehabbed as part of the COG volunteer trail day this past Sunday (photos of the new trail below)
Headquarters Double Bypass – 2600 feet of new reroute. Challenging soil and rock terrain made for difficult building, but new trail will be more sustainable than old one.
Middle Aspen 1 – 1125 feet of new trail fully open. Forest Service closed old section of trail.
Middle Aspen 2 – This will be finished this morning and the length will be measured today.
Middle Aspen 3 – Machines will be on the third section of Middle Aspen for the remainder of the week, with the intention of completing the reroute by Friday.
That will complete Phase 2 of the Pole Mountain Trail Project for 2018. Once the project concludes, we will release a full summary on our website (http://www.wyopath.org/…/pathw…/pole-mountain-trail-project/) and we hope to do a follow-up survey of trail users to get feedback on the new trail sections. Please keep an eye out for a link to the survey. Your feedback will be critical to making sure future work meets the needs of the land managers and trail users. So, get our there and use these new sections of trail and let us know what you think.
We want to thank all those who helped with this project. We hope that the new trail sections will provide a sustainable and fun outdoor recreation experience for all Pole Mountain trail users. We look forward to seeing what the next phase of the project will be and the contributions from the local community via groups like Common Outdoor Ground (COG), the Medicine Bow Nordic Association (MBNA) and others.
072918 UPDATE: Wyoming Pathways was pleased to provide the evening meal to support the Common Outdoor Ground trail day this past Sunday evening at Pole Mountain. A group of nearly 50 volunteers braved the threatening weather (including tornado warnings) to come out and rehab the old section of the Headquarters trail that had been rerouted as part of Phase 2 of the Pole Mountain Trail Project.
It was a productive evening, with the old section of trail well on it’s way to returning to a natural state. In addition to the pictures below, you can see a bunch of much better ones on the COG Facebook page (@commonoutdoorground).
072018 UPDATE: Things are moving along on Phase 2 of the Pole Mountain Trail Project. We have some pretty instructive pictures of why some of the trails needed heavy maintenance and rerouting. Our goal is to end up with sustainable trails that are fun for all users, within the guidelines of the managing land agency. We also try to respect the history of the trails, trying to maintain the character as much as is possible. In this case, we are working with the Forest Service to maintain existing trails where possible and reroute trails that are beyond repair or not sustainable.
Sometimes it is difficult to balance all of these things, but we are all avid trail users as well and we really do love our trails and do our best to “do right by them”. We understand that they are an important part of any community, providing so many opportunities for outdoor recreation and enjoyment. Well built and maintained trails can also help the economies of local communities and we are all for that. We appreciate all of the support and with that, hope that we can continue our work throughout the state.
UPDATE: We were lucky enough to have access to an additional hitch of the Wyoming Conservation Corps earlier than we expected, so we jumped on the opportunity to do some amazing work on the Headquarters trail (images coming soon). Feedback from riders and LMBS racers has been universally positive.
