Friends of the Peak

03/25/2026

These turkeys probably did the Manitou Incline and were coming back down Barr trail. Until they saw and heard me. All together there were twelve. 🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃

12/09/2025

We had our annual year-end event on November 2, but it seems that nobody took any pictures there. We'd like to share that Geoff Rutecki was recognized with the 2025 Volunteer of the Year award. Susan presented him with a hardbound copy of the AdAmAn club's centennial book, autographed by all living members of the club. Congratulations, Geoff!

Since we didn't have any pictures of Geoff at the the banquet, I looked in our 2025 photo archive for pictures of Geoff on the trail. The problem with that is that he almost always had his head down, working. But I did find this one picture. Geoff is coming down Barr trail from the "Corral" (or Top of the W's) towards the Incline bail-out, about 2:30 pm. He told us there were no more problems we needed to address that day, so we could all head back to the trailhead. This was in September, on day 1 of our 3-day Slip-n-Trip project before the Pikes Peak Marathon.

11/16/2025

Fall trail work at Aiken Canyon, Part 2. "The Big Day", November 8, 2025.
The weather forecast looked good - sunny with a predicted high temp of about 50 F. It was a bit chilly in the parking lot, but we all knew we'd warm up on the hike to the worksite.
We were expecting 16 volunteers, and all showed up, on time. (Thank you!) Some of the volunteers were people we'd worked with a lot, some were from The Nature Conservancy, and some were new folks. All of them looked glad to be there, and we were very glad to see them too. And we hope to see them all again in the future.
At 9:00 I did the welcome, introductions, and a very brief safety talk. We were fortunate to have four experienced crew leaders: Carol, Susan, Brian, and Dan. Mike was our technical advisor, and with that many experienced leaders, I was confident we would have a good day. We headed up the trail to the worksite, but before we did any work Mike asked a hiker to take this group picture while we were still fresh and clean. Then the crew leaders showed their teams how to safely carry the big step rocks that we had staged beside the trail earlier in the week. But there were still a few more step rocks to drag out of the creek and those were a lot harder (video). Because the worksite was about 30 feet long and open, we could have all four teams safely working in the same general area. Three of us were making small rocks ("crusher") from bigger rocks in the arroyo and carrying buckets of it up to the step teams. Details are in the photo captions.
It was a great day, with a great bunch of volunteers. They did an amazing amount of work, safely, in a short day (9am-2pm).

11/15/2025

Fall trail work at Aiken Canyon, Part 2. "The Big Day", November 8, 2025.
The weather forecast looked good - sunny with a predicted high temp of about 50 F. It was a bit chilly in the parking lot, but we all knew we'd warm up on the hike to the worksite.
We were expecting 16 volunteers, and all showed up, on time. (Thank you!) Some of the volunteers were people we'd worked with a lot, some were from The Nature Conservancy, and some were new folks. All of them looked glad to be there, and we were very glad to see them too. And we hope to see them all again in the future.
At 9:00 I did the welcome, introductions, and a very brief safety talk. We were fortunate to have four experienced crew leaders: Carol, Susan, Brian, and Dan. Mike was our technical advisor, and with that many experienced leaders, I was confident we would have a good day. We headed up the trail to the worksite, but before we did any work Mike asked a hiker to take this group picture while we were still fresh and clean. Then the crew leaders showed their teams how to safely carry the big step rocks that we had staged beside the trail earlier in the week. But there were still a few more step rocks to drag out of the creek and those were a lot harder (video). Because the worksite was about 30 feet long and open, we could have all four teams safely working in the same general area. Three of us were making small rocks ("crusher") from bigger rocks in the arroyo and carrying buckets of it up to the step teams. Details are in the photo captions.
It was a great day, with a great bunch of volunteers. They did an amazing amount of work, safely, in a short day (9am-2pm).

11/14/2025

Fall trail work at Aiken Canyon, Part 1. Planning and Site Prep.

Our friends at The Nature Conservancy asked us if we would be interested in running a Fall workday at their Aiken Canyon Preserve. Even though our regular season was over and the tools were cleaned and put away for the winter, we decided to give it a try. First thing was a survey to see if any volunteers were interested and available, and which days might work. November 8 looked like the best choice, even though it was very late in the year (we'd had snow by then the previous year).
On the first site visit we identified a badly incised part of the trail leading up out of an arroyo, and decided that should be our focus on the workday. The plan was to fill in the incised portions of the trail and install rock steps to prevent further damage. If we were to be successful on the work day, we had to identify suitable step rocks beforehand and stage them close to the work area. So we came back the next week for a site prep visit where the three of us collected 7 or 8 big rocks in the arroyo and carried them to the edge of the trail. We then measured and staked the area where we would install the steps. We left feeling confident that the volunteers would be able to work efficiently, and hopeful we could get the work done on November 8.
(Details are in the captions of the photos.)
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the story....

10/29/2025

Still want to do more trail work?
Not ready to put away your work gloves?

Here's your chance! We're having one more workday this year.

When: Saturday, November 8, 2025. 9am - 2pm MST.
Where: The Nature Conservancy's Aiken Canyon Preserve

Sign up at

Age Requirements We love workers of all ages. However, volunteers age 14 and 15 need to be accompanied by a responsible adult and signed parental waiver, volunteers age 16-18 can work with a signed parental waiver. « All Events Aiken Canyon with The Nature Conservancy November 8 @ 9:00 am - 2:00 pm...

10/19/2025

The author worked with us on Barr trail and wrote this great story about her day with us for the Pikes Peak Bulletin. Thanks, Abbey!

Early in the morning of Sept. 13, a small crowd gathered at the Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent headquarters on Manitou Avenue, preparing for a long day of

09/27/2025

Pikes peak Summit in Peak leaf peeping

09/20/2025

Thursday, September 18 was our last chance to fix hazards on Barr trail before the Ascent and Marathon on September 20 and 21. A beautiful day, with a fresh coating of snow on Pikes Peak welcomed us to Manitou Springs. Once again our friends from Pikes Peak Marathon gave us a ride up to No Name Creek. Thanks, PPAM! Then the work started. Above the "tunnel" we turned a hazardous root across the trail into a step and drain to get hillside water off the trail. Then we hiked downhill and fixed a serious hazard where water coming off the Incline Connector trail had eroded a deep ditch across three feet of the trail width. (Brian is actually standing in the ditch.) We embedded three pieces of scrap timber into the hillside to make a timber wall, then filled the ditch with rocks and soil (more details in the photo captions. We then flattened out the V-groove in the trail and shaped a drain to get the water off the trail and over the top log in the wall, which was deliberately positioned lower than the tread. We're confident this makes the trail much safer for racers and all trail users. Good luck to all the racers this weekend!

09/18/2025

On Saturday, September 13 we had our second Trip-n-Slip day on Barr Trail. We try to mitigate hazards for the runners in the Ascent and Marathon events on September 20 and 21. Our volunteers (including some from the AdAmAn Club) got a ride up Long's Ranch Road to No Name Creek from our friends at Pikes Peak Marathon. This allowed us to easily work on the trail above milepost 3.5. See the photo captions for details. After lunch we started down the trail, fixing problems as we encountered them. Unfortunately, we had to stop work and get down to Manitou Springs as quickly as possible because a thunderstorm suddenly developed over us. We will finish on the work on Thursday, September 18. That's life on the trail.... To all the participants, Best wishes for a safe and rewarding race!

09/10/2025

More trail repair work on Saturday, September 6 to mitigate hazards before the marathon. Details are in the captions to each picture.

09/08/2025

Video of that repair on Barr Trail near the junction with the spur trail. Two more days of prepping the trail for the races are coming up. Join us for more fun at friendsofthepeak.org/volunteerwithus