Back to our roots ! We returned to Marianna Butte in Loveland last Thursday for some much needed maintenance on one of the first trails CATS designed and built from scratch 🙂

CATS trailwork volunteers had a fun and productive afternoon at Bobcat Ridge Natural Area this past Thursday, dodging (most of) the rainstorms while installing some drainage structures on an section of the Valley Loop trail. We'll be back at Bobcat Ridge next Thursday, May 8th from 3-7pm - see our calendar for details on this and other upcoming projects: timecounts.app/trailcat/opportunities/events

Well, our 2025 trail season is officially open for business ! After a social kickoff gathering at one of our favorite pubs in Loveland (Big Thompson brewery) we dodged the thunderstorms yesterday (with maybe a little psychic help ?) and managed to construct a number of check-dam steps to take a little of the bite out of a climb on a popular hiking trail in Horsetooth Mountain Park. We're still just getting started but have already posted a number of future events on our volunteer calendar (so follow the trailcats.org link on this page if you want to come out

(In case you missed it ..) For the last couple of months our normal weekly project has been working with Larimer County to help build the new "Bay to Bay" trail at Horsetooth reservoir. At this point about 1/2 mile of the proposed 1.8 mile trail has been completed. So there's still quite a bit left to do and if this kind of thing interests you keep checking for updates in our volunteer calendar and sign up to come on out and join in on the fun !

Over the last two weekends we worked on the (final ?) re-route section of the Crag's trail at SFSP which included a timber wall switchback (something new for us). We've got one more event scheduled at this location in early August and after that the trail should be hike and bike friendly from the campground all the way up to Michigan ditch and from there tie into the American Lakes trail

Another great CATS Thursday afternoon at Horsetooth Mountain park ! Our task for this one was to armor a wet area with large surface rocks overlaying a bed of crush so that the water will (hopefully) flow under instead of over the trail

We worked with the Fort Collins trail crew the last couple of weeks fixing drainage issues on the Valley Loop trail at Bobcat Ridge and beefing up the rockwall supporting a climbing turn on the popular Maxwell trail. (more work will be needed in the future so keep checking our events page for new posted events 🙂)

With deep regret we note the passing of our good friend and longtime CATS contributor Bob VanDop. R.I.P. Bob, you will be missed.😔

We decided to get ahead of the bad weather forecast and moved our usual Thursday work day to Wednesday this week. With the permission (and thanks) to Lory State Park manager Cameron Landis we managed to finish a number of improvements to the lower Arthur's rock trail, including a strengthened stream crossing and a couple of badly needed stone steps.

Well, we couldn't wait to get it on the calendar so a group of us decided to hijack Brandon's ranger training at the (gorgeous) Button Rock reservoir and get in some actual trail work (of course Brandon and the rangers joined in at the end and helped us complete some really nice rock retaining structures !)

more pictures and a short video clip: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aFxW1yx_rqlNGoeVeT-eJEwEL5sLmcw6?usp=drive_link

We had our annual kickoff meeting tonight at the Big Thompson Brewery in Loveland - Getting ready for 2024 and will post our new schedule shortly !

The CATS closed out the trail season 2 weeks ago finishing a multi month effort to complete the rebuild of a major switch back at button rock preserve. As we close out the season we are thankful for all of the volunteers and donors who have helped to keep the organization running for over 10 years in Northern Colorado. We look forward to 2024 and the awesome projects that we have in store.

CATS were back at Horsetooth Mountain Park to fix a couple of drainage problems on the Stout-Nomad connector trail.

more photos:drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yEPu8Ljqr4STKHDaefX5yx8no2P-4d_7?usp=drive_link

drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ugXC--qY4Vfw0Lc4Hfh16WGhAlhigXRM?usp=drive_link

American lakes Trail reroute (Part 2)
CATS spent last weekend at SFSP adding another link to the new trail connecting Craig's campground and the Michigan ditch access to the popular American Lakes trail. Still a ways to go though so we plan to be back again next year for more good times 🙂

more pictures:drive.google.com/drive/folders/1npX5izmNE3w82NskHtMzBYbrf0koUBO5?usp=drive_link

After a number of disappointing cancellations due to weather and other reasons we were finally able to get in a full weekend of camping and trail work at SFSP. Many thanks to Terry Gimbel for providing us with some sweet campsites at the Craigs campground and the OMBA trail agents for prepping the corridor of a badly needed reroute of the American lakes trail.

More pictures: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1r5rcpFWa7TxDOGPcbbr8t7N-YilxwLie?usp=drive_link

The CATS are back (at Horsetooth Mtn. park). We returned to work on the Stout connector doing what we love best - wrangling big rocks ! This trail is going to be simply awesome when completed (currently scheduled for mid-summer 2023)

more media:drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JQnEhHOa-oAyIqwxmhmvtEJLkKBOkEJG?usp=drive_link

drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hGmwxxlV65Lb08mk2i2mGjSCAoHQ5ZVm?usp=drive_link

We have a segnificant amount of work this year at Button Rock in the lyons/longmont area. If you or someone you know lives in the area, please encourage them to sign up and join us on any of our projects. We could use all of the hands that we can get. timecounts.org/trailcat/me