{"id":797823,"date":"2019-07-20T16:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T22:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=368987"},"modified":"2019-07-22T09:24:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T15:24:09","slug":"local-students-reflect-on-trail-building-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/local-students-reflect-on-trail-building-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Local students reflect on trail building program"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.8065887353879\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-368987-620\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3880-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3880-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Sawyer D'Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com | Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.<\/strong><br \/>Sawyer D&#8217;Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3880-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019. \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3879-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3879-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Sawyer D'Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com | Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.<\/strong><br \/>Sawyer D&#8217;Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3879-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019. \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3883-e1563573315955-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3883-e1563573315955-683x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Sawyer D'Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com | Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.<\/strong><br \/>Sawyer D&#8217;Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3883-e1563573315955-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019. \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3887-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3887-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Sawyer D'Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com | Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.<\/strong><br \/>Sawyer D&#8217;Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3887-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019. \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3875-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3875-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Sawyer D'Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com | Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.<\/strong><br \/>Sawyer D&#8217;Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/DSC_3875-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019. \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/local-students-reflect-on-trail-building-program\/?#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/local-students-reflect-on-trail-building-program\/?#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>BRECKENRIDGE\u2014Crews have been hard at work for the last couple weeks constructing a new trail in Breckenridge, hoping to improve connectivity between neighborhoods in town.<\/p>\n<p>But the trail crew looks a little different than usual. Instead of Friends of Breckenridge Trails or the town\u2019s Open Space and Trails Department, this project is being left to the kids. Over the last two weeks a group of 11 Summit County High School students (or soon to be) have been hauling rocks and pouring dirt for a new trail between the Wellington neighborhood south to Baldy Road, part of a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Rocky Mountain Youth Corps project (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rockymountainyouthcorps.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rocky Mountain Youth Corps project<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI met a lot of long-term friends last year, so I really wanted to come back out, help build trails, go camping and meet some new people,\u201d said Izzy Watters, who\u2019s about to enter the 11<sup>th<\/sup> grade and is in her second year with the program. \u201cI\u2019ve met so many amazing new friends, and we\u2019ve gotten so much stuff done. It\u2019s really cool to see the final product at the end of the two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tony Overlock, open space and trails specialist with Breckenridge, said the Redpig Trail would connect the Wellington Trail to the north with the Barney Ford Trail to the south, bringing together the two neighborhoods. Overlock said the partnership with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps has been going on for a couple years now, and is meant to provide the participants with some real life workforce experience, and teach them about stewardship in their communities. The students appreciate the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was excited this year because it\u2019s right in my backyard,\u201d said Ian Hans, a 10<sup>th<\/sup> grader. \u201cI think it\u2019s awesome doing work on something that could be here for 100 years, and just working for the community and getting people out here to hike. I love nature, and sharing that with other people is a really cool thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you build a trail you\u2019re not just building it for yourself, but for the people around you,\u201d added Ben Giesen, a 10<sup>th<\/sup> grader. \u201cYou\u2019re allowing other people to experience the outdoors, and I think that\u2019s a really great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy friend told me about it, and it sounded like a good time,\u201d said Chad Babet, a 10<sup>th<\/sup> grader. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of work, but it\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The work is far from easy, however. Once complete, the project will feature about 3,000 feet of new trail. In just a short period, the youth corps has completed more than 500 feet.<\/p>\n<p>In reflecting on the experience, the students didn\u2019t seem to mind the grind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou really get to learn a lot about yourself while working with other people,\u201d said Emilia Floresgomez, a 10<sup>th<\/sup> grader. \u201cNot only that, it\u2019s really nice to work out in nature and up in the mountains, and get your feet dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really satisfying to look back at it, and be able to say it\u2019s something we all worked together to build,\u201d said Rena Singleton, a 10<sup>th<\/sup> grader.<\/p>\n<p>For some, the program is also good practice for students who\u2019ve set their sights on potential careers in the great outdoors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed the outdoors,\u201d said Kaelin Love, a 10<sup>th<\/sup> grader. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a career I\u2019ve been interested in, being a forest ranger or something like that. So it\u2019s really fun to have this experience, and just to get to be outdoors for the entirety of two weeks is really fun too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the ultimate goal is the creation of the trail, and helping the area\u2019s youth learn about what it means to be a good steward in the community, there is also a large social aspect to the program. Kids show up for eight hours a day to work during the first week, but get to spend the entire second week camping out with new friends.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the students lauded the experience because of the friends they made in the process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of nerve-wracking coming in not knowing many people,\u201d said Pelham Wagenseil, a ninth grader. \u201cBut since we\u2019ve been together for two weeks we feel like we\u2019re part of each other\u2019s lives now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re making plans to hang out later in the summer,\u201d said Sadie Schroder, an 11<sup>th<\/sup> grader. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to find new people in our community that we didn\u2019t know before who are interested in the same things as us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven after a hard day of work, it\u2019s great to go back to camp where everyone feels like they belong,\u201d said Chloe Shingles, a 10<sup>th<\/sup> grader. \u201cAfter just two weeks to have built such good bonds is really special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Rocky Mountain Youth Corps\u2019 last day was on Friday. Over the rest of the summer Friends of Breckenridge Trails, Higher Ground Earthworks and Summit County Open Space will join the town of Breckenridge in a communitywide effort to have the project ready for next summer.<\/p>\n<p>Once finished, Overlock said it would serve as a multi-use trail for hiking, biking, snowshoeing and even cross-country skiing \u2014 and for the kids that got the chance to work on it, a lifelong reminder of their efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was fun meeting different kinds of people, talking and making a trail almost as a family,\u201d said Anthony Saenz, a ninth grader. \u201cIt\u2019s nice, because after we\u2019re done we can come back here and say we did this. We made this as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/local-students-reflect-on-trail-building-program\/?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.Sawyer D&#8217;Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com Local students work to build the Redpig Trail in Breckenridge as part of a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program on Thursday, July 18, 2019.Sawyer D&#8217;Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com Local [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-797823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 04:44:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797845,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797823\/revisions\/797845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}