Repairing Bridges In Lory State Park

The restoration effort is fully underway at Lory State Park following the devastating Galena Fire that roared through the park in early March. Although the cause of the fire was eventually determined to be accidental, 10 multi-use wooden bridges important for resource protection and trail safety were completely destroyed in the fire. This prompted the Friends of Lory State Park to launch a volunteer initiative to repair the bridges and safely reopen the valley trails that were scarred by the fire. 

March 15th 2013

Along with the assistance of The Fort Collins Kiwanis Club, these bridges will be slowly replaced over the next month. I was able to get out on an initial volunteer day and had an awesome time leveling and placing the beams for the new bridges and staging materials throughout the park. Replacing these bridges is no easy task, as many require new concrete pillars to be placed. Today's action was on the West Valley Trail where we were able to finish construction on one of the priority bridges.  

The goal is try to be prepared for the 3^rd annual “40 in the Fort” endurance mountain bike race on June 29^th.  The work was a concentrated effort that involved staging materials, sawing wood and leveling out the trail for the new structure. We also dug down and removed a massive 9-foot railroad tie that was holding the old bridge in place. Although we made significant progress, there is still plenty of work to be done and volunteers are desperately needed. Friends of Lory have set up a sign up page for the bridge repair, which can be found here.  This is extremely rewarding work and I highly recommend putting your mark on the fire restoration effort.  The Park has smartly provided a detailed map of the damaged bridges and closed trails. Check it out; you can clearly see the path that the fire took through the park.