Join MikeAndJuli at 10:00 AM on Saturday September 23rd as we clean up the Rock Island Trailhead and Trail in Falcon!

Once again we are tackling the Rock Island Trail for a CITO Souvenir!

The event starts at 10:00AM sharp on Saturday September 23rd at the Rock Island Trailhead in Falcon, CO. Check out the fancy bulletpoints below for a rough timeline. We are scheduling to be packed up and done by 12:00PM.

• 10:00AM - Event hosts will give a short safety briefing and overview. If you haven't signed a county waiver, you will be guided to do so.

• 10:15AM to 11:45AM - We will break out into groups and start our CITO! The groups will be explained later in this description and during the safety brief.

• 11:45AM - Meet back at the event coordinates for refreshments and small prize drawings.

In true MikeAndJuli fashion, this CITO has a twist. Along with the usual cleanup of the imediate area around the trailhead and ~1 mile East, we are challenging everybody to go a little further. El Paso County has let us know of two additional needs on the trail beyond the usual Adopt-A-Trail cleanup.

Expanded Trash Removal: The area Geocaching Colorado has adopted has been very well kept for the past few years. However there is a LOT of trail, and areas where noone has adopted. El Paso County Parks would like help getting some of these more remote areas cleaned up. To facilitate this, We will be shuttling groups of people from the event trailhead to the next trailhead about 1 3/4 miles north east (and back, of course). Adding this extra effort should make a HUGE difference on the trail!

Weed and Tree Trimming: The weeds and trees are starting to encroach upon the trail again. The county is looking for volunteers to trim them back. This year they have identified an invasive weed species, mitigitation practices, and some specific tree trimming needs.
We will have one specific group of people this year specifically working on invasive Mullein mitigation.  These volunteers will be given orange bags and specific instructions.

Last time trimming done at a CITO we got about one half mile east. Hopefully this time we can clear two or three times that much! If you have pruning tools and wish to bring them to help, that would be welcome!

Provisions

Your hosts will be bringing a catering jug of Dutch Bros Kicker (Irish Cream Breve coffee) to help start off your morning. We will also be providing Trash Bags and Bottled Waters to keep you going. Fianlly, we will have a limited number of gloves and trash-grabber tools to loan out.
UPDATE: El Paso County Parks is working on allowing us use of the Volunteer Trailer.  We should know a couple of days before the event whether this is going to be available, and if so we will have access to additional saws and pruning equipment.

With that in mind, it would be a good idea for you to bring your own hat, sunscreen, and tools (gloves, grabber, pruner/lopper).

**NOTE** There is a chance that we won't get all jobs completed in just two hours of hard work.  If there is anybody that would like to stay after the prize drawings to continue work on the trail, they are more than welcome to.  The event host and safety truck will stay as long as there is interest!