San Juan Mountains Association

STEWARDSHIP: Hardrock 100 South Mineral Collaborative Clean Up

July 10th, 2025

Ice Lake Trailhead

Join us in the week leading up to the Hardrock 100 foot race! South Mineral Road accesses parts of the Hardrock 100 course as well as the incredibly popular Ice Lake Trail. There are several walk-in dispersed camping sites along the four miles of road leading to the Ice Lake trailhead. While campers aren't generally trying to make a mess, some people do not properly plan ahead and honestly don't know how to take care of this beautiful slice of the world. There's not always someone there to educate them on best practices. However, we've observed that if people roll up on a clean campsite, they are more likely to keep it clean themselves. So let's do what we can and work together to bring these sites back to a more sustainable state!

We'll also focus on the outskirts of the Golden Horn CG. The Forest Service recently constructed a fence to prevent people from driving down to the creek. By naturalizing the fire rings in the now closed area, we will discourage future campers from degrading the stream bank.

Lunch will be provided by SJMA and NNormal for the first 20 volunteers that sign up. 

We will be meeting at the Ice Lake Trailhead parking lot promptly at 8am. This is a very popular place. We strongly recommend carpooling and/or parking farther up/down the road and then biking/hiking to the meeting area. If you are willing to use your vehicle to help move volunteers from site to site, please let me know! You won't have to carry out any of the trash. We have a big pick-up truck for that. 

Please be sure to wear boots, long pants and sleeves as well as eye protection (sunglasses are fine) and work gloves (leather is ideal due to the possibility of broken glass). Tools and other equipment will be provided. If you have a GPS app, that will be helpful! Volunteers under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

If you are having trouble signing up, call MK at 970-403-5422 or email volunteer@sjma.org.