Gold Camp Road cleanup collects enough to ‘fill a dumpster’

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Multiple volunteers and personnel hosted a cleanup event along Gold Camp Road in late August, and during the event, volunteers removed enough trash and debris to fill a dumpster.

On Saturday, Aug. 24, volunteers and personnel involved with Focus on the Forest, members of Elk Glade Ranch/Friends of Old Stafe and Gold Camp Road, members from Ute Pass Iron Goats 4WD, members of the Colorado Land Cruisers 4WD Club, Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services Staff, Forest Service recreation personnel and a Pikes Peak Ranger District law enforcement officer hiked down to clean up trash that had been left in a section of Gold Camp Road.

According to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), volunteers had to hike down a “very” steep embankment and navigate through boulder fields to hand bag the garbage. Then, they had to hike the bags up to the closed section of Gold Camp Road, where five full-sized pickup beds awaited.

Safety climbing ropes and a pulley system were used to help clean up the site.

USFS said volunteers removed enough trash to fill a 20-yard dumpster. A portion of the trash came from target shooting litter, but “a lot” was also deliberately dumped — items such as household appliances and construction trash were among the debris.

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