As a flanneled and fleeced trail-repair crew trudged up the Ryman Creek Trail on Saturday, their leader kindly reminded everyone, "Keep your spacing! Watch your tools."

The well-organized crew of eight was part of an army of outdoor volunteers to descend on Ryman Creek last weekend. The approximately 75 participants from Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado and Southwest Outdoor Volunteers rerouted and repaired a 2.5-mile section of the 6-mile Ryman Creek trail loop south of Rico.

With only two staff members charged with managing thousands of miles of trails in the San Juan Mountains, the Forest Service depends on volunteer organizations to help them keep up trail maintenance and repair.

Lloyd McNeil, trails specialist at the Dolores Ranger Station, has been working with Ken and Joyce Stevenson from Cortez, who had adopted the trail. The Stevensons said that the needed repairs were too much for them to complete on their own, so when Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado called McNeil he recommended the trail for the group project.

McNeil was very pleased with the outcome. "This is just overwhelming," he said. "I’m really impressed."

Based in Denver, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado works in conjuction with local affiliates such as Southwest Outdoor Volunteers to complete projects on public lands across Colorado.

The Ryman Creek loop is used primarily by hunters in the fall, but is open to foot, horse, and bike travel. From the Lower Ryman trail, recreationists can connect to the Colorado trail and hike to Denver.

The scenic trail, which formerly crossed the creek seven times, has now been rerouted up the hillside, away from tender riparian areas in the valley.

The Stevensons were pleased with the result, but Joyce said that areas of the loop still need to be repaired. "The trail still needs a whole lot of work," she said.

Penny Wu, a recreation specialist with the Dolores Ranger District, said that the Forest Service will be working with Southwest Youth Corps later in the summer to repair other parts of the trail.

Joyce, a member of the Get a Life women’s hiking club from Cortez, helped cook for the volunteers that came from across Colorado.

Six members of the trail-maintenance crew from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park also came to help. They said they hoped to apply what they learned from the experience to their work on the trails within the tribal park.

Volunteers of Colorado trains crew leaders to lead and teach volunteers the four steps of building a new trail. The new trail is 24 inches wide, and angled so that runoff can still reach the creek without eroding the trail or the hillside.

The group brought in three technical advisers over Memorial Day weekend to plan the trail route. The advisers included a landscape architect, a retired EPA worker, and a representative from the Colorado fourteeners’ initiative.

The group reclaimed the old trail with the soil and vegetation cleared from the new. In some places the creek had washed out the old existing trail, which caused safety hazards for users.

Ryan Bouchers, another trails specialist with the Dolores ranger station, said the area contains prime deer, elk, and fish habitat.

Brad Finch, coordinator of the Southwest group, said that approximately one-third of the volunteers at the site were from Southwest Colorado.