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Keystone advisory board mobilizes volunteers to produce town visitor trail guide
Summary
The Town of Keystone Trails and Open Space Advisory Board agreed to compile a visitor trail guide and assigned volunteers to draft trail descriptions using a shared template; members emphasized vetting social trails, marking difficulty/parking, and a two-month draft deadline.
The Town of Keystone Trails and Open Space Advisory Board voted to move forward on a visitor trail guide and assigned board members to draft descriptions, maps and local notes for trails across the Keystone area.
Staff member Jessica told the board the project will compile existing trail data, add local context, and produce a compact guide for visitors and part-time residents. "This would be the Town of Keystone's recommended hiking and mountain biking guide," Jessica said, asking members to review a working list and volunteer to complete the attached trail-description template.
Board members emphasized using established data sources while vetting informal 'social' routes. Leah Christophanelli, a Keystone homeowner and HOA manager, said she already uses several of the local trails and welcomed the approach of compiling rather than re-creating route data. The board discussed mapping sources including AllTrails, Trailforks and Summit County datasets and agreed to validate any route that appears only in a proprietary or crowd-sourced app.
Members flagged several recurring issues for the guide: where trails have limited parking, steep or technical terrain, seasonal motorized use, or potential user conflicts (for example, long downhill bike traffic on otherwise steep uphill trails). On the Lenoi/Peru Creek routes, members recommended labeling difficulty clearly and noting that some trails have only four parking spots; on the Westridge/Keystone Gulch loop the group flagged frequent blowdowns and beaver-related flooding.
The board compiled an alphabetical list and volunteers for writing assignments. Examples: Ted agreed to help coordinate the shared spreadsheet and to take Aqueduct/Keystone Gulch; Kayla signed up for Tenderfoot sections; Dan volunteered for Grizzly Peak and Cupid Peak; others took Pass Lake, Sapphire Point, Westridge and nearby loops. The staff said she will circulate a fillable form and a map layer with lat/long where available.
Jessica said the capstone students from CU Boulder— working on a companion signage and wayfinding plan— requested board participation for a walking-tour workshop scheduled for July 17 from 9 a.m. to noon; the students will use board feedback to refine signage prototypes. The board also noted that under the Colorado Open Records Act, any collaborative work among three or more board members must be publicly noticed, so the staff will set up a shared document and circulation method that complies with open-meeting rules.
The board agreed to a two-month target for draft descriptions (the next regular meeting falls in two months), with the understanding the timetable may shift for seasonal access or snow. Members asked the staff to include the following in each trail entry: distance, elevation gain, parking notes, signage, seasonal restrictions, difficulty level and a short local "insider" note.
The next procedural step is for the staff to distribute the spreadsheet and form, confirm volunteer assignments with any absent members, and for volunteers to submit draft entries ahead of a two-week pre-meeting check-in. The board adjourned at 7:26 p.m.
