Barbara Lawlor, Boulder County.  Our national forest campgrounds need all the help they can they get, especially in our neck of the woods, which has become a destination for transients.

They come from all over the country, many of them hitch-hike, their luggage consists of a backpack and the clothes they are wearing. They come into town and hit up the shelters where they are outfitted with name brand outdoor gear, tents, sleeping bags, jackets, boots, hats. All the stuff they need for surviving life in the mountains.

Many travelers make good use of the equipment, enjoy their stay in the Nederland/Gilpin area, and then pack up their supplies and trash and move on. Some of them fill their backpacks and hit the road, leaving everything else behind.

Last Friday, July 21, 2017, a group of Good Samaritans who have no connection to the Nederland area gathered at Gordon Gulch, north of Ned, to spend the day picking up trash and obliterating illegal fire rings in the campground.

USFS District Recreation Staff Matthew Henry met with the group to advise them of what needed to be done and what they should do to be aware of their safety.

He told them, “We can’t meet the demand of the use we have. Last year, we focused on the West Mag area, took out 680 pounds of trash, today we want to focus here, campsites 1-16. People don’t understand how to camp here. We need signage that says don’t do this, do this.”

About a dozen EXXEL employees came ready to work. EXXEL Outdoors and American Recreation Products merged, becoming the leading provider of high quality, innovative outdoor recreation products and the largest sleeping bag company manufacturer in the US.

“We are a company of outdoor lovers. We are backpackers, mountain bikers, back-country skiers, conservationists, climbers, rafters, yogis, train runners, triathletes, musicians, cyclists, campfire masters, volunteers and very poor softball players. Headquartered in Boulder, we use the mountains at our doorstep for inspiration to create the best gear for outdoor adventure.”

In keeping with that mission, the EXXEL employees who showed up last week are a private group who volunteered to help clean up the mess that was left at Gordon Gulch, especially in campsite 14. Henry said that a large group of people had been living at the site when the three-foot snowfall of May dumped on the area. Apparently, the group left everything behind and escaped winter.

Slipping on gloves, grabbing trash bags and shovels and water bottles, some of the group stayed at site 14 and others scouted the area, looking for illegal fire rings. Their assignment was to remove rocks, cover the ashes and burned branches with dirt and camouflage the area with tree branches, so no one else is invited to build a fire.

“Be cognizant of where you chuck the rocks,” the workers were warned. “And be careful of the yellow jackets that are out now. Keep track of each other…don’t get lost.”

Campsite 14 was a mess, a pile of clothes, sleeping bags, a Marmot tent, brand name parkas, a Mr. Coffee, dozens of syringes and needles, a coloring book, “Colorful Escapes,” a pile of cigarette butts laying in the duff.

After a day of dealing with the detritus of others’ nomadic lives, after leaving the campsites immaculate, ready for the next visitors, the EXXEL employees called it a day, knowing that they had done what they could to be good stewards of the forest service campground in their area.