NSA Colorado Projects

Warren Pierce, CJ’64 called Brenda Dolan Hobgood, Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Continental Divide Trail Alliance (CDTA) to arrange an introductory meeting. Brenda’s idea for the location of the meeting was at Starbucks in southwest Denver about 30 miles from the CDTA headquarters in Pine, Colorado. We couldn’t find the Starbucks so we convinced Brenda by cell phone to meet us at Gunther Toody’s in the vicinity since we didn't have breakfast and preferred ham and eggs to a latte. That should have been Brenda’s first clue as to what she was getting into.
The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT) is the ‘King of Trails’ extends 3100 miles across the Continental Divide from the Canadian to the Mexican borders with 760 miles in Colorado. The CDT is about 70% complete border to border with about 1000 remaining miles unfinished. The goal is to complete the CDT by the year 2008, the Trail’s 30th anniversary. For more information visit www.cdtrail.org.
We asked Brenda what the CDTA could offer in the way opportunities for some highly trained, enthusiastic volunteers who were willing to work for food. Brenda was well prepared and produced a typed list of three potential projects ranging from new trail construction to wilderness area bridge building project. Most of the projects are accessible from campgrounds or a dispersed area near the project site. The CDT can support volunteers with camp equipment and per diem of up to $6.00 / volunteer /day.
We then bragged to Brenda that there are no better trail volunteers than smokejumpers and that we don’t need training or supervision – just food and some ice to keep the beer cold. We noticed Brenda glancing at her watch and looking towards the exit. We told her about the NSA, and how the trails program is organized and the gave her copies of the 2004 and 2005 NSA Trail Maintenance Special Reports and spent at least 15 minutes telling her how good we are and warned her about spending an evening around a campfire at a smokejumper trail camp. Brenda, obviously getting uncomfortable with the two blowhards across the table, but being a good sport, pointed out that our waitress (named Peaches) was wearing a button on her uniform that said ‘under these clothes I’m stark naked’. We don’t know how we missed that one.
We concluded the meeting with Brenda agreeing she would discuss our meeting with her associates and get back to us with a specific proposal including the possibility of attending a ‘short course’ for crosscut saw certification from the Forest Service. We explained to Brenda that we are all skilled forest workers and experts with all forest tools and don’t need a three day session using a cross cut saw even though the CDTA insists on certification. We think Brenda left the meeting somewhat in a state of shock wondering what it must be like to be around 8 or 12 of those guys when she could hardly deal with two of them.