First Real Day On The Job

I started the visitor surveys on Wednesday, 5-26. I am working from my government issued 2002 Dodge Dakota. I have to set up road signs and traffic cones to get all traffic exiting an area to stop at the survey site. I will work a total of 25 different locations over the next 4 months, some I will work more than once. I set up a traffic counter as soon as I arrive and I return 24 hours later to pick it up and log the information. I also work the area for 6 hours conducting the visitor use surveys as they exit the area. The scenery and weather were perfect on Wednesday. I even got a sunburn. It was good to finally get going.

Summitville Mine Ghost Town

A beautiful drive to a place with an incredible past leading back to 1870. Below is the info on Summitville from wikipedia.

The Summitville mine was a gold mining site in Rio Grande County, Colorado 25 miles (40 km) south of Del Norte. It is remembered for the environmental damage caused in the 1980s by the accidental leakage of mining by-products into local waterways and then the Alamosa River.

History
Gold was discovered at Summitville in 1870. By 1885 there were more than 250 individual claims in operation. The site was soon mined out, with the weather of the 3,500 m high site adding to difficulties. The site was re-opened on a number of occasions for gold or other metals but with little success, and prior to the site's acquisition in 1984 the last survey was in the early 1970s for copper. The total amount of gold extracted from the site from 1873 until 1959 was around 257,600 troy ounces (8,012 kg).

In 1984 an area of 1,230 acres (5.0 km2) was acquired by the Galactic Resources Ltd. subsidiary Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. (SCMCI). They began a new large-scale open pit operation covering 550 acres (2.2 km2). New techniques were used to extract gold from otherwise uneconomic ore.

The mining involved the treatment of pyritic ore with a sodium cyanide solution to leach the gold out of the ore—heap leaching (see also cyanide process). The solution (leachate) was then removed from the ore and the valuable metals extracted using activated carbon. SCMCI leached around 10 million tons of ore on a 73-acre (0.3 km2) heap leach pad. The mining operations were finished in October 1991 with the leaching continuing until March 1992. A total of 294,365 troy ounces (9,155.8 kg) of gold and 319,814 troy ounces (9,947.3 kg) of silver were recovered. SCMCI then closed the site and converted on-site equipment for the detoxification process, with around 160 million U.S. gallons (610,000 m³) of stored water needing treatment.

The cease and desist order and aftermath
In 1991 SCMCI was served with a cease and desist order by the state government, concerned with metal levels in nearby water due to the run-off of excess water from the heap leach pad and through the damaged pad liner. Possibly 85,000 US gallons (320 m³) of contaminated water had leaked into nearby creeks. In December 1992 Galactic Resources Ltd. declared itself bankrupt and declared that the site clean-up operations would halt immediately. The site clean-up was undertaken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ (EPA), from 1994 under Superfund Emergency Response. The main problem was the contaminated water held in an inadequate pond system. Another source of contamination was water leaking from older underground workings. The EPA estimated that 3,000 US gallons (11 m³) were leaking from the site every minute. However, despite the water having a pH of around 3 (acidic), a USGS study stated that the run-off was no serious threat.

$155 million was spent on the site for detoxification and to reduce leakage. Robert Friedland, the chairman of Galactic Resources Ltd. paid around $30 million in settlement. Heavy metals and acid from the mine are suspected to have killed stocked fish in downstream reservoirs on the Alamosa River in 1990. Although cyanide from the heap leach pads also leaked in the watershed, cyanide is believed to have quickly volatilized into the atmosphere without damaging downstream aquatic life.[4]

Natural versus manmade pollution
Rocks in the Summitville area were millions of years ago subjected to acid-sulfate alteration, which causes the streams that drain the area to be naturally acidic and naturally high in metals. The very names of nearby creeks are evidence of poor natural water quality: Iron Creek, Alum Creek, and Bitter Creek. Mining at Summitville, by exposing more rock surface to weathering, increased acidity and concentrations of dissolved metals in runoff from the mine area. The degradation in Summitville runoff water quality has its origin in both decades-old mining structures, such as the Reynold’s adit, and the open-pit mining of 1985-1992.

Water runoff from the Summitville mine flows down Wrightman Fork, mixes with naturally acidic runoff from unmined areas, flows into the Alamosa River and flows out of the mountains into the San Luis Valley, where it is used for crop irrigation. A United States Geological Survey investigation arrived at three major conclusions:

”Extreme acid-rock drainage is the dominant long-term environmental concern at the Summitville mine and could have been predicted given the geological characteristics of the deposit. Extensive remedial efforts are required to isolate both unweathered sulfides and soluble metal salts in the open-pit area and mine-waste piles from weathering and dissolution.”
”It is likely that natural contamination adversely affected water quality and fish habitat in the Alamosa River long before and will continue to have adverse affects even when acid drainage from Summitville is remediated. Thus, reasonable natural conditions for the Alamosa River must be established in order to set realistic remediation conditions for the Summitville site.”
”Results of studies as of late 1993 indicate that mining at Summitville has had no discernable short-term adverse effects on barley or alfalfa crops irrigated with Alamosa River water. Remediation of the site will help to ensure that no adverse effects occur over the longer term.”[5]

Wait 5 minutes

They have a saying here, "If you dont like the weather in Colorado, wait five minutes". Yesterday we went on a 100 mile (each way) road trip to Durango. The weather was beautiful. We stopped at a great spot overlooking a valley just before Pagosa Springs so Connie and Christopher could do a little rock climbing, had lunch, picked up some information on the Durango to Silverton Train and stopped at a park along the river with a playground so Christopher could play for a couple of hours before the drive home. It was 73 out and everyone, except us, was in shorts and t-shirts. The weather was absolutely beautiful with blue skies and lots of sunshine. This morning I woke up to snow. Yes, snow. May 24th and the snow is so heavy we can't see the far side of the pasture out our windows. At first it wasnt sticking but now it is laying on the pine trees and grass. Within an hour everything outside is white. Another beautiful day in Colorado!

Beaver Creek Reservoir

Christopher and I got out of Connie's way today and headed up to Beaver Creek Reservoir. Its only a few miles up the road from our place and its really beautiful up there. We hiked around the creeks flowing into the reservoir and of course tossed lots of rocks into the water.

Ground Hog Day? No, Our First Non-Equine Visitor

Connie and Christopher saw him out and about today while I was gone.

Back To Work....

Today was my first day with the Forest Service. We had a seminar on the hazard of falling trees. The Pine Beetles have killed over 55% of the trees in the Rio Grande National Forest and falling trees are becoming very dangerous for hikers, campers and forest service workers, several people have already been killed. Its unreal to see the damage these little bugs have done and there is nothing they can do to stop them. There are other National Forests in the US and Canada that have almost 100% loss of trees. It can take up to a year for a tree to turn brown so you know its really dead and it can take 10 years or more for the tree to fall. Tomorrow will be my first day of on the job training. I will be setting up monitoring equipment and asking visitors to the Rio Grande forest areas questions about themselves and their experience in the forest. Each day I work I will get to travel to a different campground, trailhead or day use recreational area to complete the surveys. I am really looking forward to getting started. I will only be working 3 or 4 days a week through September.

Creede - Silver Mining Boom Town

Creede is a neat old mining town with tons of history dating back to 1890's. The last mine closed down in 1985. Check out the website for the story. http://www.creede.com/creede.htm There are lots of little shops and restaurants, an underground firestation and a mining museum.

Beaver Creek

We are really enjoying this area. The station we are staying at is in a beautiful area surrounded by mountains and streams. Beaver Creek Campground is right up the street from us. Christopher loves to sit on the bank and throw rocks in the water. There are also two reservoirs up the same street from us that are suppose to be great fishing spots.

We're Home......for the next 4 months anyway

We arrived in South Fork this afternoon. I met my new boss, Jody, at the Forest Service in Del Norte. Everyone was very nice and made us feel right at home. Connie and I were a little worried since Del Norte isn't the most beautiful place we have been in Colorado. Its very flat with lots of farm land and not much scenery. I had to do some paperwork and pick up my keys for the new job. We followed Jody 15 miles to the west side of South Fork to the Beaver Creek Forest Service Ranger Station. With all the budget cuts they dont use this area very often. It has a bunkhouse, stable, classroom building and three RV sites. Connie and I were pretty happy with the new place. The scenery is beautiful, there are horses in the pasture outside our window and the Rio Grande River flows along the west side of the property. There is nobody else here right now so we have this whole place to ourselves. Christopher is in heaven playing with rocks and pine cones. He's not sure about the horses yet but they seem to love attention. The town is pretty small. Below is some info. With us here the population has now swelled to a whopping 604.

The Town of South Fork, Colorado is located at the junction of the famous Rio Grande River and its south fork. Where highway 160 & 149 meet in the center of town, you will find the beginning of the historic Silver Thread National Scenic Byway, a spectacular route that follows the winding Rio Grande to its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains. Initially developed as a community to service lumbering and mining, the town is now the center of a rapidly growing tourist and recreation area, making us your perfect "BASE CAMP" for a multitude of outdoor recreation and day trips to area points of interest.


One of Colorado's newest towns, incorporated May 19, 1992.
Current city limit population of 600 with an area population of 1,200.
During the summer we reach a peak population of more than 4,000 residents, and tourists.
Located at the southwestern end of the San Luis Valley.
An elevation of 8,190 feet.
Summer climate can range from 50-60 at night to 80-90 during the day.
Winter brings below zero temperatures, that can rise to the low 40's.
Annual precipitation is extremely variable, with minimal rainfall around .07inches/year.However we usually receive more than 200 inches of snow each year. Most winter snow falls around the summit of Wolf Creek Pass which averages 400+ inches/year.

On The Road Again

We have decided to leave Green Mountain Falls a couple of days early. I have an appointment Friday afternoon in Del Norte and instead of doing the 4 hour drive Friday morning we are going to drive down to the Canon City / Salida area for a couple of days today. We found a place called Banderas Bunkhouse right on the Arkansas River. It looks nice and its really cheap with my Passport America disount. About 40 miles into the drive we drove over Wilkerson Pass. Its 9,507 feet. The view as you go over the peak was just beautiful. You cn see several of Colorados 14,000+ peaks in the distance.

3 Years & 1 Month

I cant believe we have been on the road for 1 month already. Time seems like it has flown by. Everything is going great. Other than a little snow here and there the weather has been perfect. We love the area. Woodland Park is a nice town just west of Colorado Springs. There is so much to do and see within 30 min to an hour from here that we haven't been bored yet.

Christopher turns 3 on Tuesday (5-11). We had a birthday party for him last night at my brothers house. He had a great time playing with his family and all of their toys. He is growing up so fast.

Hayman Fire Area Trail Ride

This was the worst fire in Colorado history. The 2002 western fire season ended with fires burning 7.2 million acres and costing over $1 billion to fight. That same wildfire season is considered one of the most intense of the past half-century in the western United States.

The premiere fire that year was the Hayman which burned 138,000 acres and 133 homes in 20 days. It still holds the record for being Colorado's largest wildfire ever. Most of the fire (72%) stayed on the Pike National Forest south and west of Denver and northwest of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Enough fire escaped national forest lands to cause significant private damage.

Beginning in 1998 La Nina brought below-normal precipitation and unseasonably dry air masses to the Colorado Front Range. Conditions degraded year after year in the predominantly ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests becoming drier with each passing season. In the Summer of 2002 the fuel moisture conditions were among the driest seen in at least the past 30 years.

A U.S. Forest Service worker, Terry Lynn Barton, started the fire in a USFS campground as she patrolled under a no-burn order. A federal grand jury charged Barton on four felony counts including willfully and maliciously destroying U.S. property and causing personal injury.

It's sad to see so much devastation to a beautiful forest area but it really shows the rugged beauty of the landscape.