Carbondale’s shiniest wintertime gem, the Spring Gulch Nordic Ski Trail System, has been busy polishing its bright shine for the past couple of years.
The new cross country season officially began with the cutting of a ribbon at the new Marion Gulch parking lot and trailhead on Dec. 5.
The event was followed by the Mount Sopris Nordic Council’s season kickoff party at El Dorado on Dec. 6, including a status report on the organization’s ongoing $750,000 capital campaign and implementation of an ambitious capital improvements plan.
The buffing actually started prior to last season, when several new trails were fashioned into the hillside just south of Marion Gulch, taking advantage of the better-protected snow coverage in the upper reaches of the now more-than 28-kilometer winter trail system.
Spring Gulch is situated in Jerome Park, which is held by the North Thompson Cattlemen’s Association and serves as grazing land in the summer. Spring Gulch is operated through a long-standing partnership with the cattlemen’s group dating back to 1986.
Shortly after the 2022-23 season, the Nordic Council named longtime board member Rachel Bachman Perkins as its very first paid executive director.
“We’ve always been a volunteer working board, but with the scale of all that we’re taking on the board decided to have someone in the official capacity to keep all the wheels turning,” Perkins said in a recent interview.
Perkins skied and ran cross country at Clarkson University in northeastern New York where she grew up, and it was Nordic skiing that brought her to the Roaring Fork Valley during the winter of 2012-13 when she began coaching for the Aspen Valley Ski Club.
She moved to Carbondale in 2015 when she took a job as a math teacher and Nordic coach for Colorado Rocky Mountain School. That same year, she joined the Nordic Council board as a way to support the home venue for the CRMS Nordic team.
She married husband Alex Perkins in 2017. He’s now the head Nordic coach at CRMS, and they are parents of two girls, ages 1 and 5.
“Spring Gulch is probably my favorite thing about Carbondale,” she said. “I’m up there almost every day in the winter, and I just love the character of the trails and all the people who have been involved to shape it into what it is now.”
Perkins penned an article for the Winter 2023-24 edition of Mountain Pearl magazine, tipping a hat to the founders of Spring Gulch — Chris Landry and the late Paul Lappala and Bob Perry.
The spread includes a large map of the expansive trail system, including new additions like Tipple, Clim’It, Orion’s Belt and brand new this season, Heja! Pronounced “hi-ya,” the name translates to “hey” in Swedish, according to the Mountain Pearl article.
Opening day also happened to coincide with Colorado Gives Day. The Nordic Council, as a first-time participant in the nonprofit giving day, took in over $7,000 in donations, Perkins reported at last week’s social.
The capital improvements plan aims to accomplish two primary goals.
First is to build resilience into the trail system to adjust for the effects of climate change, she said.
That involves the new upper parking lot and trails. The original lower lot and trailhead on Thompson Creek Road is also now open, but in recent years hasn’t had enough snow until later in December or early January.
Reforestation along parts of the trail system to replace drought die-off is also part of the plan.
The other primary focus of the improvement plan seeks to enhance general operations, like providing high-quality, consistent grooming. The Nordic Council plans to build a new maintenance building next summer to house its grooming and other equipment.
“We’re looking to increase the versatility and capacity in our grooming to make sure, regardless of what winter throws at us, we can make the most of what we can offer at Spring Gulch,” Perkins said.
To date, a combination of public and private donations, including a $250,000 grant from Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, with a challenge match pending, and $20,000 from the Town of Carbondale, has the Nordic Council well on the way to its goal.
Another $130,000 is needed to complete the match, Perkins said.
She said the efforts to date would not be possible without the efforts of people like Mike Uncapher, owner of Western Vegetation Management, who built the new trails and parking lot at cost, and board member Matt Annabel, who has logged some 800 volunteer design hours.
Spring Gulch aglow with new Nordic trail amenities; capital campaign continues
