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Building an Off Road Trail in ColoradoBreaking New Ground In Colorado From the February, 2009 issue of 4Wheel & Off-Road By Rick Pewe Photography by Rick Pewe
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Old-fashioned human power... Old-fashioned human power was the mainstay of moving many of the boulders. One would think that big boulders would easily roll down the steep slope, but club members Kim Bodemann, Arlene Losee, Stefane Penley, and Becca Eller had to wrangle the rocks by hand and foot on many slopes. Most wheelers and clubs complain about losing trails, but then fail to do anything about it. It's a sad fact, but many trails on public lands are lost every day, and creating a new trail is nearly out of the question. Except In Colorado, that is. The Mountain Metal Mashers club in Kremmling, Colorado, has been wheeling for years in the mountains, but new regulations and mandates from the Bureau of Land Management put many trails at risk. About six years ago, the club started to be proactive, and even got grants from the Colorado State Parks to develop the area for wheeling, and take care of certain areas such as an adopt-a-trail program does. They centered their efforts on a fairly easy existing trail that crawled around Wolford Mountain, and wanted to make it a hard-core rock trail. But of course, just building a new trail on BLM land isn't the easiest thing to get approved, and hard work and careful planning for the last 5 years finally brought the program to fruition. Fortunately for us at 4-Wheel & Off-Road, we were given the chance to help this project go forward by covering and sponsoring the construction of the trail with the help of 4Wheel Drive hardware (800.865.0961, www.4wd.com) to help pay for some of the hard costs of trail construction. In addition, many local businesses helped, as did county and state agencies. The Kremmling Field Office of the BLM worked for years to develop the Wolford Mountain Travel Management plan, and some 76 pages of research later John Ruhs, head of the Kremmling office, and Stacey Antilla decided that a hard-core trail could be built and maintained without harming the environment. In fact, with the Mountain Metal Mashers taking care of the trail, the local dumping and vandalism should decrease and the trail can become a shining example of true cooperation. Skid-steers worked like an... Skid-steers worked like an assembly line to shuttle boulders. The distance from the main dump pile of boulders to each of the obstacles was less than a mile, but the road had to be clear for the skid-steers to shuttle back and forth. Once a section was completed, the shuttles moved farther back and piled boulders for the next obstacle. Over the years many organizations and businesses helped push the project along. Three years ago Granby Landfill donated rock for the project, and Scotty's Hauling hauled the massive boulders to a staging area. Also, the Grand County Commissioners donated more rock, as did the Grand County Road and Bridge Department. This time Badlands Trucking hauled the rock, and Wagner Rents donated 50 percent of the equipment cost of Cats, dozers, backhoes, and skid-steers to move rock and build trails. But in the end, it was the dedication and perseverance of the members of the Mountain Metal Mashers that made this trail a reality. The Sidewinder Trail is now a truly difficult technical challenge, and we were there for the first wheeling of the new trail. We can show you some of the efforts put forth here, but you really have to wheel the trail to see what these guys and gals have done for their local area. By volunteering their time, energy, money, and guts to make a killer trail, they have showed us and the four-wheeling community what it takes to succeed in regaining ground, and working with the BLM and other agencies for the good of all. Take a trip next summer and run the Sidewinder Trail. You won't be disappointed, and maybe you can gain insight on how to keep this process going in your own neck of the woods. For more information contact the Mountain Metal Mashers at mmmkremco@yahoo.com, and the BLM at 970.724.3000 or kfo_webmail@blm.gov.  Using heavy equipment saved...  Using heavy equipment saved lots of time and trouble, and Wagner Rents discounted the cost by 50 percent. Club member Mike Johnston set up the equipment on his own account, and spent most of the day dialing in the obstacles from the cab of this beast.  The soft, shaley dirt along...  The soft, shaley dirt along some of the canyon walls was shored up by old railroad ties installed at an appropriate angle. Once they were firmly planted with boulders piled on the opposite side, the obstacles were done. To make sure the boulders and ties didn't move, Jaben Joesting took his 4Runner across the course to pack the trail down.  Working from mid trail to...  Working from mid trail to the trail head, Brent Woodard moved rocks to the obstacles by pulling a Chevy truck hood-piled with boulders for transport. Once dumped, he needed to escape down trail, and nearly got caught in the process.  The newly formed Sidewinder...  The newly formed Sidewinder Trail has rocks that grab at every underpinning, and can twist a rig till it cries for help. The trail is a one-way uphill affair, with one escape route halfway through. Sidewinder is part of the BLM Wolford Travel Management Plan and has a summer use period of April 15 to December 15. The trail is closed the rest of the year.  After spending three days...  After spending three days in a tractor building obstacles, Mike Johnston finally escaped and ran the new trail to see if he made it difficult enough. Sure enough, Mike got caught a few times, and, like the rest of the club, felt satisfied with his handiwork.  Another obstacle makes it...  Another obstacle makes it rough for Will Jones and his black and green Jeep. A total of 10 rough spots on the 2.8-mile trail keep the energy level high. MMM President Kim Bodemann cruised through the same spot with nary a scratch.
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