Two Silverton locals are professional trail builders who have both started their own trail building businesses and are working right here in the San Juan Mountains.
Michael Crockett and Tyler Schaffrick specialize in trail design, construction, maintenance and project management.
Since last summer, both Crockett and Schaffrick have been working on regional projects over in Ouray and in Telluride areas. Michael Crockett has many years of trail building experience and moved to Silverton from New Mexico after working for the Boy Scouts of America for over a decade, designing, constructing and maintaining trail systems.
Tyler Schaffrick has also been a professional trail builder and recently worked for Durango Trails, designing, constructing and maintaining trails in and around the city of Durango. These two are currently working over in the Ouray area with the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests and get up at the crack of dawn to commute over Red Mountain Pass and get on the Bear Creek trail by 7 a.m.
They then have to hike into their project area with all the tools and materials needed for the day, and no matter what mother nature brings, they physically move rock, boulders, dirt and earth to create or maintain trails that give people access to our San Juan Mountain backcountry.
Sometimes, the material needed to restore or build new trails is helicoptered into the remote areas, and the team must move rock and boulders into place to build retaining walls and restore trails from deferred maintenance.
“The Great American Outdoors Act, a piece of legislation enacted at the end of 2020, took energy royalties that are paid to federal government, and they are redirected into these public land’s projects. GMUG jumped at the opportunity and got many projects funded through that program,” said Crockett.
The two trail professionals have both vied for some of the GMUG contract work and successfully won the bid for the projects. Both aspire to continue to work together but also grow their teams and create trail-building jobs based out of here in Silverton.
They also dream of using their professional skills right here in their own community, with the Silverton Master Plan giving Town of Silverton direction to expand our trails in and around town as well as the EPA’s Brownsfield grant opportunities that can potentially fund the decade old Animas River Trail Plan that has been a dream of many longtime locals.
“I created my company a couple of years ago when I realized that I could get projects on my own and not work for a nonprofit. I worked for Durango Trails for five years and have lots of experience. I was also inspired by the community working toward getting the Bakers Park trail system in and thought I can get work right here at home,” said Tyler Schaffrick, proprietor of Animas Trail Works LLC. Bakers Park is the trail system going in on Boulder Mountain at the edge of town.
Schaffrick is a ski guide for a snowcat ski operation in the winter months and is now building trails during the summer season. He grew up in Connecticut but came out west and moved to Silverton in 2011 to be a ski guide for Silverton Mountain with his now wife, Emma Schaffrick. Tyler studied Adventure Education and Wilderness Leadership at Johnson State College in Vermont.
Michael Crockett, proprietor of Anthrocene Contracting LLC, grew up in coastal Virginia and studied environmental science and geology at the University of Charlottesville but moved out west for the love of the Rocky Mountains and high deserts of New Mexico. As kids, their family would travel out west to see Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, so the love for the western end of the U.S. was planted deep for Michael at a young age.
Crockett is currently also a Silverton Mountain Ski Guide in the winter months and is now a professional trail contractor during the summer season.
He said, “Back in 2015, I came to Silverton to be a Silverton Mountain intern since my New Mexico job was seasonal. I saw Silverton Mountain in ski films, and I got onto their website and found the internship program, applied, and 88 hired me for it. That was my first winter in Silverton, but went back to New Mexico that summer.”
Crockett then stayed in New Mexico full time for five years and then recently moved back to Silverton winter of 2022.
When I asked him why Silverton, he said, “the landscape is very inspiring as a skier, hiker, and mountain biker. I am also inspired by the folks who call Silverton home and make this rugged place home. I am inspired by the both of them.”
Schaffrick said, “I dream of continuing to design and build trails around the State but hopefully eventually get to build trails right here in my own community and create jobs for locals.” Now, the two both go after trail-building contracts, and whoever gets a contact, hires the other so they can get the job done.
These two local trail design, construction and maintenance professionals both aspire to grow each of their companies, continue to collaborate, and create trail centric jobs for locals. For more information, check out their Instagram @anthrocene_contracting and @animastrailworks.
