Rotary Park Trail Day Re-Cap

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We are proud to announce that our Rotary Park Graffiti Removal Day was a HUGE SUCCESS!!!

That Saturday morning started out calm and cool with low cloud cover slowly burning off on the foothills. Volunteers started arriving around 9am, and by 9:30 we had 40+ people standing in the parking lot drinking coffee and talking excitedly about the days events. Larimer County showed up in support led by Pam Mayhem and 5 members of the trail department.

After a quick description of the days activities we split up into 4 groups and got to work. Priority #1 being trash removal from the cave and the rest of the park. Volunteers went to town with trash bags and 5-gallon buckets, typically on hands and knees picking up thousands of pieces of broken glass and small debris. We ended up getting almost an entire dumpsters worth of trash out of the park and into the landfill where it belongs.


Priority #2 was the painting of the “420 Cave” at the North End of the park. Volunteers set to work with paint rollers, brushes, and extendable poles to paint over every piece of graffiti they could find. The 2 colors we used ended up matching really well to the rock and lichen, some volunteers even spent time adding texture and feathering to really help the paint blend in nicely. Here are some Before/After shots:


During the painting phase a group of volunteers also set to work blocking off the major entrances to the cave. Closing off this small corridor seemed like a good way to kill the “cool” factor that graffiti vandals find in coming to this cave to “party”. Volunteers used large boulders to stuff the entrances closed and slash to literally fill the cave from top to bottom. It is virtually impossible to get inside the cave now, let alone spray paint or party in there.

Priority #3 was the removal of Graffiti on the Right Eliminator boulder using Taginator. This act of Vandalism was probably the most insulting to the climbing community and definitely the “Call-to-Action”.  The “420 Cave” was an eye sore, but when the primary climbing terrain became impacted, something needed to be done. Led by one of the most invested locals in our community, Ken Gibson, the Taginator began to do its thing. Multiple applications of the chemical, scrubbing with nylon brushes and rinsing with water eventually removed all remnants of the “artwork”. The boulder is now back to business as usual, including some Moon Arete suitors who were on the problem as soon as the work was done that day.


Finally, volunteers also spent time doing some basic trail maintenance in the park. Using slash to block and hide social trails, trimming brush that was encroaching, and even digging some water bars to help the trails drain on those muddy days.

We exceeded everyone’s expectations and consequently volunteers where running out of work to do by 1230. We scrambled to keep everyone working and convened back at the parking lot for a raffle. We are pleased to announce that every single volunteer went home with a gift/prize from one of our awesome sponsors.  The big winner was probably Rachel Preuit who went home with a brand new MAD ROCK crash pad. We invited everyone to meet us at H&D @ 7pm and called it a day.


The After Party was held at Horse and Dragon Brewery, which just opened May 1st but was very excited about helping us host this event. Our entertainment was led by Gustavo Moser of Gas-Photo who put on a beautiful slideshow of bouldering in the Western United States.

After Gustavo we had our MASSIVE RAFFLE giveaway. We had so much gear from all of our awesome sponsors, gym passes, ropes, guidebooks, down jackets, chalkbags, backpacks…the list goes on and on. The raffle was a Fundraiser for the NCCC which netted a grand total of $930 for the night. We greatly appreciate the support and will continue to use these funds to benefit NoCo rock climbing.

Some of the highlights of the night were when Ian and Ling Stewarts not only bought $100 worth of Raffle tickets, but upon winning their 2nd ROPE!?, they decided to auction off the prize to benefit the NCCC. A truly humbling show of support for NCCC and the work we do.

Secondly was the story of our NB Cruiser Bike Winner. Dan Perkins had just sold all of his belongings to move from Boston to Colorado, including getting rid of his previous bike. It was serendipitous that he was the big winner of a brand new bike to help ease him into life here in Colorado. Pretty much the ideal outcome for such a big prize. BIG THANKS TO NEW BELGIUM for making all of that possible!

We had such an amazing outpouring of support from sponsors for this event. We would like to thank everyone who believed in our cause and the climbers of Northern Colorado:

New Belgium Brewery
Horse and Dragon Brewery
Sterling Ropes
Blue Water Ropes
Mad Rock
Organic
Osprey
Inner Strength
Patagonia
Evolv
Scarpa
Inner Strength
Access Fund
Acrteryx
The Spot
Earth Treks
Movement Climbing + Fitness
Neptune Mountaineering
Metolious
Mammut
5.10
Sender Films
Artifact Uprising
REI
Mark Wilford
Craig Demartino
Jim Davidson
Bobbi Bensman
Gustavo Moser
Eric Horst
Eric Perlman
Adam Sanders
Scott Sutton
Ian and Ling Stewart

Stay Tuned for more events and content from the NCCC! PSYCHED!!

-Ben Scott – President