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Colorado Trail is a fitting monument to the woman who built it

It was hard not to expect a bigger crowd, considering the occasion. After all, the afternoon hike – or bike – to Gudy’s Rest on the Colorado Trail was being held in honor of Gudy herself, the remarkable woman who died on July 14 at age 89.

Gudrun Timmerhaus Gaskill was known as the “Mother of the Colorado Trail,” but that title almost fails to describe the depth of her relationship to the scenic route that connects Denver to Durango, a distance just shy of 500 miles.

An active member of the Colorado Mountain Club, she was at the meeting held in 1973 when the trail was proposed. It was an ambitious plan; conceived as part of the state’s bicentennial celebrations. The organizers thought the project could be completed by 1978. But red tape and lack of funds nearly killed it before the first miles of trail had been built.

Gaskill refused to let the idea die. She drew the route, linking existing trails and old mining and logging roads with sections of new trail. She nursed it along, recruiting support for the project and volunteers despite flagging interest and funding, in effect, performing CPR on the project when it looked like it might fail.

Ed Quillen noticed both the project’s lack of support and the determination of Gaskill and her crews in a 1984 article for Empire magazine: “If there ever is a Colorado Trail, it will be because Gudy Gaskill hasn’t given up.”

She did not. The completed trail was dedicated on July 23, 1988, thanks to an army of volunteers and the hands-on, full-time efforts of Gaskill, who, by the way, was raising four children and running a real estate business in addition to guiding her wayward, adoptive ward. She described a typical season: “We had 32 weeklong trail crews. I visited each camp every week, hiking in in the mornings, staying for a day or two and driving at night to the next crew. We completed 32 miles of trail that summer.”

Until 2009, Gaskill spent many summers close to Durango, conducting classes for adults and children and leading hikes from the Colorado Trail Foundation’s rustic cabin on the Lake City side of Cinnamon Pass. On a typical day, she was up before dawn preparing food and organizing class supplies. It was no summer vacation: She hauled water from the nearby stream. She seemed to draw her energy – and longevity – directly from the mountains themselves.

A score of people and a couple of dogs on the trail seemed inadequate then, last Tuesday. Where was the crowd, the long line of appreciative people ready to celebrate such a life lived and her achievement? Nowhere to be found, of course, and that was just fine. There were wildflowers and the rush of an afternoon breeze in the pines. The sounds of tumbling Junction Creek and chattering, scolding squirrels. In fact, the quiet scene enjoyed by a few is exactly the point and beauty of the Colorado Trail.

Between Gudy’s Rest on the climb into the La Platas and Gudy’s Bridge over the South Platte at the other end of the trail, every step, every turn of the pedals, every horseshoe print in the dust is a perfect, fitting tribute to the woman who built the Colorado Trail.



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