Spike camp for youth
Golden Gate Canyon State Park
In late June Dan Weber, Park Manager of Golden Gate Canyon State Park, led a tour of a “spike camp” built for young adults working on sustainable trails projects in Golden Gate. The projects are viable through the combined partnerships of the Colorado State Parks, Mile High Youth Corps (MHYC), Colorado Youth Corps Association (CYCA), and Clinton Family Fund.
Bruce Clinton remarked that he and his wife, Martha, were proud to be part of this project partnership and would like to see this type of project replicated throughout Golden Gate. The Clintons reside primarily in Chicago, Illinois, and spend part of the year at their home in Gilpin County.
According to Kelly Causey, Executive Director of Mile High Youth Corps, the non-profit organization offers projects centered on energy, land, and water conservation for youth between the ages of 18-24 years old. Projects range in length from 11 weeks to 12 months and prospective employees follow a standard application and interviewing process for a project job. Recently MHYC’s popular projects received about nine applications for each open job slot.
Through their established land conservation program, MHYC built their first trail in Golden Gate in 1999. This year MHYC hired a youth crew of 12 Corpsmembers to live in the park’s first spike camp during the summer and work on building a new sustainable trail.
The term “spike camp” first came into use by the U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. It describes small work groups who travel from a base camp to work on a distant project.
The crew is working on a 5.5 mile trail, part of the Mule Deer Trail, which will be multi-use for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking. Its purpose is to link part of the north end of the park to the middle area, from Panorama Point to Fraser Meadow.
The spike camp is located off Gap Road on a service road between Panorama Point and Harmsen Ranch. The camp enclosure consists of four large tents—a mess tent, shower camp, sleeping tent for female crew members and sleeping tent for male crew members—construction gear and requisite port-a-potties. It is also equipped with a working electric fence to “keep the bears out.”
Crew members spend a total of ten weeks at the camp with rotating shifts of “ten day hitches,” or working at the camp for ten days and then having four days off. Park Manager Weber commented that having the crew members actually living on site, instead of being transported from town and back each day, and working eight hours every day really led to fast visible results.
The spike crew follows a well-established routine. They wake up at 6:30 in the morning; do some stretching to prepare for the day’s labor; ask each other random questions in reviewing safety procedures; pack their lunches and then head out to the trail for the day. After a half-hour lunch break, they continue trail building, eventually returning after an eight hour work shift to camp for dinner. A mini-generator provides power but it’s generally lights out early when darkness and the stars above settle in.
Building a trail requires a lot of hard work. Trail building means—among many things—constructing a three-foot wide clear area through the forest. It means winching big rocks, cutting down hazardous trees, hauling tree stumps out of the ground, building trenches, and creating in-slopes on switchbacks.
Golden Gate provides the crew with all necessary equipment, including all trail building tools such as axes, chainsaws, pneumatic pruning saws, shovels, and specialized fire-fighting tools like Pulaski axes and McCloud rakes.
Corpsmember Mike is the sawyer for the spike crew; he is certified on a 10 inch chainsaw and has an “A” license. Mike is originally from Portland, Oregon, pursued environmental studies and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. He heard about the spike camp and trail project by word-of-mouth and applied for a position. Mike “likes it a lot” and also appreciates the leadership-building qualities and scholarship awards offered by being part of MHYP’s AmeriCorps Leadership and Conservation Program.
Park Manager Weber anticipates future funding for more trail building and other projects in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. To be a part of these conservation projects and more, check out the Mile High Youth Corps website at www.milehighyouthcorps.org for more information.